Our Florida Vacation

The focus of this blog is Leonbergers. However, sometimes I post about other things and today I am posting about our short vacation to Florida, to the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort in Sarasota to be specific. It was just for a few days. We were supposed to come home last night but the plane was more than five hours late due to the thunderstorm in the picture below, so we came home this morning. That is the reason I have not been posting since Wednesday, and I have mostly been missing from the blogosphere in other ways as well.

The photo shows buildings in the background, an angry storm cloud that seems to have eyes, and I included an arch in the photo. The arch looks like an angry mouth on the cloud.
This is the picture of the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort and the angry thunderstorm that delayed us. I used the arch on the pier to make the cloud look angry. Notice the eyes, the nose, and the angry mouth on the cloud.
Just a zoom in of the angry cloud picture.
Zoom in of picture above
A white and beige six story building with lighting above its roof. It looks like it is striking the building, but the lightning flash is really behind the building.
Soon after I took the previous photo I took this photo of lighting striking behind one of the buildings that is part of the resort.

Now a day whenever we go on vacation we have someone we know well and trust stay with our dog Rollo, in our house, and sleep with him during the night. This way that someone is house sitting for us too. It is safe, Rollo is taken care of, and it keeps potential burglars away. However, that does not mean that Rollo is happy when we leave.

A photo of our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo. His face is sad.
Rollo does not like it when we leave, but he is well taken care of.
The photo shows a mini-Australian Shepherd standing behind a window looking out.
Rollo looks out his window seeing us leaving. He says goodbye Woof! Woof! Woof!

Photos of St. Regis Longboat Key Resort

Here are some photos of the resort.

Photos of the Gulf of Mexico

I swam in the Gulf of Mexico quite a bit. It was maybe a bit too warm, 86 degrees, or 30 degrees Celsius. That is not refreshing but certainly easy to jump into. One good thing with the Gulf of Mexico as compared to the Atlantic Ocean on the East coast of Florida (at least the place we’ve visited) was that there were hardly any Jellyfish or Zooids, the ones often called Portuguese Man of War. There were sting rays though.

The dark picture is of the Gulf of Mexico at night. You can see Venus and a thunderstorm cloud. We had one thunderstorm every day, which I have to say is a lot. In Texas we’ve had sunny and super-hot and sunny weather every day for almost two months, In Texas we have very severe thunderstorms in spring, but it seems like Florida has more medium sized thunderstorms pretty much every day in summer.

Photos of Florida Beers

The beers I drank were Luminescence from Florida Avenue Brewing Co. Jai Alai IPA from Cigar City Brewing. Unholy from Coppertail Brewing Co. Postcard Pils from Green Bench Brewing Co.

The Lagoon Adventure Feeding Sting Rays

The trip had two highlights for me, swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and snorkeling and feeding the sting rays in their Lagoon Pool. They had a large pool that looked like a little lake surrounded by rocks and parts of it were glass. I did not take good pictures. First of all, I took photos straight through the glass standing in front of the glass. As you may know the reflections in the glass will destroy the photo, something I did not think about until afterwards. I have included a couple of bad pictures as well as ChatGPT generated images of me feeding sting rays.

A black blob in water, which is a sting ray.
A very bad photo of a sting ray passing by. The photo was from above the water and through glass.
You can see lots of fish but there is also a lot of reflections resulting in a strange photo.
Fish in the lagoon pool. Photo taken through the glass resulting in bad reflections. You need to take these kind photos from a side angle.

Feeding the string rays was an amazing experience. The instructor had a big bucket of dead squid that we used to feed the sting rays. At first, I did it all wrong. I placed the squid right in front of the sting rays. However, sting rays have their mouth underneath their bodies, not in front. Not only did the sting rays not get any squid, the fish knew of this mistake and took advantage of the situation. They jumped to get the squid and also bit my fingers. They swallowed my fingers whole. It did not hurt. The fish had very small teeth.

In the pictures below the fish are not swallowing my fingers whole as they did in reality. However, it is against ChatGPT community standards to generate images with fish swallowing fingers. Don’t ask me why.

Four fish attacking my fingers and stealing the squid. The poor sting ray isn’t getting any.
Me feeding the sting rays the wrong way. The fish loved my mistake and went for my hands. I generated this picture with the help of ChatGPT.
Me standing in water reaching up to the sting rays mouth holding a squid in my hand.
Me feeding the sting rays the right way. My hand is underneath the sting ray so that the sting ray can get the squid.

