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| What used to be an old pier off Egmont Key |
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| Just off Egmont Key - having a sandwich |
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| Good snorkeling |
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| Had to share another beautiful sunset |
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| It just doesn't get any prettier |
As we spend most of our days getting the boat ready to leave
for a couple of weeks while we go home to Joplin plus getting it ready to head
south when we return – we still have managed to have a few fun days.
The Third Thursday was held again last week. They had a really good band there this time
and we tried another food truck.
“Feeling Saucy”. Really good
meatball sandwich! I do talk a lot about
food, don’t I? Well, it’s one of the
things we enjoy around here – boaters like their food and “happy hours”!
The Farmers Market was really good this week. On the third Saturday of each month they add
another block for arts and craft items.
They also had another band playing on the end – good little blues jam going
on….
On Friday a group of us went back over to Linger Lodge. I can’t get enough of that place. I love the setting, plus the best gumbo
around! We enjoyed visiting with
everyone. Everyone seems to be working
toward the same goal - getting their boat
ready to head south for the winter. Some
are heading to the Bahamas, Keys and one is even heading to Trinidad and Tobago.
On Saturday there was the 13th Annual Bayfest on
Anna Marie Island. We had to check it
out. We rode the scooters over
there. There were a lot of vendors and
several bands. We enjoyed it but, of
course, since we had decided to ride the scooters – it decided to rain. It hadn’t hardly rained at all the whole
month! It wasn’t too bad – at least it
wasn’t cold. We left the festival and
took refuge at a local dive – DCoy Ducks.
It’s a local hangout and a pretty cool place. Once the rain passed we headed back over the
causeway to the mainland. We were
pretty wet but we made it safe and sound.
Now Sunday was the infamous dinghy ride to the sandbar. If you don’t know – read my previous
post. After that little adventure we
went on over to an area called Egmont Key.
Here everyone had their clothes on!
It’s pretty nice there – there’s a bird sanctuary on the island so most
of it is closed to the public. However
there is a part that is open where you can hang out on the sandy beach. There are also some remnants of an old pier
that make for really good snorkeling.
On Tuesday we went over to St Pete to pick up some parts for
the generator. The guy there clued us in
on a great little burger joint – “The Burg”.
Great place and Mike said the best wings in a very long time. The bartender there was really a hoot and we
were able to score some tickets for the Salvador Dali Museum.
We loved the Dali Museum.
We found that we really enjoy surreal art and Dali fits that bill! We
took a docent tour which helped immensely.
It helps when you have someone that can point out the idiosyncrasies in
a painting – especially Dali. He had a very
strange outlook on life and maybe an even stranger sense of humor. Anyway we spent a few hours there and really
enjoyed it.
When we got home we ended up back over to El Sombrero for
Mexican food with Joyce and Tom. We are
winding down to our final days with them.
We are really becoming “intellectuals”. Believe that?
Nah! But we actually spent all
day Thursday at another museum. This
time it was the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
We scored free tickets to that too!
In fact they were “members for a day” passes so we were treated like
royalty. John and Mable Ringling spent
their winters in Sarasota and built a magnificent home there. They, of course are part of the famous
Ringling family from the Ringling Brothers Circus. This museum was great! It was hard to see everything in one day but
we pretty well managed to do so. We
started in the area where there is a miniature circus built to scale. I don’t remember the person that built it but
it took years to do so and one year to set it up when it was complete. It was really something. Next door there was a lot of memorabilia of
the circus life. A beautiful calliope,
the original cannon truck that launched the human cannonball over two hundred
feet back in the 1940s or earlier. The circus
wagons that housed some of the animals were handcrafted and so beautiful. They don’t build things like that anymore –
so colorful!
Part of the Museum is the John Ringling Home. It was huge and decorated mostly Victorian
style from the 1920s gilded era with lots of gold leaf. We took another docent tour which took us upstairs
where we could see John and Mable’s bedrooms and several other bedrooms that
they maintained for guests. John’s
bathroom consisted of a huge marble bathtub. It was spectacular. Mable really knew how to decorate……
The last part was the Art Museum that housed all the art the
Ringlings had collected throughout. Most
of it was the classic masterpieces – lots of religious paintings both Venetian and
Italian from the 1400's on. There were several galleys and
I have no idea how many paintings were on display. It took quite some time to
peruse through them. We took a self-guided
tour of the Art Museum which still took us a long time. The grounds consist of several park areas
which we also enjoyed. Very peaceful.
We spend the next day getting the boat ready so we could
leave for a couple of weeks. Mike worked
on the generator so it would be ready when we get back. That took him quite a bit longer than he
anticipated. We also discovered that we
had a diesel leak. That could have been
a real problem. Mike thinks it’s only a
seal but we’ll figure that out when we get back.
So this brings me to the end of our Bradenton stay pretty
much. NautiNell is going to stay there a
couple of weeks while we take a trip back home to Joplin for a short
visit. We’ll head on down south when we
return.
See you in Joplin in a few days!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”
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| Home of John and Mable Ringling |
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| Miniature Circus - very cool! |
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| Under the bigtop - miniature |
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| Ok - can you tell who's the real clown here?? |
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| Only one clown at a time! |
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| The cannon truck from the 1930's-1940's |
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| Inside the private coach of Mr. Ringling that traveled with the circus |
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| Hummpp Dayyyy! Ok, I had to say it...... |
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| Banyon trees made up some of the most beautiful park areas |
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| One of the garden areas |
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| Ringling's home |
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| Inside - the receiving area |
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| This home was magificent |
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| The tap room They say it never went dry - even during prohibition |
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| Marble tub - elegant but no very cozy! |
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| More of the grounds |
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| Thought this was a rather strange sculpture |
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| The back grounds view from the home |
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| The Dwarf trail |
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| so very peaceful here |
