Nokomis Beach

After breakfast this morning, we drove to some pickleball courts just a few miles from the campground.  We played for a couple of hours which gave Chuck and me a chance to try out our new paddles.  The court appeared to be fairly new but no one was there. We REALLY like playing pickleball and it is very good exercise.

We returned to the camper, ate some lunch and then headed for Nokomis Beach.  Caspersan Beach (where we rode our bikes yesterday) consisted of very gray sand.  Nokomis Beach consists of very shelly sand.  In some places, the shells were very thick.

But the water is still a very clear and beautiful blue.

While Ken walked down the beach looking for shark's teeth, Bonnie looked for shark's teeth and shells for her jewelry in the very shelly sand.

Chuck and I walked a short distance down the beach,

but the beach was a little too "shelly" for his feet so he went back to our beach chairs and enjoyed relaxing under the beach umbrella.

I walked down to the north side of Venice Jetty where we watched the sunset last night.  There were a lot of birds on the beach as well as people.

There were several of the same seagulls like the ones we had seen at Carrabelle a few weeks ago but there were some that were a little different.

There were a few sandpipers running along the surf too.

This little one reminded me of Gimpy.

This snowy egret must have thought I was chasing him...

...because he took off and flew away.

Most of these birds seem to be very accustomed to people being around because I could get very close to them to take their picture.  This snowy egret struck a nice pose for me at the jetty.

And then he showed me how he can stand on one foot!  :)

There were several people fishing at the end of the jetty again but not many people seemed to be catching anything.

I turned around and walked back up the beach and found Bonnie still looking for shark's teeth (she found a lot) and Ken and Chuck were looking at the back of their eyelids.  :)

Bonnie and I joined the guys and we all enjoyed just doing nothing for a little while...until Bonnie began finding shark's teeth in the shells around our chairs.  She found at least 2 or 3 more while we were sitting there!

Wow...what a nice day for the beach!

We ended up staying at the beach until a little after 5.  It was so nice.  We grilled our dinners and ate together and then went over to Ken and Bonnie's to watch the movie Parental Guidance which is a very cute and funny movie.  We got in one game of SkipBo after the movie with the guys barely beating the girls and then called it a night.