I can add that the sting rays were very friendly and seemed to like to be petted and they came up to us, maybe hoping for more food. I can add that the sting rays as well as the fish were well fed. No one was starving.

Back home to Rollo

We arrived late early this morning and this is what we saw. Our house sitter had left but Rollo was standing in his window waiting for us. He was very happy to see us.

Rollo our mini-Australian Sheperd is standing in a room looking out a window.
Rollo is waiting for us in his window.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

75 thoughts on “Our Florida Vacation”

  1. Welcome back! The resort looks beautiful; too bad you had to deal wtih daily thunderstorms. Love the “angry” cloud photo! 😀 Interesting about the stingrays! “Friendly” isn’t a term that comes to mind, so that was a revelation. Rollo looks so lonely, staring out of his window. He must have been overjoyed at your return. 💖

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    1. Thank you so much Debbie. I should say that they clipped the barbs so if they hit you it is not dangerous. I accidentally touch and scraped myself on the remaining tail/barb but it did not nothing, and that was me not them. They never did anything even though we were touching them all over. Very harmless and friendly, but they begged for food and they ate it out of your hand. You have to be careful not to step on them though. They allegedly would not do anything if that happened but you hurt them. Yes Rollo hates it when we leaves. He goes and looks out the window when we leave. He may not sit there the whole time but I think he hears us when we come home and goes to look out the window. Leaving him is difficult.

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  2. Sounds like a great trip, Thomas. We’re heading to Key West (first time) in January.

    One of the stories I like to tell from my youth has to do with the Gulf of Mexico. We spent one Christmas in Chicago with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. There was over a foot of snow on the ground. On Dec. 26th, my cousin, one of his buddies, and I drove to Florida. Like foolish teenagers (I was 18 at the time), we decided to drive straight there, only stopping to get gas, go to the bathroom, or eat. It took us about 24 hours to get to our grandparents’ condo. On Dec. 27th, we were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Amazing how much the weather changed during that time span. It wasn’t too hot for swimming, but it was odd just to walk in without the normal burst of cold one expects when getting into the water.

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    1. The Swedish exchange students to Case Western Reserve University did something similar. We drove from Cleveland to Daytona Beach, or more correctly, New Smyrna Beach, which is nearby. It was a long drive but Chicago – to the West coast of Florida is further. By the way we’ve been to Key West. It was a few years ago. One thing that is very different from the West coast where we were was that there was a lot of those blue zooids on the beach and also in the water. They call them Portuguese Man of War. We had to watch ourselves a bit. I hope you will have a great time in Key West.

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  3. Dear Thomas, what an incredible and eventful vacation!
    Your photos are stunning, and the story about learning the right way to feed the stingrays is absolutely fascinating.
    I am so glad you made it back safely to a very happy Rollo!
    A big hug!

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    1. Thank you so much for your very kind words Luisa. We had an instructor / guide and he told me how to feed them (underneath their bodies). If you hold the squid in front of their nose the sting ray will do nothing but the fish will attack your hand to get the squid. I thought it was funny how fish knew a beginner was trying to feed the sting ray. Or maybe it was just because I was holding the squid with nothing happening and they reacted to that.

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  4. Lulu: “That looks like a fun vacation and you sure did a lot of interesting things!”Chaplin: “I would love to play with those fish. And by ‘play’ I mean ‘grab and eat’.”Lulu: “Our Dada says he used to get sent to Florida for work sometimes and the clouds would roll in every day at around 2:30pm and then it would rain. He says you could set your watch to it, whatever that means.”Java Bean: “Ayyy, we dogs are always happy to see Mama and Dada when they come home, no matter how long they have been away! The cats, on the other hand, act like they didn’t even know Mama and Dada were gone.”Charlee: “Not true! I climbed all over Dada after he got back from New York that time!”Lulu: “You do that every morning anyway though.”Charlee: “What’s your point?”

