Florida: Anna Maria Island - Bridge Street Pier

Day 183

From 3:00 onwards, we had lots and lots of rain yesterday.

Heavy Rain at the Marina

Long after the rain stopped yesterday everything remained wet with fog and mist hanging in the air. When we made our midnight run to the marina restroom, rain water made everything slick and slippery. As I tried to climb off the boat, I managed to skid and end up straddling the gunwale of the boat. An extraordinarily high tide had increased the distance to the dock such that I found myself hanging in the balance. For a brief moment I considered baling out of the walk to the head, but since I was more off than on the boat, I continued to roll off onto the dock.

My shorts did a nice job of drying the gunwale as I slid off onto the dock. As I walked up to the "head" holding Clark's arm with one hand and my flashlight in the other, I commented to Clark that if I had wanted to 'wet my pants' I could have just stayed on the boat. He did not find my comment humorous.

When we got back to the boat, I saw that the bottom of the boat was only two or so inches below the fixed dock. That meant that I had almost the full height of the boat to climb over to get back on board. That plus the gap between the dock and the boat left me scratching my head as to how to manage the feat.

Gap between boat and dock

Fortunately Clark offered up the use of a small wooden step that we carry on board to get me up about 8 inches higher, so I could climb on the boat. Who knew going to the head could be so challenging?

Clark got his pants wet this morning when he forgot that the new cover we had made for over our spiral staircase collects rain water. We were heading out to the farmer's market with Ben and Kenny. Clark wanted to open up the full enclosure on the fly bridge to prevent it from getting too hot up there from the greenhouse effect of the windows.  He ran up to unzip the cover, and "POW" he got a bucket load of water dumped on him.

We needed to meet Ben up by the marina office, so Clark left on his wet pants figuring they would dry in the breeze. Ben drove us to the Southern end of Anna Maria Island for the Beach Market at Coquina Beach. The market had several tents; however, only two tents had food to offer. One sold fresh vegetables and fruits and the other sold baked goods. All the other tents sold craft items or collectibles. I bought a small cherry pie, some fresh veggies, and a very pretty scarf for myself.

After the market we walked around Bridge Street Pier area. I was wrong yesterday when I said I had seen all that the island had to offer twice over. The pier area was a side of town I had not visited due to its distance from the marina. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found there - lots of shops and places to eat with a true beach resort feel.

Anna Maria Island - Bridge Street Pier

 After the hard work of shopping at the farmer's market, we decided we needed to find lunch. We went into an Oyster Bar first, but neither Clark nor I indulge in oysters, so we left there and kept looking. Even though none of us are packers fans, we found a Green Bay Packers bar with a diverse menu. Ben and Kenny were reluctant to enter a Packers pub but eventually capitulated as it was a place where we could all find something to eat.

Lunch!

"Packers" Bar

After filling our bellies with crab cake sandwiches and bacon cheese burgers, we walked around the Bridge Street Bazaar area.

Unique signs

 Apparently Ben has quite a talent with a horn made from a conch shell. Clark made a video of Ben playing.

After Ben stepped away from the Conch Horn, I stepped up to take a look at the various shells for sale.

Shells for sale - 5 small for $1.00

 Clark also made a video of the miscellaneous objects for sale at the bazaar.

As we strolled around, we spied a home-made ice cream shop, and Clark offered to treat the four of us to cones. Kenny decided that ice cream would not sit well on his Coors Light that he had for lunch - no beer float for him. The rest of us indulged. When we came out of the ice cream shop, we spied an interesting mural across the way.

Pirate Treasure Mural

We stopped in a few shops to check out their wares. Found a lot of typical touristy items for sale - boxes decorated with shells, cheap beach-scene snow globes, and tons of t-shirts. As we shopped we had our eyes on our watches since Ben needed to drive to the Tampa airport to collect Jane on her return from Ohio. Around 2:00 we decided that it was time to head back to the boat.

The temperature was a pleasant 70 degrees when the day started. As the day progressed the temperature dropped about one degree per hour, and as the breeze picked up, the air felt cooler and cooler. We started out in shorts and t-shirts and ended up with jackets. Clark had wanted to go out on the kayaks today, but with the cool temps and the heavy breeze that idea went "out the window". Instead of kayaking, I managed to get my sewing done that I postponed from yesterday.