I enjoy Lori Wilson Park's access to Cocoa Beach since there is no fee for parking and it has covered areas for picnics and showers/bathrooms. I almost fell asleep resting on the sand because I was so relaxed. The water was cool on my feet and I didn't go in any further than that. We stopped at Simply Delicious (125 N Orlando Ave) for a wonderful lunch. I'd go back anytime for their fresh bread and sandwiches or to try breakfast. The side order of fresh fruit was huge with lots of variety. I also ordered their shrimp chowder and loved it. We brought home a pistachio muffin which was very interesting too. They are only open until 2 or 3 pm each day. I thought the restaurant was very cute too! We ate in the back room and it was nice and quiet.
Saturday morning I helped Katie's 4th grade raise money for a field trip we are going on to St. Augustine. We helped for an hour before heading out on our trip to Sarasota. Today I was told they raised over $1300 in 3 hours. Wow! The kids wanted to wash the cars, so the adults dried them. My car looked much better after its bath!
We drove the 2 hours to Bradenton and stopped at Mixon Farms before they closed at 3 pm. They have free OJ, lemonade, and grapefruit juice to sample, and a tour of the packing/juicing facilities that would be fun in November or later when they are harvesting their crop. They also sell orange soft serve ice cream that is fantastic! While we were looking around the store, they told us that we could go pick grapes in the back of the building for free. The grapes were red ones with seeds, but the kids enjoyed picking them. http://www.mixon.com/
Our next stop was our hotel in Sarasota. We decided on Hibiscus Suites because they had a 2 bedroom townhouse available for $156/night including taxes. One bedroom has a king bed, and the other has 2 full beds. The best part about it was the downstairs living room with 2 couches, a love seat, and 2 chairs. We had lots of space to spread out and it was only 2 miles from Siesta Key Beach. It was definitely an old motel, but we didn't mind. Breakfast was slim, but the oranges were amazing. I should have asked where they buy them. The kids thought it was great that they served Tang. They also enjoyed the mini cinnamon rolls.
Siesta Key Beach is one of my favorites of all time due to the white powdery sand. We spent the rest of the afternoon there and Troy and I played in the water with the kids. It was slightly cool getting in and then felt very comfortable.
In the evening we went to Lido Key Beach to shell and watch the sunset. It was so beautiful! I couldn't stop taking pictures, but they are on my cell and I don't know how to download them :( The temperature was perfect that time of day. Then we headed over to St. Armand's Circle and enjoyed dinner at Cha Cha Coconuts. I had my favorite peel and eat shrimp, sweet potato fries with apple butter and shared ribs with Troy. Then we walked over to the ice cream shop around the corner for dessert. We checked out the shops on the way back to the car and found several more ice cream shops to try. I also found some cute butterfly earrings for Katie. I would enjoy spending more time exploring more of the cute stores in the area.
We also stopped at Myakka State Park to climb the tree canopy tower and have some fried gator bites and gator stew. Yum! When we were halfway to the tower, we were swarmed by mosquitoes, so we headed back to the car fast to get our bug repellent. The kids had so much energy they climbed the tower twice.
We drove through Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island on our way home to see the beautiful scenery. I think the Gulf beaches are my favorite, but you can't beat the convenience of the Atlantic from Orlando.
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