Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Coquina Beach–Anna Maria Island

Beautiful day at the beach

We didn’t originally plan on going to the beach on Saturday, but after staying home on Friday to watch the Inauguration festivities on TV, we wanted to get out on Saturday and it promised to be a beautiful day.

We weren’t sure if we’d get another beach day before we leave here on Feb 1st, so we loaded up the Jeep with a picnic lunch, beach chairs and our bathing suits, and headed for Anna Maria Island.

It was definitely a beautiful day!

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Boats in the harbor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were surprised to see that it wasn’t too crowded at the beach, and after we got changed we set up our chairs and I got out a new book.  It was a warm day, but there was a great breeze off the ocean, and it didn’t feel hot at all.

Tom said his new beach chair was very comfortable!

Enjoying the beach

The wind was creating big waves,

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and there were a few hearty souls braving the cool water to play in the waves.

A good day for playing in the waves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s been a bit of red tide off Anna Maria Island, and we saw evidence of it in dead fish on the beach, and later in the afternoon, in a mist in the air that had nearly everyone on the beach coughing.

Haze in the air

It was the strangest thing . . . we’ve never really been affected by red tide before, but as the afternoon wore on, it got worse. 

After a few hours, we decided that we’d had enough and packed up our stuff in the Jeep and headed down toward Longboat Key and Lido Key.  It was a good thing we left when we did – Tom was getting pretty crispy!

We crossed the bridge that took us from Anna Maria Island to Longboat Key.

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Longboat Key

Longboat Key is primarily residential, with a few high-rise hotels on the beach and several golf courses.  It’s a beautiful island, but expensive to live on!

St. Armand's Square

 

We continued on to Lido Key, which is much smaller in area, but even higher in price tag!

We stopped in St. Armand’s Square, walked through a few shops, and stumbled onto a car show in the square.

 

 

 

 

 

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Desoto Ambulance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was winding down when we got there, and people were already packing up their cars, but we had time to walk through and check them out.

Muscle Cars

This is a popular one with the guys in the crowd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one’s for Bryce!

VW Van

In addition to all of the classics, there were also a few new cars and trucks brought there by Sarasota Ford.

Tom liked the Mustangs,

Mustang RTR

and we found a beautiful truck for Nicolas!

Found a truck for Nick!

As we walked back to where we parked the Jeep, Tom found a few other cars that he wouldn’t mind having!

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Spotted a couple sportscars in the parking lot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom found a favorite!

On the way home, we checked out a new pizza joint that we heard was good – Fire & Stone.  It turned out to be a pizza buffet, which we weren’t aware of, and it was very good. 

On Sunday, we stopped in again at the Flea Market after church, and then to Walmart for groceries.  Back at the RV Resort, it was an incredibly windy day, with gust that shook the motorhome!

In the evening, we were all settled down to watch a movie, but once again were surprised with some excitement – this time it was a tornado warning!  My radar app was showing it on a path that would take it right over the top of our RV Park, so we joined about 3 dozen of our neighbors in the newly-finished bath house, the only block building in the park.  After about 20 minutes, the threat had passed (it stayed slightly north of us), and everyone went home.  The rain and wind continued overnight, but fortunately, no more severe weather.

The wind finally died down today, and we’re back to beautiful, sunny weather . . . but it supposed to be a little cooler this weekend . . . it may actually be a nice break from the 80s!

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