Anna Maria

We arrived in Anna Maria island in the afternoon to warm ocean breezes not realizing that those breezes would be short lived. I started to reminisce of our first trip down to Florida 33 years ago. We drove down in a conversion van with Mickey and John Schafer none of us had any money so it was one of those trips that you go as low budget as you can. The weather that year was also very cold in Florida and we continued to drive all the way to Key Largo in search of warmth. Our first night in Key Largo we parked in the parking lot of a hotel and John and Mickey slept in the bed and Bob and me slept on the floor of the van. The next day we found the Key Largo camp ground where we set up a tent and stayed for a few days. We traveled to Key West across the narrow bridges that have since been replaced with 4 lane bridges. At the end of the trip we drove Schafers to the airport so they could gamble in the Bahamas and we slept in the airport parking ramp waiting for them to fly back. That was then and this is now.

The Nautilus is a condominium development directly on Holmes Beach. All the units have 2 bedrooms, kitchen , living room and dining room. When you sit on the balcony you are able to see the ocean and hear the waves at night. It is a perfect place to stay, with great sunsets, tennis courts close by and a very nice golf course within 20 minutes. This year the weather has been really cold, low in the 30's and high in the 50's. We have still managed to golf and play tennis.

Every week there is a flea market in Bradenton called the red barn flea market. The weather was so cold we decided to venture out to the market. The flea market is completely enclosed and features more than 600 vendors and they claim to have the the best bargains in Florida. I was not lucky enough to find any bargains but Bob did, he found himself a sweatshirt for $6.00 and a new pair of shorts. One of the vendors was selling some heal all cream this is a picture of Bob having this ointment called natures gold the website is http://naturesusa.com/ rubbed on his knees. Bob claimed it works but I am not certain it didn't help my tennis elbow. After the flea market we decided to play 9 holes of golf at the Manatee public course by the time we were done it felt like it was winter I had everything on except I was missing my down jacket.

For our entire stay on the island I have managed to take a long beach walk in search of the perfect sea shell. Throughout the years I have collected buckets full of these beautiful treasures and they are safely tucked in the basement where they can't been seen or broken.

Our last night on the island we ventured out for dinner, usually we would have gone out several nights but had a nice time cooking in. Skinnys is a restaurant directly across from the Holmes Beach pavilion and has the best burger on the island. For about $4 you get a burger with a great bun, lettuce and tomato. Various days in the week they feature the buck burger but somehow we never picked the correct day. We pay our bill for a great week on the beach, head to the golf course and then on to Naples to visit our friends Pete and Cindy.