Exploring SW Florida

Our grandson, Jesse, is visiting so we have been showing him all the fun places we have found here in SW Florida. 

Blind Pass on Manasota Key is a great place to look for prehistoric shark's teeth.

We always find some - even after thousands of people for many years have been collecting them.

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Lover's Key, just south of Ft Myers Beach is a wonderful State Park, where we can beachcomb on the Gulf,

or take a walk through the woods.

The variety of native plants seems endless.

He thought he was hiding in his burrow.  We saw many turtles.  Often we see Manatee in the water, sometimes alligators, always squirrels and raccoons.  The real Florida!

Flamingo Florida is kind of fun too.



A Day at the Beach

Our kids from Salt Lake City came to Florida this past week and spent several days in Orlando before they headed our way.  When they got here, Gavin was still wearing his saber tooth tiger face.

We headed out in the boat to check out Stump Pass State Park.

Gavin sat next to Captain Ron to help with the steering.

Ron sped up when we got out into Lemon Bay

We got to the Manasota Key bridge just in time to see it open for a big sailboat.

Not too many people at the beach, so we looked for shark teeth and swam for a long time.

The tide was coming in so we did some body surfing.

The water was a perfect temperature - about 84 degrees.

Heading back

With Cam at the wheel.

Another beautiful Florida day!

The Hermitage on Manasota Key

About once a month during "the season", the artists in residence at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key have a public event.  Last night, November 30, 2012, was one such event.

As the sun began to go down, the normal beach goers from Blind Pass Park, which is adjacent to the hermitage, began to head home,

and a crowd began to assemble on the beach in front of the hermitage.  Even with clouds, the air was warm and balmy - a perfect night to watch the sun go down while listening to poetry readings and songs.

We arrived a few minutes early, and watched a group of brown pelicans dive for fish while we waited for the program to begin.

We thoroughly enjoyed the readings by Tony Hoagland, Jeff Parker, and Rodrigo Garcia Lopes.  It was an interesting and fun way to spend an evening.  We are looking forward to the next beach reading on January 25, 2013.

Manasota Key on Dwellable

Beaches of Manasota Key

One of our favorite beaches is at Stump Pass, at the far south end of Manasota Key.

Since we are a bit ahead of "The Season", and it was cold (72 degrees) all the beaches were nearly deserted and it was easy to find a parking place in any of the beach parking areas.

We usually go to Stump Pass Park via boat, as the park is popular and crowded in January through April when we are here.  There is a nice channel in the bay behind the Key where we can park the boat and take a short walk across the island to the Gulf of Mexico.

You can see the Mangrove roots on the bay side always trying to extend the Mangrove swamp.

Englewood Beach Park is the first park after the bridge that comes onto the island from Englewood at the south end.  Shops and restaurants and seasonal rentals abound in this area.

A boardwalk along the beach connects the various areas of Englewood Beach Park.  Several walkways allow access to the sandy beaches.

The Hermitage is a retreat for professional artists, writers, painters, composers, sculptors, poets and playwrights who come from all around the country and the world to live and work for 2 to 6 week residencies.  It is located just south of Blind Pass Park on Manasota Key.

Blind Pass is one of the most popular beaches on Manasota Key. 

 Manasota Beach Park is the northernmost public beach on the Key.  A large parking lot is located just after the bridge that crosses onto the island on the north side of the road.  Boats can be put into the bay at a boat ramp on the south side of the road.

A wheelchair accessible ramp runs from the washroom facility and parking lot to the beach.

He has found about a half of a water bottle full of prehistoric sharks' teeth.  These teeth can be found on all of the beaches of Manasota Key.

This man is more serious about finding things, with a metal detector in one hand and a shark tooth sieve in the other.  You can find teeth without the scoops, but serious collectors all have the screened scoop on a long handle to make the task easier.

We even found a few shark teeth and a couple of interesting rocks.

It was just about a perfect day on the beach - not too hot, sunny and breezy, and nearly deserted.

Manasota Key on Dwellable

Boating to Stump Pass

We found a great place to dock the boat on the back side of Manasota Key in Stump Pass.

We walked across the island to the Gulf side where we walked on the beach and looked for shark's teeth.

This poor little guy looked like he got hit by a boat propeller or something, but he looked like was healing.

Lots of people out on all the sand bars, on their skidoos, in their boats, and fishing.

Mom started out all bundled up, but soon shed the outer layers.

to soak up some sun.

We watched an Osprey eating a fish on a limb over his nest.

Dick had some bait shrimp that he wanted to use up, so we stopped in the bay to fish.

After trying their luck in the bay, Ron and Dick decided to try another spot for fishing.

So we went back via a shortcut behind all the little islands.

We stopped at the bridge to Manasota Key.

Oh, My, what kind of fish is that??

They caught all kinds of small fish, so an opportunistic Cormorant soon found us.  We never knew before that Cormorants had green eyes!

Great day on the water!