Illness and Downtime but Still Time to Enjoy Longboat Key and Friends. January 6 to 26, 2020.

Julie had a reasonably good day with her flu bug and we took a long walk to the resort beach on Tom's birthday.  It was a beautiful day!  Thanks for the extra effort in making the day special Julie!

We walked to the resort beach and then to the Dry Dock for lunch and then back to the marina.  It was a great walk and day!

On Jan 7 we borrowed Betsy and Dave's mini van to go to Sarasota to see "The Book of Morman"  play at the Van Wezel Performing Arts center.  

The play was well done but some of the "mocking" of our Lord and Savior was offensive to us at times. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Sarasota with all the snowbird traffic combined with road construction, versus the no traffic drive of about 15 to 20 minutes.  It's getting busy on Longboat!

As we both started to really feel bad with a nasty bug we pretty much were down and out for the better part of the month.  It was a nasty bug that we think we may have gotten from that Uber driver in late December.   We had no energy, terrible coughs and had to keep our distance from all our friends.  We did stay to ourselves but our friends Betsy and Dave (Frye Days) and Bonnie and John (Bon Voyage) threatened to put up our yellow quarantine flag to warn others of our condition.😎 

We had many of these symptoms...

And Betsy from Frye Days brought us chicken soup, veggies, crackers, reading materials and encouragement that provided medicinal support!  Thanks so much Betsy!  We really enjoyed the chicken soup!

Later in January we were feeling a bit better and were ready for a change of scenery so we shoved off for Bradenton Twin Dolphins Marina for a couple nights.  

It was so good to be moving again!  We explored the Riverwalk and downtown areas of Bradenton and had a nice stay there.  

Along the Riverwalk.

Not sure what this creature is.  Sort of pretty in our underwater lights.

Sunrise at Twin Dolphins Marina.

On the way home we arranged to meet Kevin and Debbie, Julie’s brother and sister in law,  at Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay.  It is a park area accessible only by boat.

They cruised up from Sarasota in their center counsel and anchored near us.  

We dinghyed over and got them aboard for some exploration of the key.  It is a park setting with trails and the entire island is a bird sanctuary so no pets are allowed ashore.  It was an almost windless day until later in the afternoon when we picked up a slight breeze.  We enjoyed the island trails and walking the beach back to the dinghy while spending time with Deb and Kevin.  We think we will definitely return.
A tortoise exploring the grounds too.

Abandoned Spanish American War era fort.

On Saturday we took the bus to Sarasota for the Seafood Fest.

Lots of live music and great seafood!  This is the second or third time we have attended and always enjoy the day.

 Sunrise on a randomn morning walk.

Later in the month, our old neighbors from Michigan, Rhonda and Paul were going to be in town.  They now live in Mesa, AZ but Paul had a consulting gig in Sarasota so Rhonda accompanied him.  We got together a couple times for dinner and the highlight was a “dolphin tour” boat ride up toward Cortez.  Julie’s brother and sister in law Kevin and Debbie joined us as well.  
Captain Julie and first mate Rhonda taking the boat out of the slip and marina.

A funny story, we had told Deb and Kevin about how our boat seems to draw dolphins. When we invited them along for the boat ride, we had texted to “join us, along with Paul and Rhonda for a dolphin tour”.  On the morning of the trip we got a text asking where to meet….they were understandably confused that this was indeed a boat ride on Sum Escape for a “money back guaranteed” dolphin tour!  And we saw lots of dolphins!   The crew watching them.

We also stopped at the new Shore restaurant on the north end of Longboat Key for a mid afternoon snack.  We will definitely be back here, a nice restaurant and good dockage.  Thanks to all for joining us!

Pat and Tim, friends from Michigan were escaping winter in Naples and drove up for lunch in Sarasota.  We rode the trusty bus into town and had a great time catching up with them.  Thanks so much for making the drive up to see us!

On the final Saturday in January, Julie joined in a group outing with a number of friends from the marina to go to the Venice Theatre to see "Menopause the Musical" organized by Betsy who drove the whole group there in her van.  A walk through the art fair and lunch preceded the play.  Thanks so much for a great outing Betsy!