Bayous to Beaches.Oct 19.Day 15 Smelling roses at Washington Oaks & stuffing my face at Metro Diner.

[WileyCoyote]

Tuesday 15 October

Yesterday is HERE

We both had a really long sleep - all that fresh air at the beach yesterday had wiped us out.

Another lovely morning coffee on the balcony

As soon as we were up we headed out

to Washington Oaks state park and were there for opening at 9..

It was forecast to be a really muggy day so we wanted to visit while it wasnt too over powering.

It was only a 10 minute or so drive.

Its quite small but such a pretty place with a lake, formal gardens and so`many hidden pretty areas. These are just a “few” of my many pics... it was gorgeous

The pagoda lake and rose garden were especially lovely

The statues and fountains were dotted around

And the trees .. so huge

After admiring ninja squirrel

We popped across the way to the beach .. your admission at the Gardens allows you to park over at the beach

I’d spent all week trying to get a pic of this with no cars in the way

We headed back to the condo and had some coffee and toast and I started to organise the packing - mainly putting stuff we didnt need any more into a case that we could close and not re open and sorting another one for the week ahead in Bradenton.

We had arranged to meet some friends for lunch

Fair to say by now, the holiday shorts i had been wearing earlier were a tad snug but nothing was going to stop me having the Yo Hala on our second visit. Yes never mind Hammer time, Hala time also requires those big baggy pants

Everyone went for fish and chips but not me.

No sir.

And I had changed into a white dress.

Double bold

This features on Guy Fieri’s Diners,Dives and Drive ins.

Two huge pieces of Challa bread, stuffed with cheese, bananas and sauce, fried and covered in berry compote.

It’s not at all photogenic and is the size of a volcano . If you search images of it, they aren’t much more appealing than mine but my, its delicious

And I pretty much ate all of it and did not get any on my dress

I did not need to eat for the rest of the day

Fox helpfully publish the recipe. Although that’s not for one portion but for 4 people

Look away now if you are on a diet.

It’s actually more than my totally calorie count fir a whole day...

After lunch we went for a drive round the area with our friends showing us the neighbourhood. I was concentrating on not being carsick after all that food so no pics

We rounded off the afternoon at the Brass Tap ( which is near the Metro Diner where we had left our car)

I had a Raspberry lemon drop martini

Back at the condo I did a bit more packing, we watched some boats go by with some nibbles

We did think about a walk to the European Village but were too full so settled in to watch tv instead


Today’s cocktail tally: 1
Holiday total : 24

The next day is HERE