NautiNell's Adventure!: Our Last Days in Bradenton

What used to be an old pier off Egmont Key

Just off Egmont Key - having a sandwich

Good snorkeling

Had to share another beautiful sunset

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 13^th 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”