Boca Grande

Yesterday we all went over to Boca Grande. It was a beautiful day and the kids all had a great time.

The beach was a little ripped up compared to previous years, but it was a great day for going shelling.

The entire beach was covered with a thick layer of shells …

… and we found lots of interesting things like a big hermit crab and this egg case from a whelk.

After lunch at one of our favorite places, the kids started digging. They turned Ben into a Mexican merman.

By the end of the afternoon, everyone was a bit pink, but we nursed our wounds with ice cream at the Loose Caboose.

The cross streets at the south end of Gasparilla are all named after famous pirates. But one street is named Luke, and we’ve never heard of a Pirate Luke. So when we got home we tried to look him up and found Wikipedia’s List of Pirates. Not only did it not have a Pirate Luke, the entry for José Gaspar, who the island of Gasparilla is named after, says:

…there is no pre-twentieth century evidence of his existence.

Now I wish I hadn’t looked.