Breakfast, Beaches and Digging Holes....

So I'm finally getting around to updating you on my weekend when Cole & Kerri came to stay.. After a night out for pizza, the morning bought blue skies and rumbling stomachs. After agreeing that cold pizza was not acceptable fair we decided to go out and try a local diner which we'd seen advertising breakfast. Here's Cole & Kerri whilst they were waiting on pancakes and omelets..
Hubby had an omelet too and I went for some of their home made corned beef hash. Apart from the the wait (approx 20 mins..which is a little slow in a diner over here) the food was tasty and good value, we might even go back..the problem for the diner is that are so many options around here..I think if we had 60 days we still wouldn't be able to go to every restaurant / take away within a 5 mile radius...too much choice!!

We got back to the apartment to find Gary and Oscar the pug trashing the place..running backwards and forwards and jumping on each other on the sofa.

So it was time to pack up some things and head out to the beach. We packed the cold bag with waters and cokes and left over pizza from last night.. then it was downstairs, into the car and off to Ponte Vedra beach to the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Reserve is over 60,000 acres (240 km²) of salt marsh and mangrove tidal wetlands. It includes oyster beds, tidal lagoons, critical habitat and offshore seas spanning St. Johns County and Flagler County. The cool part of this place is that even on a Saturday there was hardly anyone on the beach... It took us about 25 mins to get there but it was worth the drive.

Parking was super cheap at $3.00, but we only had $20's expecting there to be a manned payment point...well they are so trusting here that you just use an envelope and put the $3 in a drop box.. fortunately all the times that I've ever stopped for fast food meant that I had lots of dimes and nickels in the car's change pot, and we managed to scrap the $3 together....then off down to the beach.
They've made cool walkways through the dunes down to the beach and also there are signs up about whales which you can spot from the beach.... everyone else kept walking whilst I read that we wouldn't be seeing any whales today as they are only around in March.

Down on the beach the dogs were super excited. Oscar has never been to the beach and this was a new experience for him, but Gary showed him the way, running in and out of the surf, then rolling in the sand & shell bits..nice!

Then Gary started digging a hole. I'm not sure why he likes to dig on the beach, but he does and soon there was a huge ( well for a small dog!) hole. He was even digging under an out hang so his head was disappearing as he dug!

Being a beach newbie Oscar does not understand hole etiquette and jumped down into Gary's hole knocking the side down...Gary looked on perplexed at the damage! Cole pulled him out, but you couldn't be mean to him as he looks so cute even if he had been naughty!

We stayed for about 2 hours which was long enough for Hubby and Cole to get burnt (men) .. Kerri and I had sun tan cream on..don't ask. We hopped back in the car with the guys wanting to return home that evening. Fun times, hopefully they come back soon...

Hubby and I went out for some barbecue that evening. I'm not even going to mention the establishment as it was so poor ..we wont be going again..the ribs were dry and chewy, not good!