Our third day in Florida we drove to Longboat Key! We were going to stay in cottages. Gramma rode with Mom and I and she took us the long way to the key so we could see this really neat bridge. It was a hanging bridge that you drive over, and it was HUGE!!!!! They used steal wires to hang it with. I have never seen anything like it. It looked kind of like a HUGE sail boat. hehehhehe

We got into Longboat Key, and we stopped at a store that had all kinds of water toys outside that you could buy. I got a pink raft and Mom got a purple tube. My cousins got all different kinds of ones. My cousin Brianna got a HUGE hippo one, and my cousin Ryan got a big aligator one, they were cute!!! hehehhehe

After the store we were off to our cottages. We finally made it. These cottages were really nice!!! They even had big screened in porches. We had a kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom in each cottage. It was so nice! We had two cottages and they connected so you could go in out of each one through a door in the living room. It was cool!

One morning my Mom got up and a huge bird was at our door. It was a "heron" and he was BIG. My Mom fed him some shrimp right out of her hand, except that he thought part of her finger was part of the shrimp! hehehhehe He didn't hurt her though. He would visit us everyday. He was neat!!

The beach was right outside our doors at the place we stayed. We went to the beach everyday. The water was clear and you could see to the bottom of it! The first day we saw a school of stingrays, they swam right past us, they didn't bother us at all, but I am glad I didn't step on them! ewwww! hehehhehe The water was as warm as bath water. What was really funny, was everyday at 3 pm it would rain! hehehehhe

We went to a really cool restaurant. It was out on a pier, and we got to sit right by the windows. There were some men fishing right outside one of our windows. They caught a fish and pulled it up, my cousin Ryan, who is three, got sooo excited he started clapping his hands! hehehehe that was so cute! I was looking out the window into the water and you never will believe what I saw. It was so NEAT! A dolphin jumped almost right in front of me!!! WOW!!!! I wonder if it was Flipper hehehehehe! The food at the restaurant was really good! I had popcorn shrimp and it was the best popcorn shrimp I had ever ate!

Mostly we swam everyday and relaxed in the sun! The water was salt water, we were on the Gulf Of Mexico. You have to close your eyes when you go underwater because it will burn your eyes if you get any into them. The waves were cool. I could catch a wave with my raft and ride it to shore! That was FUN! We made a sandcastle too! When we would go back to the cottages we were full of salt and sand and had to take a shower to get it off of us! I got a really good TAN! YIPEE my first one! I look good! hehehehhehehehe

Song...Rainfall