We felt it was time for a beach visit as the weather has been so great, so yesterday we saddled up the Cruze and made our way over to Anna Maria Island, which is just over an hour drive west of here, close to Bradenton, Florida. Tom and Cheryl joined us to get their feet dirty in the sand... Prior to the beach though, we decided to hit the Red Barn Market in Bradengton.
This is quite a large market that we visited recently on a tour with Howard and Teri. There is a lot of people that attend this market everyday, so it is quite busy! We spent a couple hours making our way around picking up a few deals along the way...
Just before we got onto the island, we stopped at a great picnic facitlity along the way, right on the inland water way, and enjoyed our picnic lunch. There were a bunch of people fishing at this spot...
To describe Anna Maria Island, would be to call it a great big tourist trap. The Island is about 10 miles long, but only about a 1/2 mile or so wide, so it is long and thin. The entire west shore of the island allows the Gulf of Mexico to wash up onto it's nice soft white sandy beach...
If you are into walking along the beach, this is the place for you, as you can walk for miles... temperatures yesterday were around 32 degrees C. but it felt a little cooler than that, with a nice off shore Gulf breeze. There were a lot of spring breakers here enjoying the day at the beach, and I would think a lot of them were Canadians. This is prime Florida Beaches here!
Judy found a nice little nature trail on the inland water way system that we checked out... Cheryl is walking out one of the many boardwalk over looks.
Why not enjoy the afternoon on the water in your Kayak...
We got some relief from the sun as we walked through the mangrove trees and some good old Florida Swamp Land.
Doing her homework in advance, Judy knew there was a great FREE Trolly system that worked the Island. It is sponsored by the State and the Federal Governments, to help keep traffic to a minimum on the island. They have a few of these trollys that simply drive up and down the Island from end to end. You can jump on or off at a number of differend stops along the way...
I ran into these tourists while on the bus.... oh ya, they were nicely air conditioned! You needed it!
Above is looking back at the shore line from the Restaurant area.
Judy and Cheryl are checking things out above. Note how hard it is as a good Blogger to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time!
We had a terrific day, and enjoyed a nice dinner at the local Outback Restaurant in Bradengton. Nice way to end the day.
Till tomorrow...
Posted with Blogsy
Looks like a great place to wander about sightseeing and enjoying nice weather.
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