Laying in the sun is exhausting! (Venice Day 3)

Tonight my friend and I are two tired vacationers! We are all worn out from... erm, sitting in the sun at the beach. Oh, yes, we floated in the waves, too! And we ate ice cream.

But first things first. On the advice of my sister, we ate at a wonderful and charming Mexican restaurant in Venice called Mi Pueblo. Our food (chiles rellenos for me, tacos de camarones for her) was delicious, but the ambiance was what made it a very lovely experience. The building is kind of mission style architecture, and shares a quaint courtyard complete with fountain with several other businesses. Inside, murals on the wall framed with brick, warm colors, lots of plants, interesting lighting fixtures all make you wonder if you didn't step across the threshold into Mexico. Thanks, sis!

After lunch, we headed out to Venice's Casperson Beach - the Sharks' Tooth Capital of the WORLD! We followed the time honored tradition of vacationers (and locals, for that matter), and walked around bent at the waist, peering intently at the sand, in search of prehistoric teeth from prehistoric sharks.

We were honored for our search, as our reward is pictured here. 26 teeth, from teeny-tiny to larger than my own teeth, was our total haul. Not bad, actually, considering we spent way more time sunning and swimming than searching. It does get addicting, though. Once you're on a streak of finding teeth, you can't bring yourself to go. Like playing slots or drinking, you keep thinking "just one more, I'm sure the next one will be a big one, let me find just one more tooth." (Maybe if I go back real early tomorrow, ...)

Floating around in the Gulf of Mexico, letting the waves lift me up and bring me back down again, is very relaxing, yet somehow draining. Must be all the sun. It sure did feel good just bobbing about (like a cork on the wave, to quote a former ECC president). I did wonder just a tiny bit about the sharks whose teeth will wash up in ten thousand years or so, and whether they might be bobbing around in the currents like I was...

Back on land, we cleaned up and headed back out in search of treasure of a different kind: Nokomis Groves homemade citrus ice creams! (On the left is lime & chocolate; on the right is orange & vanilla.) This place is fabulous. It doesn't look like much, but their ice cream, made from oranges, lemons, limes, and pineapples, not to mention chocolate and vanilla. Their main store is closed for the season, but they keep the ice cream stand part open all year round. Lucky for us!

A visit to Nokomis Groves has become a tradition in my family, often one we take seriously enough to observe more than once during our visits here! (I think we're going back tomorrow - market research, you see, to find if orange/pineapple is better than lime/chocolate.)

On our way home, we had intended to shop for new swimsuits, but alas, the lycra gods were not in a flattering mood today. We did each end up with groovy new beach footwear, however - mine are pictured.

Home again in time to watch a DVD before heading off to bed. It's been a long day.