Homeward bound... Saturday 30

J finished the packing thing and we were driving off Anna Maria Island at 11.00am. An easy drive saw us pulling into the Golden Corral at 1.00pm. Currently in Florida Mall heading for the airport. 7.00pm flight to JFK, then on to Heathrow, landing at about 11.00am.

Pool / Food - Friday 29

It looked quite breezy after breakfast so we decided to spend the morning by the plunge pool. That turned into a full day stay there. Drove out to THe Beach House restaurant for food. it is the larger sister restaurant to The Sandbar.

Absolutely rammed. an hour wait. Seated just as the sun went down. Lovely crabcakes for me. J had Flounder. watched another cowboy film set in Monument Valley, Fort Apache.... brill!!!

Pool / Premium Outlets

As we'd heard the weather might be thundery by lunchtime we headed for the beach early!

 No-one else there!!! The wind was coming off the water and after about an hour J had had enough of the sand blowing at her and we went back to the pool.

Nice and sheltered. Mid afternoon we drove to Ellington Outlets for bargains, but only a pair of flip flops were purchased! In Applebees by about 8.00pm. This is a nice place with a great menu. Home by 9.15pm......Dexter finale to come!!!

A ridiculously large quesidilla "for one! to start... which we shared. Then I had surf & turf and J had a plain steak. Mash was great. Broccoli could have fed the family, with some left over!!!

Longboat Key / Sandbar Beach - Wednesday 27

Sun again, but a variation on a theme.... we went to our pool in the morning.

We had it to ourselves. Really nice, really quiet. One man arrived at mid-day as did the pool man, so we moved over to the plunge pool on the other side of the cottage. Nice shade here, the water much warmer, more jacuzzi like. In the afternoon we decided to drive up to Anna Maria to go to the Sandbar beach.

When we arrived the wind was blowing strongly off the Gulf. Lots of people around, comparitively.

Just before sunset we drove to the City pier and had food.

We shared crab fishcakes to start then I had Nutty Grouper and J had the grilled fish, Mahi Mahi. Yum! Back home by about 8.30pm after a quick Publix fix for J. 8/9/10 of Dexter sorted!

Longboat Key / St Armand Circle - Tuesday 26

The walk from the beach to the cottage takes about 3 mins.

Same old same old.... another beach day followed by a short drive in the evening, south to St Armand Circle, a collection of shops and restaurants purpose built on a circular key, or island, in the bay off Bradenton.

Shops were touristy and we didn't fancy the eateries so a Publix bbq chicken it was once again!

Longboat Key / Anna Maria City Pier - Monday 25

Sunny again. Same old lazy day by our beach.

A visit to publix then we actually decided to go somewhere and drove up to the City Pier in Anna Maria in the evening to see the sunset.

Two tubs of ice cream from Two Scoops and a drive back to see some more Dexter.We really noticed the number of people around. In July / August we get the place to ourselves. Today there were about 50 people around. It is the evening of Easter Monday though. Our other cottage in Anna Maria is about 12 miles from this cottage.

Longboat Key - Sunday 24

Great weather, with a good forecast. The beach access is a 200yd walk down the road, immediately on to the sand. Very few people around, considering it's Easter Sunday. There are great beach chairs in the cottage that allow you to carry everything as a backpack.....

A full day on the beach... too tired to go anywhere for food so we ate in and started watching Dexter 5

Orlando to Longboat Key - Saturday 23

After breakfast we packed up and headed for the Interstate 4 and eventually Longboat Key.

125 miles it took us about 2hrs 15mins. Great driving weather. At least here we've got the radio to listen to as in Utah there were NO radio stations broadcasting, other than one Country station! We also commented on the fact that we were passing more cars in 800yds than we passed in 10 miles in Utah! Arrived at the cottage at about 3.30pm.

Lovely little thing about 200yds from beach access. Smaller than Pineapple Cottage, it has a modern kitchen, lovely bedroom and comfy chair & setee to read and watch TV in the evening.

Outside there is a big covered lanai & a pool and plunge pool. J finally got to unpack her cases fully! We visited a convenient Publix supermarket that is only about 1/2 mile away to stock up then walked to the beach for the sunset.

I'd bought some Westerns about Monument Valley for us to watch in the Mall at Millennia so we had a couple ogf glasses of wine while watching. We definitely went to loads of the places in The Searchers. Unreal!

I've uploaded photos to Flikr. Click on link then click slideshow toppish right. There are loads of Antelope Canyon, and still loads not uploaded. I could have spent another couple of hours there!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ss56eee/sets/72157626434086447