My Time in Florida! My Last U.S. Vacation Part 2

A couple of days ago I told you all about the cruise I went on and the tour I took of the Mexican island Cozumel. By now I’m home again, so it’s time for part 2 of this vacation: my time in Florida!

A very long first day

Our ship docked back in Florida around 7 a.m. We chose for early disembarkation, so that we wouldn’t have to wait for our luggage. This did unfortunately mean that I had to be at the breakfast table at 6:30 a.m! Way too early. Enfin, we got off the boat around 8, and made our way out of Tampa. We had two hours of driving ahead of us, because we were going to visit family friends in Cape Coral!

I was really excited for this, because these people have a boat and I really wanted to see a manatee. Unfortunately, high tide never showed up and the boat couldn’t be lowered in the water… Talk about bad luck. Luckily there are alternatives. We simply paid for a boat tour. Our captain spilled the tea on every house and resident we passed. We also learned a lot about the history of the islands around Cape Coral. Of course I still wanted to see a manatee. This did not happen *sad face.* But we did see a dolphin!

After the boat tour was finished, we had barbecue and went to bed early. We’d been up forever at that point!

Day two

Day 2 was actually my favorite out of all the days. We decided to take the long way to our Air BNB on Anna Maria Island. Meaning, instead of taking the fast highway, we drove straight through Sarasota and made a stop on St. Armand’s Key! This little island has a ton of adorable shops and cute colored buildings. We hopped on over to the next island where we had lunch and also visited the Mote Aquarium! I love going to aquariums, they’re fun and educational. They had a ton of cool fish that are local to the Gulf of Mexico, and they had manatees as well! Finally I got to see a manatee in the real. Would’ve been better if I saw them in the wild, but I’ll take it.

After arriving at our Air BNB I took a nap… I hadn’t slept a lot before then, okay?

Day three, four and five

I can be short about these days. The entire point of our time in Florida was to relax, so we did not end up planning our days. On Wednesday, day three, we decided to go play mini golf. I absolutely suck, because I have no hand eye coordination at all! At least I had fun, and the point deficit wasn’t too bad. Fun fact: my entire family plays golf except for me.

We also saw a lot of cool birds around here. There are a ton of pelicans, and as an adopted Virginian, I kept being fascinated by them.

Of course, we also went to the beach. I did not go in the water once, because the water was cold in Mexico. So surely it would be even colder in Florida. According to my mom, it was.

We also took the time to drive to the north side of the island, where we hadn’t been yet. The entire island is chock full of amazing houses; big or small. But the best part is that the majority are painted in lovely colors.

We ended our vacation with a great dinner at a restaurant in Bradenton Beach. I had Asian prawns with noodles. I had no idea these prawns were so huge! Super tasty, though.

After that it was time to go. We left at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning. We only had 940 miles to go. Even though we averaged 80 miles an hour and we saw no traffic at all, it still felt like we were driving forever. We finally got home at 9:30 p.m!

I think this little relaxing vacation was much needed. The weather was awesome and the places we saw were beautiful.
Have you ever been to Florida? What did you do and see?