We had nice visitors over the weekend. My sister, Beth and her husband, Paul, and my brother Jim and his wife Laurie all came to visit us on the boat.

They arrived on Friday and we went to the Selby Botanical Gardens nearby. The gardens have a beautiful orchid greenhouse.













We also walked the large outdoor botanical gardens, which are right on Sarasota bay.














Beth is really in her favorite element in any garden... in a state of complete eufloria.













The Selby Gardens also had a display of jungle masks carved by the Murales brothers from Costa Rica.













On Saturday we cruised down the ICW to Cayo Costa where there is an anchorage at a state park.
We took the dinghy in to a nearby beach, accessible only by boat. We picked up nice shells on the beach and found a very nice conch, but couldn't keep it because it was still occupied by the conch.


Then we dinghied in to the park dock where they have a ferry landing for the mainland visitors. That's Nonchalance anchored out in the background.








We walked the trail through the heavy jungle-like island palm forest.












On Sunday we cruised back to Sarasota. The dolphins cooperated nicely by surfing and jumping in our wake. Paul got good pictures of one jumping, which is hard to do. Then everybody flew back home to the winter weather in Illinois and upper New York State.