  In for the home stretch Yesterday and today were another couple of great days as we rounded the home stretch of Karon's trip. Yesterday she and I did the morning routine of dropping off Ked and then we headed to Sarasota to see Grandma Louise and hit the shops and beach of Venice. We visited with Grandma for a little while and she showed off her new digs to Karon. Grandma is the shell queen and she lives in castle of shells. Those of you who know her know what I mean! Grandma has picked up shells on the Gulf coast of Florida for over 20 years and she has a collection that belongs in the Guiness Book of World Records!
Karon has had quite a blast picking up shells over the past week and she was in awe of Grandma's collection. Karon was wondering what all she could do with her shells once she got home and now she has plenty of ideas!! Karon has told me a couple times she doesn't understand why I don't go to the beach every day because she sure would if she lived here! Grandma drove us down to Venice and we toured the shops on the cool little strip. I took Karon to our family's all time favorite - Sea Pleasures and Treasures. We spent quite a bit of time in there and Karon found some real winning treasures. You can never go wrong in that store. You want cool jewelry? Want to make your own jewelry out of your finds? They have it all. Karon also found an awesome turtle necklace that she says I made her buy, but I promise I didn't!!
She thought it was cool and didn't know if she had anything to wear it with and so I suggested she try it on. It just so happened to look awesome with the shirt she was wearing!! After the shops we hit Casperson Beach, another one of my all time favorites and Grandma's second home. Or maybe the beach is really her home and her home is her second home. Hmmm. Grandma has three shoe boxes full of shark's teeth that she's picked up at Casperson over the years.
Yesterday wasn't a good day to find teeth though. The wind was really blowing again and the waves were moving too quickly to find anything. We did sift through quite a few shells and Karon found some good ones that we hadn't found at Fort DeSoto, and we did find two little shark's teeth that Karon can put in her scrapbook.
We only stayed at the beach a little while and even though we rolled them up above our knees, I still managed to get my jeans soaked! Brrr!! It was cold! It's been funny to hear Karon talk about how it's been chilly the past few days. Before she came to visit she thought I was crazy when I would tell her that 65 felt cold. But after being spoiled in the 80's for a few days last week she understands what I mean now!!
We ate a late lunch at Grandma's and visited some more before heading back to pick up Ked. For supper we treated Karon to some awesome pizza at Buca DiBeppo's and raced home to watch the Wild Card episode of American Idol! Today we kind of wound things down and tied up loose ends. We dropped Ked off at work and headed to Wal-Mart for a few things and Karon got her two rolls of film developed and then found a book at Borders to read on the flight home. We then headed to Rosemary Tea Cottage for tea at 11:30. This is a great little spot that my friend April told me about when we first moved here. I took Ked's Mom there in November and we had a blast! They serve the yummiest sandwiches and scones and today topped it off with a moist peanut butter brownie and lemon sorbet. We had a wonderful time just chatting and relaxing as we recapped our trip and talked about dreams for the future and where we feel God leading us over the next couple years. It was a wonderful, refreshing time. Next we headed back to our apartment and Karon packed up and we made cd's of the pictures off our digital camera and I copied the cd's of the pictures she just developed and we washed her shells and bleached the sand dollars and just had a good time getting her ready to go home.
After Ked got home we were all so tired we just kind of hung around, Ked finished a few projects, and we watched the verdict of last night's American Idol. We all hit the hay early tonight. Except for me. Why am I still up? Oh yeah, because I'm addicted to blogging and I didn't want to let all two of my regular readers down!!! =) Good night all. This Tropical Sister Chicks asleep already! 
