We left early in the morning, before sunrise and secured a spot on the causeway where we hung out for the morning, enjoyed the view and sound of the waves, and went for a little trip around the bay in the kayak. After lunch we hopped on our bicycles and headed over to Sanibel Island itself to explore for an hour or two.
We ended up spending that night at an Encore resort about 30 minutes south of Venice, FL. We had time to enjoy a swim in the pool and some billiards. We did notice that a large percentage of the population at this particular resort were French Canadians. We also observed some wildlife including a gator in the channel right behind our camp site!
The next day we packed up and headed into Venice itself. We lucked out and had found a spot in the State Park just north of town for that night, but couldn’t check in till 3pm. Since we had a couple hours to kill after lunch we spent them at one of the many beach parks south of the town. It wasn’t particularly warm, but it was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Once we were able we headed to Oscar Scherer State Park and checked into our camp site. We were immediately impressed with what a beautiful park it was.
That evening we got together with some friends from back home, Kurt and Sonja who spend the winter in Venice for the past several years. They showed us around town (in their Volt of course!) and a spot where local musicians hang out and jam down by the beach.
The next day we headed north again to another state park just outside of Tampa, Little Manatee River state park. We would spend three nights here, and rather enjoyed it as it was conveniently located to attracions in the Tampa / St Petersburg area and was for the most part free of pesky bugs! On our first full day we got a late start but in the afternoon went to check out a “Manatee viewing centre”. Turns out it was next to a massive coal fired power plant – it seems the mantees like the warm water that the coal plant puts out into the bay. The whole thing seemed like a giant greenwashing effort by the coal power plants owners who could point to the great work they are doing protecting the manatees while continuing to pollute.
On our second day we headed into St Petersburg, first stopping in St Pete Beach for some lunch on the beach.
In the afternoon we headed to a century old botanical garden called The Sunken Garden which was quite enjoyable.
We capped off the day with a visit to the Salvador Dali museum, which was sort of interesting but we didn’t really feel there was enough there to justify the normal admission price – luckily we had planned our visit for after 5pm on a Thursday when the admission is more than ½ off so we didn’t feel too bad.
The morning of the day we left we went kayaking in the Little Manatee River the park is named for and were very impressed with its beauty.
