Siesta Key Beach 2016

We just got back from a week at the US's #1 ranked beach, Siesta Key, FL!  Amazing!!!  The water was crystal clear and the sand a soft white(that didn't ever get hot!)!  It was a great family getaway!

A few things to take away from our trip:

• The kids had a TV in their room and they thoroughly enjoyed watching it during down time.  Although they did insist on waking us up each morning and then going back to their room to watch TV.  I just don't understand!!!
• We determined that C is no longer allergic to sunscreen and he wore the same as us for the majority of the week!  Makes things so much easier!  Of course, I had just bought him like a year supply of special sunscreen before we left and now he refuses to wear it!
• Every day, like clockwork, the kids would tell me they had to go to the bathroom(really go!) at 11am!  Every.Single.Day!!
• It was HOT!  With a heat index of 101-102* while we were there!  Thank goodness for the breeze otherwise we may not have made it!

Sunday

M and I got up at 4:30am and we left the house about 6am!  It makes for an early, early morning for everyone, but it also gets us there before dark!  It took us 11 hours and we pulled into our condo at 5pm.  We unpacked quickly, went to dinner at Captain Curt's(recommended by a friend and was very convenient to the condo!), did our grocery shopping(although we ended up at Publix every day for the first four days of the trip lol!) and then came back for a quick trip down to the beach before falling exhausted into our beds!

The kids came up with the ingenious idea to tape their mouths shut!  I only
wish I'd thought of this earlier;)

Lunch at Cracker Barrel.  S ate syrup by the spoonful...

while C concocted a double decker jelly biscuit!  We have such
awesome manners!!

One of the brightest rainbows I've ever seen before was showing
off when we came out of the grocery!

First glimpse of this beautiful beach!!

Looking back on our condo - we stayed in the towers on the right.

Monday

The kids were of course up at 7am ready to start the day!  We made it down to the beach by 8:30am, stayed for a couple of hours and then went to the pool.  After lunch we went back to the beach for a couple more hours but everyone got the annual first-day-at-the-beach-burn so we came up and went for a drive to explore the island and made a stop on Turtle Beach.  We found soooo many shells there!!  We ate dinner at the condo and then went back to the beach for an evening walk and pool swim.  We had a lot of late nights at the beach this year and the kids loved that!  If only they were the kind of kids who slept in the next morning, but NOPE, never, never do they do that!!

Morning TV in bed!

Turtle Beach shell hunting

These shells were everywhere there!  All occupied by slimy little
guys!

Back to Siesta Key Beach for our walk!

Tuesday

Tuesday we did the same morning routine with beach and pool!  The mornings are the best with fewer people and not quite as hot!  I went for a run at about 9:30am and it was incredibly, stifling hot to the point I didn't feel quite right the rest of the day!  That was the first and last time I ran this trip!  A HUGE storm rolled in around 3pm and completely devastated the poor beach!  After we'd checked out the damage, we went to Casey Key Fish House on Casey Key for dinner!  It was a beautiful, cooler night after that storm which was perfect for sitting outside!  I had the best fish I've ever tasted in my entire life!  We voted this the best seafood restaurant we went to as far as the food goes!  We came back to the condo for ice cream and pina coladas before calling it a night!

Early morning shell searching!

He enjoyed making "drip" castles, but instead of dripping the
sand he would sling it into a pile!  Gracious!!!

Clear water for our shell search!!!!

HOT run!!!

This storm was brutal!!

This was in the middle of the beach!

The ruts were almost as tall as S's waist!  It was crazy!

Casey Key Fish House

Every night treated us to beautiful sunsets!

Wednesday

Again, same beach/pool morning routine!  After lunch we went back to Turtle Beach to try and find some more good shells, but I don't think we let the tide get out far enough because we didn't end up finding a whole lot!  We ate dinner at Venice Beach at Sharkey's on the Pier and voted it best atmosphere for a restaurant of the week!  They had an amazing guy singing and playing guitar out on the patio.  We went for a walk along the pier and then stopped at the public beach access for Venice Beach to search for shark teeth since it is the Shark Tooth Capital of the World.  We didn't find any - bummer!  But, C did manage to leave his flip flops there never to be seen again.. grrr!!

This poor man!  He was enjoying the piece and quiet until C decided
to plop himself down RIGHT next to him!  No other lounge chair
was taken and C just had to ruin this man's morning nap!  M and I
got a kick out of it though!  Dennis and Mr. Wilson... buhahaha!!!

S found a sand dollar at Turtle Beach!

C carried this poor guy, and some of his friends, around the entire
time we were there!  We made him throw them back before we left!

Turtle Beach

Venice Fishing Pier

Searching for shark teeth!

Thursday

We ate a big breakfast and got the beach an hour later than normal on Thursday!  We played at the beach/pool again until lunch.  We tried to eat a fast lunch and hurry back down because we knew it was going to storm, but about the time we got down there the skies opened up and we had to run back up to the condo and wait it out about an hour!  We did make it back down for some more beach and pool time before we headed to dinner at Walt's Fish Market.  This place was fine, but no atmosphere and food was just ok!  The reason we chose it was because they had a fresh fish market inside and we wanted to get something to bring back and grill our last night in Siesta Key so we didn't have to give up beach time to go to dinner:)  They did have this really delicious dip they brought with Saltines.  It was a smoked mullet dip and was amazing!

Friday

We spent ALL DAY out on the beach soaking in our last day at Siesta Key!  M grilled out our fish from Walt's for dinner, scamp which is "filet mignon of grouper" and it was so good!  We went back down to the beach and enjoyed our last sunset before begrudgingly returning to the condo to get the kids to bed and pack as much as possible for the drive home!

Good morning Siesta Key!!

We found some more shells!

The kids made friends with other kids this week and they were all playing a game
together!  It brought back such good memories of growing up and going to
Hilton Head each summer!

I'd like to claim this sand art crab as ours, but I can't!  Does make for a cute
picture though!:)

Saturday

We were up at 4:30am again, leaving the condo by 6am!  It was another 11 hour drive home, but it seemed so much longer because we didn't have the anticipation of the beach ahead of us!  We were all very glad to get back to home sweet home!!!!