Florida Part II

After lunch, we returned to Sun N Fun, where we were greeted by a very friendly staff. The paperwork signed and keys obtained, we headed to our home for the next seven days. Sun N Fun is exactly what it says it is. If the following sounds like an advertisement for them, well it's for good reason. We had a beautiful mobile home, practically new, (you could "smell" the newness when you walked in), extremely clean, fully equipped with brand new appliances, linens, cookware, silverware ,dishes, glassware; you name it, we had it.

I especially liked the little outside deck, where we ate most of our evening meals.

The park is huge (177 acres) and there are so many mobile homes and RV's it's impossible to count them all. The first thing you notice about the place is how friendly everyone is.
Most of the residents live there for nine months out of the year, some, like us, come for a week or two.


There were older areas of the park where people had owned their homes for years, knew their neighbors and created a community within the park. Everyone we passed as we walked about, spoke to us, said hello and were willing to help and answer questions. They made eye contact! They were smiling! It was awesome! People were comfortable and secure there, that was evident.
Although one could drive a car throughout the park (10 mph please!), there were lots of bikes and motorized scooters; but the favorite means of transport seemed to be golf cart. Lots and lots of golf carts. Not just your ordinary golf cart....
souped up/decorated golf carts,

golf carts painted like Nascar racing cars,

even a Model T golf cart!
You could always tell when the pool was crowded by the number of golf carts and such parked in the lot!
Speaking of the pool, it was enormous.
It was clean.
It was HEATED. It was heaven! There were two large hot tubs,
a Tiki Bar and a kids pool
and a Tiki Bar, oh and did I mention the Tiki Bar? Everything was well kept, clean and bright and the staff provided outstanding service. We had occasion to do laundry during our stay; yes that dull, boring chore, but right next to the laundry-mat was a rec room with nine giant pool tables, free to play! If we had been allotted more time to stay, I believe we would have tried our hand at horseshoes and the mini-golf course, perhaps taken a woodworking class or participated in the morning exercise class held in the HEATED pool. So much to do, so little time! There are several lakes and ponds suitable for fishing and boating, but we just didn't get a chance to do it all!

After we were unpacked and settled, had gone grocery shopping for the week, we decided it was time to take a ride down to the beaches. We drove out to Long Boat Key, just in time for a glorious sunset walk. I'll leave you for now, with these photos. More later.