Monday, November 13 - Sarasota, Florida

We leave Anna Maria Island at 9:00,

 and head back out to Tampa Bay. 

 Ahead we see the bridge and are thankful that we are going 

into the waves (much easier than rolling)!

 To our left, we see two freighters out on the Gulf of Mexico.

 Once we're out in Tampa Bay for about fifteen minutes, 

we make a sharp right turn so that we are now paralleling Anna Maria Island.

We are now in Anna Maria Sound.

 We have only two causeway bridges to pass under, and both are very narrow and short (22 feet!), but Captain Dave puts everything down and we pass under with a few feet extra!

Not far from Anna Maria Island is Bradenton Beach.

Anna Maria Sound is a good size sound, but . . . 

 the path along the ICW sure is skinny!!!

  To our right is our first of a few passes we see to the Gulf.  

This is named Longboat Pass.

 And this shrimper boat is excited to get his shrimp as he heads towards the pass. 

(I hope he's careful not to get entangled with any crabpots😄!)

Right after the pass is a small island.  Looks as though these 

people have their own little slice of paradise!💗🌴

We begin to see homes with their own canals. 

 Think of them as water streets!😉

 Again, as we go further south, the homes are getting bigger, but . . . 

 unfortunately, some are getting repairs.  

(Haven't seen a lot of hurricane damage, 

but as we go further south, I think we'll see more).

Just as we headed into Sarasota Bay, we had our highlight of the day; 

this cute guy!!!💗🐬

 He actually was swimming right to the left of our bow for about one mile (and when I mean to the left of our bow, I mean he was under our boat!); it was so incredible!!!

Coming up for some air!

Sarasota Bay is a lot larger than we thought, but not as turbulent as Tampa Bay!

 As we get closer, we see the downtown area, and . . .

 to our right is another pass to the Gulf; this one is named New Pass.

 Getting closer!

 There is some very interesting architecture; of course I LOVE the pink building!

This is Krystina's favorite!

And here we are; Marina Jacks!

A beautiful dolphin fountain greets us!

Beautiful marina,

 with beautiful boats!!!

Krystina and I go for a bike ride to explore the
beautiful town of Sarasota.

 Along the way we see the following:

I need to get a teaching job here!!!

And here's the classroom!💗

Near the waterfront was this statue; "Greatest Generation". 

I leave you with the game of finding "Johnson & Johnson" one more time!

I know it's tricky!!!😄