Boat trip to Stump Pass

Our friends from Alabama are visiting us in Florida. 

Today we woke up to a beautiful day, so after we had a walk and a swim, we made lunch and took the boat out.

 

The water in Lemon Bay was calm, the sun shone, and we even saw dolphins occasionally.

We pulled the boat up on the bay side and walked across to the Gulf side of Manasota Key



where we set up a camp for our picnic.

Jesse was our captain for the trip back.

 

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!

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!

Stump Pass, Englewood, Florida

We knew we had to get going early if we were going to enjoy a morning boating.  By afternoon, the sun can be brutal, so we had the boat in the water and left at 8 a.m.

Of course, it took two towels to wipe the seats down because of the heavy dew.

Stump Pass, at the end of Manasota Key is one of our favorite beaches.  You can drive to the park, but it is over a mile hike to the pass, so the beaches at the pass are lightly used.

The birds like it here too!  The tide was going out, leaving lots of area for birds to find food.

There are protected sandy beaches on the bay side of the island where we can nose the boat up on the beach and walk across to the gulf.

It is a very short walk across to the gulf beaches.

We could see the clouds to the north, but it was perfectly clear to the south.

We opted for the channel between mangrove islands instead of the intercoastal waterway for our return trip.


By the time we got back to the dock around noon, it was getting really hot and all the clouds were gone.  Nice to come in where we have A/C.