Fort Myers Beach to Sarasota

Right about the time we planned to leave Fort Myers Beach, spring break started. Definitely time to go. Here's a view of the beach the very first day of spring break, which apparently goes on for 6 weeks. The waitress we had at the restaurant from which this photo as taken told us that the kids show up for the $2.99 breakfast special, order water to go with their eggs and toast, and tip about quarter. Not a great way to make a living.

Unfortunately we were not able to get a reservation at Sanibel Marina in order to visit Sanibel and Captive barrier islands as we'd planned, and it's either too shallow to anchor off the beaches elsewhere, or there is no way to come ashore. The Sanibel and Captiva beaches are the ones most famous for shell-hunters to find all kinds of beautiful shells. Instead we headed north to Cayo Costa State Park, which has a peaceful, spacious anchorage called Pelican Bay. We spent a couple of days there with our friends Billy and Rebecca on Moonlight Seranade, walking the shell beach and visiting Cabbage Key, just a short ride south by dinghy.

Here's Jim's best find, an intact sand dollar. We heard from some locals that very avid shell-seekers arrive before sunrise and use headlamps to find and gather up all the best shells. If you get to the beach after 8 am, it's very picked over.

Cabbage Key is known for its "Dollar Bar", where the walls are papered with layers and layers of autographed dollar bills. It's rumored that the walls hold so many bills that about $10,000 worth fall off every year and those are donated to local charity organizations.

There are several "pet" gopher turtles on Cabbage Key, almost all of which are named after the Ninja Turtles.

And Cabbage Key is also famous as the spot that inspired Jimmy Buffet's song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". I'm not sure that's true, but here's a cheeseburger anyway....

Cabbage Key has a few trails to walk, which we did. Note the bottom message about "infrequent alligator sightings" on the sign below.

This is the Cabbage Key water tower, which provides a great few of the surroundings from the top of the 60-step staircase.

From Cayo Costa we took a detour to Punta Gorda at the top of Charlotte Harbor for a couple of days. This would normally be a nice bay to sail, but we had rain, 25 knot gusts right on the nose and an adverse current. Not much to report about Punta Gorda.

 It was quite chilly also...

 After that we headed north along the ICW. We stopped for a quiet night in Cape Haze anchorage and then carried on, passing Venice, which we may try to see on our way home, and arriving that afternoon in Sarasota where I'd made a mooring ball reservation for a couple of weeks at Marina Jack. This marina is immaculate and amazingly well-placed for cruisers, being right on the beautifully landscaped waterfront and literally a couple of minutes walk from the heart of downtown. The day we arrived there was a very good outdoor art show and we decided to buy the fired clay statue of a monk, shown below. He is being shipped and will stand in the foyer at the condo to greet us and all visitors who enter our home.  

Sarasota is well-known as the home of the Ringling Circus and John and Mable Ringling's legacy Museum of Art. The Ringlings first purchased property in Sarasota in 1911. We visited last Monday to see as much as we could of the extensive grounds and buildings in one day, and will return next week to see the things we missed - The Circus Museum and the couple's home, Ca'D'Zan.

Below is the Italian 18th century Asolo theater that was installed at the museum and which is still an active venue for performances.

The Glass House contains many spectacular examples of glass art.

Outside the Museum of Art is a massive banyan and bamboo garden with dozens of small concrete statues of dwarfs.

 A view of one wing of the art museum

One of my favorite installations at the museum is the Signs of the Zodiac, by Ai Wei Wei. Here are the tiger, dragon, ox, ram, and all 12 arrayed in a curve in front of a large pond.

We haven't visited the private home of the Ringlings yet, but this is the exterior of Ca'D'Zan.

There's a great kid's play area on the grounds and Jim had to try out the giant slide. His decent was spectacular, but his landing only earned him a 3.2 from several applauding judges sitting on a park bench nearby.

 Sarasota has these painted bikes in various colors all over town

 The city is very green and the plantings are plentiful, which makes walking and exploring a real joy.

We walked one day to nearby Selby Gardens, which has a massive, amazing collection of tropical and subtropical flowering plants, shrubs and trees.  The tiny frog in the collection of photos below is a Dart frog, and the odd plastic-looking turquoise plant is a Jade Vine, which is apparently is the only known plant of this unusual color.  There are hundreds of orchids at Selby, all gorgeous!

  This buddha was sitting peacefully in his own little pond...

 There were some fierce looking statues in the garden, too.

 And of course many massive banyan trees.

 Aren't these amazing roots?

A kind passerby took a photo of us with our good cruising friends Sharon and Greg, with whom we visited Selby Garden. We also visited the fabulous Mote Aquarium with these guys. Like an idiot, I took a bunch of short videos of things like beautiful blue Australian jellyfish and crazy acrobatic sea otters, but forgot to take plain old photos I could add to the blog post. Some day someone (maybe you???) will help me figure out how to add videos. It doesn't work the way it should...

This huge statue of the couple made famous by a photo taken at the end of WWII is near the north end of Marina Jack. Greg is standing at the lower right corner of the photo and is completely dwarfed by the huge statue.  

Yesterday we walked to a small neighborhood called Burns Court. It's one short street with little houses reminiscent, to us, of the southwest.

At the end of the street is an indy cinema and beside that is Owen's Fish Camp, an ancient restaurant that looks like it probably did decades ago. We're definitely going to check it out some evening.

Sarasota was settled primarily by Scots. Owen Burns came to Sarasota from Maryland in 1910. As an avid sport fisherman and astute businessman, he bought 75% of the land within today's city limits and aligned himself with others interested in developing Sarasota as a resort destination.  Many of Sarasota's most well-known buildings and features were developed as a result. Owen's Fish Camp is a reminder of the early days in Sarasota, and a tribute to the many fish camps that existed here before the city was developed.

 A view of the outdoor dining area of the charmingly ramshackle Fish Camp restaurant.

 A wall mural near Burns Court

 Another wall mural

A photo of a violin shop in downtown Sarasota - a random photo that doesn't fit anywhere in particular!

More to come later on Sarasota and our last destination on the Florida west coast - St Pete - before we turn south again and head for home.