Day 10 Sarasota Saturday January 27, 2018

We had planned to spend several days with Paul and Taffy but they had commitments come up that required that they keep moving. So we played sightseers today.

We got the car out and drove as far north as St Petersburg and stopped for a leisurely lunch at Bradenton.

Our day started with another trip to the First Watch restaurant for breakfast. See why we came back again?

 We next wandered further up some of the city streets. It has a nice downtown as seen in the photos below

We soon ran into a wonderful farmers market. Fresh vegetables and a lot of bakery products such as in the creative van below.

 And at the end of the walk a Whole Foods!! Go Amazon

And across from Whole Foods a bus terminal to take us around the world - well maybe not that far but a ways for sure - maybe Walmart!

And a short distance later a large Baptist Church - we won't be able to try it this trip but nice to know it's there.

We traveled to Bradenton via Longboat Key. The large island protecting Sarasota from the open ocean. It was a nice ride. It had a nice town center with an art show that provided the explanation  for "why is the traffic so slow?"

We arrived in Bradenton looking for a place for lunch. It was really a long time since that big breakfast I promise! Pier 22 is the marina and restaurant facility in town. Very nice and they are in the process of redoing a large section for more floating docks and dredging of the basin.

 Bradenton is on the Manatee River. When we first crossed the bridge coming into town on Friday on the way to Sarasota we could see a large sign on a building "Manatee Memorial Hospital." We both wondered at first, " I know they like their manatees down here - but a hospital for them?" But as we got closer, we figured that the manatees would not require emergency ambulances in the number we saw around the hospital - and thus concluded that the Manatees will have to check in at SeaWorld for health care.

On the other side of the Manatee River at the end of the peninsula that formed the start of the river  there was the very nice Emerson Park. It featured native mangrove areas with walking trails. I just walked a ways and got some of the photos below. Man was the water warm. I wanted to got swimming as it seemed like a heated pool - my idea of comfortable.

We then drove to St Petersburg to the downtown area. I don't have any photos, but it has a very nice marina right in downtown. The downtown area has really been spiffed up. We agreed we could stay there for a while latter on our pass through the area.

It was dark by the time we got back to the hotel. Here is a shot looking at the nice view we had. 

 I'm beat - Time for bed. Good night