Anna Maria Island and Sarasota

We were up and out early this morning, heading along the I-4 for Tampa. Luckily, the traffic was fairly light and with Keith doing some excellent navigation, we were at Anna Maria Island on the Gulf Coast by 11am.

It really is a beautiful island, but we found it difficult to park and go onto the beach as there were lots of private houses right on the water. We eventually came to a pier with parking and we walked out to a small bar and restaurant where we had a drink and watched people fishing.

One man was skinning and gutting some fish and he threw all the scraps to a group of huge pelicans...

 

This little fellow was hoping for some scraps of fish as well.

I could easily have sat there all day, gazing at the azure water, the white powder-soft sands and watched the people fish. It was heaven! If I ever come back to Florida (and I hope I do) I'd like to rent a villa on the Gulf Coast as it's so beautiful.

We asked the man in the bar where Bean Point was, which was the tip of the island, and he told us to drive back the way we'd come. However, we couldn't find anywhere to park the car and a lot of the houses were private so we decided to head for Sarasota where we wanted to visit Yoder's Amish restaurant that had featured in Man v Food.

The drive to Sarasota was beautiful. My photos just don't do justice to the colour of the houses, the sky and the extraordinary light here. Some of the houses were painted in gorgeous pastel colours and I would have killed for any of them! I'm definitely coming back here again!

Once off the island we crossed over numerous bridges and Sophie saw a dolphin in the water. All the way to Sarasota we saw beach resorts and beautiful hotels and some truly fabulous houses. Such a different way of life here!

I'm still astounded that we found Yoder's as we just had the Google directions I'd printed off before we came here. We made a couple of wrong turns, but we persevered and by 2.30pm we were seated in the busy restaurant. The booth we were in was very small with hardly any room for the four of us but we were looking forward to trying the typical Amish fare on offer, especially their famous pies!

There was no alcohol on the menu so Keith settled for a Diet Coke, much to our amusement! We were given bread and butter and then Keith and Mikey ordered the house speciality, fried chicken. The waitress asked Mikey if he wanted two pieces, and he hesitantly said yes. Keith ordered a half chicken and said that if Mikey wanted some of his he could have it if he was still hungry. Sophie ordered chicken tenders while I went for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans.

Well...when the food arrived we all looked at each other in astonishment! Keith's chicken must have resembled an ostrich and as for Mikey's two pieces, they were HUGE! My turkey would have fed two adults easily and I bravely dug in!

This doesn't really show how huge Keith's meal was!

We all struggled through with our meals and Keith, Sophie and Mikey said they really enjoyed the chicken. I was a mite disappointed with mine, though, as the mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing had no taste whatsoever. Keith's roast dinner is much better!

The waitress arrived with boxes as Keith still had another huge portion to eat and then we ordered dessert - Yoder's famous pies! Mikey went for double crust apple crumble, Sophie had chocolate peanut butter, while I went for chocolate pecan. Again, they were large slices and I could really have done with some cream or ice-cream to balance the sweetness. Needless to say we took some back to the villa in boxes!

After eating I bought myself a mug in the shop and then we made our way back to the villa on a beautiful, very quiet country road (route 64), rather than go on the I-4. It was just a normal two lane road that ran through some pretty countryside and we saw trees covered in Spanish moss, palms, lots of fields of grazing cattle and Keith spotted an alligator. It made such a change from the busy three lane motorways and made me feel as if I'd seen some of the real Florida. There were hardly any towns along the way just houses dotted here and there and I'm so glad we decided on this route.

We picked up Highway 27 at Avon Park and followed this right to our doorstep. After a brilliant journey we came across two accidents within yards of each other, about ten minutes before the turn for Highlands Reserve which held us up for half an hour.

The evening was spent by the pool having a few drinks and watching the sun sink slowly behind the trees. It made for a perfect evening to a fantastic day!

Just a few drinks tonight!

Mikey has a late swim!