I just returned from a week spent on Anna Maria Island in Florida. Boy, did I have a great time!
I love it because it's so low key. We drove into St. Petersburg for a day and checked out the Salvador Dali museum. It's amazing.
We (the family I was babysitting for and I) stayed on Anna Maria Island almost the entire time. It is beautiful! The beaches weren't very crowded and it's all very laid back. The island isn't really built up, there isn't a lot of touristy things to do, but here are a few that we did.
We did a dolphin cruise that was really neat. It was called Island Adventures through You Only Live Once Para-sail. Our captain took us out to a bay where we could see dolphins, but the really neat part was that he took us to a sand bar, and we all got out and he showed us all kinds of neat sea creatures that we could touch and hold. The kids loved this. (Well except for the four year old, she kept saying "Bad crabs. Bad crabs.") Then we went to Beer Can Island which is really neat and you feel like you are on a deserted Island. There is tons of driftwood washed up on the beach and it really looks like something out of a movie. Make sure your camera battery is charged (we had four people cameras on the boat and all four batteries died before we got to beer can island and we have no pic's. I'm still bummed about that) I honestly don't know how much it cost because the dad of the little girl I was babysitting was kind enough to pay for us. We were going to go para-sailing, but for all of us to go it was out of our price range.
We ate at a place called Star Fish Co. that is dockside. The fresh seafood is wonderful. I would recommend going in the evening when it's not quite so hot out. The kids will have fun looking at the birds and boats and if you're lucky you will get to see a dolphin or two. We did and it was the highlight of our meal!
Be aware that lots things on the island are closed on Mondays. We had quite a time finding something to eat on Monday and ended up at a Pizza place. I don't remember the name, but it was on the main drag on a roundabout and it was pretty good.
We ate at a place called Skinny's that said they had the best burgers on the island, and they were very very good, but the flies in the restaurant were too much. It's a little hole in the wall, open air type place. If you go there, I would recommend getting carryout. (Unless you like being swarmed by flies, lol)
We also just had fun at the beach and driving around exploring. I don't know if you like shrimp or not, but one night we got some fresh caught shrimp that morning, and they were to DIE for! I don't think I have ever ate so many shrimp in my life at once.
Overall it was an awesome trip -- I'm so thankful to have been given this opportunity. I'm sure it was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure and I really did appreciate every second of it. My nanny services were needed but both kids were very well behaved and seemed to enjoy themselves. Unfortunately, I did have a minor mishap and ended up twisting my knee on the second-to-last day on the island. I fell off a boogie board and hit the sand knees first...ouch!! Who knew sand hurts.
I've got some pretty nice photo's of the trip. Here are some of my favorites:
Beach Pics
Restaurant,food and Pier pic's
does anyone else see what I see?
Nature Pic's
Wildlife (Unfortunately, I only got these two crane shots. My camera's batteries died soon after.
Sunset pic's
So that's it. Have a great week everyone!