Another Glorious Day

Thursday began with an early morning walk around the campground.  The sky was just beginning to lighten up through the trees.

This great blue heron was watching for some breakfast to swim by.

Royal Coachmen has a lot of nice amenities including these elevated tiki huts...

...from which you could look out and see Dona Bay behind the campground...

... as well as the really nice swimming pool, volleyball courts,

and shuffleboard courts in the campground.

We walked back to where we had see the great blue heron at the boat launch and waited for the sun to come up.

As usual, I took way too many pictures but I narrowed the rising sun down to a couple of my favorites.

What a blessing to be reminded every morning and every evening of this absolutely beautiful creation that God has blessed us with!  

After watching the sunrise, we continued walking in the campground through a section that is all park model homes and is well-shaded and nicely landscaped.

We walked about 2 miles and then headed back to our campers for breakfast.  After breakfast, we sat around and talked outside for another hour or so.  You would think that by now we would have run out of things to talk about, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't think it will!

We drove back to the pickleball courts and played several games of pickleball for a couple of hours.  I am still learning so I am definitely the "novice" of the group but it is so much fun playing!  It did get a little warm today and I think we may try to cut back on the "talking" portion of our morning so we can get to the pickleball courts a little earlier tomorrow.

After pickleball, we drove to a fruit stand in downtown Venice that Ken and Bonnie recommended.  It was the best fruit stand we have ever been to.  We bought 4 big Fuji apples, a small watermelon, 3 vidalia onions, 2 zucchinis, 7 bananas, a bag of red seedless grapes. some small red potatos, 2 huge green peppers, 3 tomatos, 4 tangerines, 4 large oranges, and a loaf of homemade peach-banana bread for $23.22.  Can you believe it?  We were amazed!  We will be stopping by that fruit stand at least one more time before we head home.

We went back to the campground to put all of our produce treasures away and eat some lunch before starting the afternoon's activities of shuffleboard and swimming.  We played two games of shuffleboard and then went to the pool to cool off in their cool-but-not-too-cool swimming pool.  It was S-O-O-O nice.  

Later that evening after supper, we got back together for a game of Spades which the men won and a game of 3-round Pinochle which the women won.  Once again, we all went to bed with winners after enjoying another glorious day together.