long holes with lots of water

According to the weather forecast yesterday evening we were due to have thunderstorms this afternoon. We decided to play golf this morning so we would be finished hopefully before they materialized. We played at Heritage Harbour, where as the name suggests there was plenty of water to keep us on our toes. The starter was incapable of sorting out the tee times and he ended up with a 5 ball at our tee time. He sent Ben and I out on our own eventually and when we got on the first tee it looked as if there was a 6 ball in front of us. They ended up as a 5 ball with one of them not playing. They didn't hold us up so it didn't really matter. We had a good game with Ben and I tying the match.  The fairways and greens were in good condition, however, there were long distances between greens and the subsequent tees.  The cart path wended its way through wild sanctuaries.  We saw quite a lot of wild life including a large turtle, osprey, cranes, and a hawk catching a rodent. 


The clouds were beginning to look more ominous as we finished and there were distant rumbles of thunder. The storms didn't actually reach us but it has been a cloudy and humid day.

Rod and Reel pier on Anna Maria Island

After golf we decided to visit Anna Maria island. It was very busy and I think we only saw the northern part of the island. We visited a short fishing pier but didn't find the sandy beaches for which the island is renowned.

When we got back we had tea. It was too cloudy to see the sunset this evening but we have tried to get our heads around the local baseball on tv. It seems as if Tampa Bay Rays are playing exceptionally at the moment. They won well this evening.





Turtle basking in the sun

Cranes not at all bothered by the golfers


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