Days 212 - 214 Bradenton, FL

It was a short jaunt under partly cloudy skies from Gulfport, past the five and a half mile long curve of the Sunshine Skyway cable bridge across Tampa Bay.

We turned up the Manatee River passing multi-million dollar homes to Bradenton.

We made several attempts to set the anchor on the south side of the river, following the instructions in the Skipper Bob cruising guide, but it skipped and scraped over the hard bottom without grabbing, so we moved across to the north side.  Hmmm, there were lots of anchored boats over there!

The second night we moved across to the south side of the river again to Twin Dolphins Marina where a manitee statue watches over the boats.

Sunday surprised us with sunshine and warm air.  We walked around the town enjoying the weather and the giant painted geckos crawling on the buildings here and there.

We stopped for coffee at a streetside cafe delighted to be in shirtsleeves and not cold.

We stopped at the Manitee Players theater to check the schedule.  The comedy, mystery, musical play "Curtains" was about to begin.  We spontaneously bought 2 "no show" tickets for the sold-out performance and enjoyed the show.

Monday we got on the bikes and headed for the artist village but were disappointed to find that the brightly-painted galleries and shops are only open Thursday through Saturday.

We then proceeded to try to find a shop owned by the sister of a friend.  Along the way, Bob saw a wrench on the curbside and stopped to add it to his tool collection.  I didn't react soon enough and slammed right into him.  No serious injuries.  Just a scrape or two and a couple of sore spots.  After riding for over an hour, stopping twice, and making a phone call to ask for directions, we abandoned the quest and reversed course back toward the marina.  I decided I needed a rest, laid my bike on the grass and plunked myself down next to it.  A police cruiser squealed to a halt over the curb in front of us and asked if we were okay.  When I said I was just tired, he said we were in a bad area that he would not ride a bike in, and he was surprised we hadn't been robbed yet.  He said, "In fact, there's a guy in room 8 of the hotel behind you who threatens people with broken bottles and knives."  He didn't have to work any harder to encourage us to pedal back to the marina posthaste.  He stayed nearby until we were in neutral territory.  What a fun time that was!

Later on we headed to the Florida museum where we saw a movie about the origins and vastness of the universe in the Bishop Planetarium and watched a presentation featuring Snooty, the world's oldest manatee, and 3 of his manatee peers in the Parker Aquarium.

The South Florida Museum had a special exhibit of Seminole clothing, beading, dolls and other artifacts, which we were allowed to photograph.  Looking closely, we saw that the designs were made from solid colors painstakingly quilted into intricate patterns.

 

For dinner, we used the gift card  from the Marina for the elegant Mattison's Riverside Restaurant and enjoyed every morsel from the tall mojito with a sugar cane stick to the veal chop in beurre blanc to the m-m-m-m creme brulee.  The perfect ending to a day in the ghetto!