Thursday

 

Post Tropical Storm Eta, we found a path to the dog beach on Honeymoon Island. The temperature was 78 degrees at 10:00 am, still overcast as the remnants of Eta passed through.

There were spots that were underwater, but we forged ahead.

This is the long path to the beach from the parking lot. We took this path because the shorter one was underwater, but it turned out this one was also submerged in places.

 

 

The last 20 yards to the beach were narrow and covered in sand spurs.

 

Brave John took his shirt off to help him remove the sand spurs from Toby.

We got to explore the extreme southeastern tip of the island, near where the ferry docks that connects Honeymoon Island with Caladesi Island. I'm reminded on this day-after-Eta that Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island were once connected (and called Hog Island) before the Hurricane of 1921 cut the island in two, right at the spot where John is standing in the pictures above and below.

In this shot, you can see the condominiums on the causeway with Dunedin (not pictured) far off to the right on the mainland.

To avoid retreating through the sand spurs, we had to cross a tidal pool to get to the main beach and back to the parking lot. Toby was not yet brave enough to try it, although to his credit he went some of the way on his own. John had to pick him up to carry him over the deep parts. He's not ready to learn how to swim.

 

We made it back to the gulf-facing western side of the island and walked back to the parking lot. We all had a fun adventure that was out of the ordinary. It's sobering to think that Eta was just a tropical storm. I thought the winds were fierce enough.

 

On our way home, we spotted a washed up sailboat.

Early this morning, I got out and raked leaves and picked up branches that had fallen because of the strong winds.

After lunch, we took a ride downtown with Toby in tow.

While walking about downtown, Toby met a big, fluffy orange dog and they checked each other out. Toby was shy and kept coming back to me and John and then going back to sniff some more. He was careful not to make any sudden moves, his tail tucked between his legs. Eventually, he got comfortable and wagged his tail. It was a successful dog greeting. 

Mexican night

 

Miles walked: 6
Miles biked: 6.37