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    1. Thank you Lulu, Java Bean, Charlee and Chaplin, it was short but fun vacation. Your Dada being sent to Florida could be both nice and less nice if it is too much work. I hope he got the chance to relax. We also got a thunderstorm every afternoon, maybe not exactly 2:30PM, but they were in the afternoon, well last one that disrupted our travel was in the evening and much longer, and came with a tornado. It is great that you dogs are always happy to see us when we come back. You are not angry ever. I’ve heard about this guy who locked his wife and dog in the car trunk. When he opened it, the dog was happy to see him, but his wife was angry.

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    2. By the way Jacqui I wanted to thank you so much for including my book on your dog book list on your latest teacher blog post. However, as usual the comment failed. It says “Invalid security token.”.

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    1. Thank you so much John. That storm cloud turned out to be really angry. It also came with a tornado and delayed lots of flights out of Sarasota Airport, ours more than five hours. I should say it is only the two last pictures that are ChatGPT. I still don’t know why it refused to allow my fingers to be in the mouth of the fish.

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        1. Thank you Pooja. He is the dog that feels the most similar to a child of any dog we’ve had. A spoiled and somehwat mishaved child, but so human in many ways. He is anxious and afraid and cling to you when you go to places like the veterinary. Unlike the other dog’s we’ve had he screams bloody murder when he gets a shot. And he is smart and communicates very well. You know exactly what he wants.

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            1. Yes you are right. I think especially Rollo is very good and communicating and he asks for things so often that it feels like he is a human child. He scratches your leg when he wants something and then he shows you. Or he barks one loud single bark looks at you and then he shows you.

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  10. Although short, it looks like it was a lovely holiday. I haven’t been on the gulf side of Florida for a long time. I love that you were able to go right in the water with the rays and fish. That would have been something I enjoyed. I’m glad you made it home safely to Rollo. He’s probably thrilled to have his humans home, Thomas.

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    1. Thank you so much Carla. I was surprised how easy it was to be in the pool lagoon with all the sting rays and fish. Lots of them all around you, and it was perfectly safe and comfortable, like being inside an aquarium, and how friendly and curious the sting rays were, even the big ones. They wanted food (squid) and came up to you hoping you had some for them, and you could pet them. It is always difficult to leave Rollo. That is the hardest part of travelling, but we know he is safe and that our house is safe.

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    1. It is funny how ChatGPT wouldn’t let make a picture of the fish biting my fingers (soft bites). Against rules. But the fish swallowed my entire fingers. Only one fish got the squid. Then I learned how to do it right way so the sting rays could eat. Having a house sitter cost a bit more than a dog hotel or leaving him in a dog sitters house but it feels so much safer and makes Rollo much happier.

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  12. The last time I was in Florida was when my parents and I went down after my grandfather died, and we went to settle a few things and pick up his dog (who has also since passed on). We visited Disney World and Sea World. At the latter I fed both stingrays and dolphins.

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    1. Andrew, I am very sorry about circumstances but it sounds like you had a good time at Disney World and Sea World. We’ve been there too but a long time ago. Disney World is fun and huge and I remember the Sea World in Florida being great too. Feeding both stingrays and dolphins is pretty cool.

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  13. Ahhh, it’s a little sad to see poor Rollo. I’m glad you had a nice vacation. It looks lovely. I’ve seen rays swimming around in the Dubai Mall aquarium. I specifically remember their mouths underneath their bodies. That storm looks bad and you angry face photo is fun 🩵

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    1. Yes I hate leaving Rollo but as long as he is taken care of by a person we can fully trust we feel that we can travel. We rather not go for a long time though. He is really emotional and he shows it. It took me a moment to realize that their mouths were underneath. Perhaps they were thinking to themselves “this man is dumb” when I dangled the squid in front of their nose. Yes the angry cloud photo was an opportunity.

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  15. Lovely to see a bit of Florida through your post, Thomas. I had three fantastic visits when I was a kid in the 80s and one as a teen in 94. Some of the best memories of my life. The resort looks fantastic, as does the sea and those refreshing beers. You captured a perfect shot of the lightning, while feeding the rays and snorkelling sound like two worthy highlights. And… Rollo’s little face!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Leighton and Rollo has indeed a little expressive face. It is great that you had fantastic visits to Florida in the 80’s and 90’s. Florida is one of the best tourist destinations in the US. Dallas, where I live, less so.

