Saturday

Saturday we were at Cannons Marina on Longboat Key early, just after 8 AM. We got a perfect little Scout, just exactly right for us.

It was nice gliding around on Sarasota Bay a little, before it got too crowded (the Memorial Day Weekend is a very popular weekend to be out boating in Florida).

Right away we started seeing dolphins! It is not much that can beat seeing a pod of Bottle-nose dolphins frolicking in the water! This sure set the day off to a good start!

We visited an uninhabited little island that is pretty popular with boaters, and there we hung out for a bit, had a snack and just explored the island.

After that we headed north to the end of Longboat Key, and in between Beer Can Island (actually officially named Greer Island Beach Park), Jewfish Key and the south end of Anna Maria Island (Coquina Beach) is a shallow area, just at the pass in between the islands. Here many boats lay anchor and just enjoy the sun. The waters go about waist deep on an adult, the sand is lowly, the water beautiful, and there are lost of wild life to explore.

We found lots of Spider crabs, Sea urchins, live shells (especially Lightning whelks) as well as Hermit crabs and Blue crabs.

After swimming and having fun we laid anchor at one of our favorite restaurants, Mar Vista. You can walk right up to it from the beach, bringing dogs is not a problem here when you sit outside amongst the shady trees.

After a nice lunch with blackened grilled grouper sandwiches and lots of ice cold ice tea and lemonade we went back to the pass area and swam a little more, and before we knew, the day was already over!

Lets just say that after getting home and showering, all of us, but especially Sarah and the dogs were very tired and happy after a fun day on the boat...

Saturday we had an early breakfast on Manatee Beach at one of our favorite places that unfortunately is closing in July, so we try to enjoy it as much as we can before then.

Then we found an almost deserted stretch of beautiful beach towards the north end of Anna Maria Island where we took a long walk and looked for shells. We will come back here tomorrow with our beach gear to stay the day, it is such a lovely place!

I hope you are all having a great weekend as well, now I am going to make some fish with tarragon sauce and couscous salad...

Here is our Saturday boating day in movie clips:

On Sarasota Bay - Dolphins!


Bob is a good swimmer


A great place to hang out!


Spider Crab


Sea Urchins


Mar Vista Restaurant