Tornado

Our weather went from yesterday's bright sunshine to clouds this morning but no rain. We had another good breakfast at Maria's then went to Lemon Bay Park to hike more trails as rain was due to move in by 10:00 am. Well we hiked the 3 mile trail and before we got back the rain started. We were reasonably close to the trail head when the first sprinkles hit and by the time we got in the car the rain was coming down in earnest. We decided to sit out in the screened in patio to watch the rain when the tornado sirens started, the phone's emergency alert sounded and the wind started screaming at us. We stayed out on the patio watching the trees extreme bending and waving and weren't too worried until the trees started bending the other direction then swirling around. The rain was coming down in sheets slamming into the roofs of the near by houses. By 1:00 pm the storm was over. Later we heard about the terrible tornadoes that hit here in Florida and Louisanna.  After being cooped up for those few hours we decided to walk into town, about a mile trip.This egret lives in the neighborhood walking from house to house asking for handouts.

 We were distracted by signs of another park so took a detour. We came upon this HUGE cactus. My mom use to have one of these growing on the marble windowsill in the dining room but it wasn't near this big. This one was at least 15 feet tall.

 

About a half mile down the road is the brand new veterans park, a very nice facility out on a point with a great view. A little farther down we came to a park that wasn't advertised. Because of the rain the park was closed but the docks were still opened. A lone pelican was sitting on one just waiting for a fisherman to come along willing to share.

We walked a couple miles and came to Indian Mound Park. This park is surrounded by water on 3 sides then a road leads to town from the 4th side.

A lot of the park was under water. We watched the gulls and sand pipers from the comfortable benches at the edge of the water. On the way back we heard then saw the big trucks with mulching trailers on the back cleaning up the debris from the storm. Just as we got back into town the rain started back up but it really only sprinkled until we made it back to the apartment. All in all today we walked 6.77 miles today. This evening we drove to another highly rated restaurant for dinner called Howards. This restaurant also lived up to the ratings. We arrived shortly after 5:15 and had a tough time finding a parking place. We were told the wait would be 15 to 20 minutes but within a few minutes we were seated. They have an extensive menu but the special today was all you can eat haddock that came with sweet potato fries and the salad bar for $15.00. The meal was delicious.
We made it home in plenty of time to listen in on Peoria church. Tim Roecker had the service. Another good day.
Berean news: Marie had a car accident bringing the lunch yesterday. I don't believe she was hurt but the lunch was ruined. Not that lunch is more important than her car but I didn't hear how the car fared.  Diane and Anni worked on typing in the letters today to have the labels printed for tomorrow. The Bibles had not yet arrived but Diane is hopeful they will be there by tomorrow.
No horse news today so all must be well at home.