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  17. Pingback: Smorgasbord Reblog – #Thunderstorms, #Dogsitters #Stingrays Our Florida Vacation by Thomas Wikman | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

  19. On behalf of Rollo as well, welcome back! He would have known you, guys, are on your way back. Dogs can sense this 🙂

    The photo from the pier is amazing, the green water and the storm above. Hard to imagine (from here) the havoc it caused in air traffic. I don’t think I ever swam in water that’s 30C, not even in the Black Sea and definitely not in the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe some other place I can’t remember now. There’s a snorkeling lagoon at the Ushaka Marine World in Durban, here, but the water is kept incredibly cold, fresh from the ocean. I wander if that’s the case there as well? Or not. I noticed ChatGPT gave you a relaxed, half-zipped look. 🙂 (Otherwise, it’s an interesting tool to use in manipulating images, I reverse-aged one of Vlad the Impaler. I’ll post it on my blog soon).

    I also noticed the many different beers and the use of (old?) name of the Gulf of Mexico.

    Great post!

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    1. Thank you so much Patricia. I was lucky with the cloud face photo. It is always difficult to leave our little man, that’s what we sometimes call Rollo. 30C is a little bit too warm in my opinion. There was no coolness to the water at all, not even further out. I think 27C is good, warm and easy to get in, but at least some freshness. I knew you lived in South Africa but not where. I’ve heard Durban is nice. I use the name “Gulf of Mexico” because “Gulf of Amerika” is not internationally recognized. It is just US Federal Agencies that are required to use it, and most people say Gulf of Amerika and I have family and friends from around the world.

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  21. Thank you for sharing your Florida vacation photos, Thomas! I remember those daily cloudbursts from when I lived in Florida. If I was driving, I’d have to pull off the road until it passed because I couldn’t see the road.

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    1. Thank you so much Liz. I can imagine those cloudbursts. It seems to happen a lot in Florida. Living in Florida seems quite interesting. There’s seems to be a lot of fun there, but I would be afraid of hurricanes.

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  22. I really enjoyed this, Thomas. Rollo’s sad and expressive face must make quite an impression on you when you leave. The thunderstorm cloud combined with the arch worked really well. We arrived in Cuba years ago to one of their many thunderstorms. The humidity was 98% and all we had to do was point the camera and click and we captured lightning strikes frequently. The feeding of the sting rays is fascinating and I’m amazed at the temperature of the sea in the Gulf of Mexico; in Wales, the temperature range is 18 to 20 degrees C (64 to 68 degrees F).

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Alex. Yes Rollo was not happy when we left but he was well taken care of. Yes I was lucky with the cloud and arch on the pier, an unexpected photo opportunity. Your adventure in Cuba sounds amazing and I’ll bet you got a lot of great photos. 18C to 20C is a bit cool but I’ve swam in 14C in northern Sweden.

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  23. I love thunderstorms, well at least the thunderstorms here.

    As children, we would go behind the curtains to watch for the flash of light, and then count seconds to hear the boom to know how far away the storm was. It never stayed for long. We loved watching the rain (or hail) falling as the storm passed over.

    A couple of years ago, while in Spain, I watched as the distant hills vanished in and out of the grey storm clouds. It was odd because, due to the distance, you could not hear the thunderclaps or really see the lightning. It arrived suddenly, dropped the rain and headed off. A welcome drenching of the ground after the sun. Then the puddles formed but were soon evaporated by the sun.

    Thanks for the reminder, and I love the face in the storm cloud. (Reminded me of 10CC’s album ‘Consequences’.)

    I hope despite the thunderstorms, you had a good holiday and that Rollo had a good time too. But glad to have you home, I’m sure.

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    1. Thank you so much Sue. The thunderstorm on the last day bothered us because it delayed our flight by a lot but otherwise the thunderstorms were not a problem. I have a complicated view of thunderstorms. I don’t mind them usually and they can be very interesting and powerful displays. However, six years ago our neighborhood was destroyed by a tornado and our house needed repairs that cost $50,000.00. Luckily the insurance paid and our house was not totally destroyed like that of some of our neighbors. The tornado came with a thunderstorm, one of those super cells. On other occasions the large hail has damaged our cars (three times) and/or our roof (twice), and our dog Rollo is terrified of thunderstorms. The experience you had in Spain is quite peculiar. An interesting thunderstorm experience.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Lauren. It is a beautiful resort, a bit expensive, but we stayed for only three days and we used points from my credit card. Yes you are right, Rollo was sad when we left, but he was well taken care of.

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