Bradenton {Near Sarasota} Florida or " Fun in the Sun? "

We are loving our spot we found here on the Gulf Coast of Florida...


So much for posting on a regular basis....8^D
I (Julie) have been very busy...My friend Christine and her dd Sheridan (12yo turned 13 on trip) were with us for just under 3 months...
We had a blast as you can imagine. Felt like "So much to do, so little time" but we tried to do it all!!!

We spent most of our time sightseeing here in Florida. Loved Alligator Alley..Lots of real gators in the wild...not in cages! Fun, and I think the kids loved it.

I really loved St. Augustine on the east coast.. oldest town in the U.S. and VERY cool. It kind of feels like you have been magically transported to Europe.T

I know everybody loved the Keys. Really beautiful islands, and laid back nice people. Only thing I didn't like was the Party(drunk and smokey) atmosphere.. not quite as family friendly as I would have liked but still really fun..just be back home (MH) before dark to avoid most of that stuff.. We bought bus passes and didn't have to drive the MH in to Key West from Sunshine Key... That worked out really well. We were waiting for the bus on our last afternoon going to Key West and dd Hanna was messing around hanging(literally) off David's arm and laughing and screaming..generally having a great time waiting for the bus. Then she let go with her right hand and was hanging from his arm by just her left arm. The weight of her body popped out her elbow, and she started screaming in pain not joy. (This condition is called Nursemaids Elbow; I know this because this is her 3rd time since she 3 and you must seek medical attention immediately)
Luckily, The bus pulled up right next to us about 3 minutes later. I asked if the bus went to the hospital and she said yes- thankfully, and only 5 excruciating minutes away... Hanna was a real trooper...she was in real pain the whole time and wasn't screaming at the top of her voice --just close..8^P
She had to wait about 1 hour to be seen and stopped crying right after we got there... I was impressed with her matter of fact manner when she explained the situation to the triage nurse, and she(Hanna) also knew exactly what needed to happen and decided it would be o.k. for the nurse practitioner to pop her arm back(painful for a minute or 5!) As soon as the nurse did it, Hanna was so extremely happy she hugged her nurse and told her thank you and just about bolted out of there! She was shouting thank you and good bye to about every person she could see.... Hopefully this is the only very exciting thing that happens on our trip...

Thanks for reading this VERY irregularly posted blog... Julie