Wednesday 3/31 - Drove down to Bradenton and stopped at Mixon’s to stock up on oranges and orange juice. Made a quick stop at the Ellenton Outlet shops so Nancy could buy a new pair of shoes. We planned on stopping at C&K Smoke Shop for lunch, but they were on vacation, bummer. Dinner at Ybor Grille tonight.
Thursday 4/1 - We have been spending time with Dennis’ mom (who has taken another turn for the worse) and getting her ready to move to her new apartment. We will post here when there is something interesting going on.
On Thursday we took a drive up to Tarpon Springs, just because we had never been there. An interesting place, a lot of touristy souvenir shops, a boat dock and a lot of Greek restaurants and seafood places. A fair number of people on the streets, bet it is REALLY crowded on the weekends!
Had lunch at Rusty Bellies, which turned out to be an excellent choice, really good, really fresh locally caught fish. They are adjacent to their own seafood market Pelican Point Seafood which features locally caught seafood exclusively. If you go there they are all the way at the end of the street that goes past the sponge docks, beyond the traffic circle. We bought some shrimp to take home with us and it was the best shrimp we ever had!
Coming home we drove along the coast west of Tampa and St Pete, miles and miles of hotels, condos, restaurants, and tourist place. There is no easy way to get from Sun City Center to Tarpon Springs, but we may have to go back for the seafood!
Friday 4/2 - Weather looked really promising today after heavy rains early in the week, so we went down to the Canoe Outpost on the Little Manatee River just East of Sun City Center. We rented a two person kayak ($37) and headed out for a two hour paddle down the Little Manatee. It was the perfect day for it, high seventies, a light breeze and not a cloud in the sky! Saw a few birds, not as many as we expected, a LOT of turtles - must have seen 25 or 30. Also saw a fairly sizable alligator sunning on the bank, about 6 feet long! The folks ahead of us in a canoe said they also saw one in the water. We stopped at a picnic pavilion in the Little Manatee River State Park and had a picnic lunch we brought with us and then continued to the pick-up point where they met us with a bus and returned to the Canoe Outpost. We will definitely do this again before we leave and before the weather gets to hot.
Love to read your adventures, even if I don't write a comment. Sorry to hear about Dennis' mom. Hope she gets settled and adjusts well to her new assisted living-it's always a worry.
ReplyDeletewhen are you heading back to IL? or are you stopping for some races along the way?