Sarasota, Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach

We had a fun and full weekend here on the West Coast. I hope you did too!
It is our goal to explore Florida as much as we can and this weekend we did a little bit of that.
Husband and I headed to Sarasota on Saturday to check out their annual craft fair and swim in the beautiful blue-green water.



There were pretty flowers, lots of art work and crafts for me to look at.
I didn't take many photos though because I thought I might get in trouble with the artists!

My major purchase was an ice lemonade and these camera and sunglass cases.
It was really hot.

These are so cute though and I am inspired to make some nautical and sea life cases of my own.

We then headed North along the beach to find us a nice spot to play in the water.

We stopped at Bradenton beach right next to the bridge leading to Longboat Key.



The bridge went up a few times for these lucky folks with boats.


We sat out here for a while.

And we came across quite a few critters.
Lots of olive shells were digging themselves into the sand to avoid being dried out in low tide.

And these guys were everywhere. It looks like a picture of rocks right? That's what we thought they were at first, but upon further inspection...


We found that they were buried ghost crabs!

Tons of them. Everywhere.


We rustled a few up. Just for fun ;)



We found some pretty shells with critters in them of course.

This one is for my boss. I know she is gonna love the color of this one - I don't think these are too easy to come by but he was still alive!! Darn it.


It was a lovely area to swim and explore.


Next we went on a bike ride.

And explored a bit of Longboat Key.
We read about the first homes on the island.

I love this crab on their house.


We came across some peacocks.



This guy was trying to impress these lady peacocks. They thought little of his show.


And we ended our adventure with a nice dinner on the water at Mar Vista.


We had to sit outside. Look at this view.

The trees were beautifully lit.

The food was spectacular.
Husband had the grouper sandwich.


I had the tots. Yes these were called tots on the menu. They were a delicious combination of potatoes, onions and cheesy goodness with a chipotle dipping sauce.



We walked out on the dock before we left.



A perfect end to our mini adventure on Saturday. I hope your weekend was fun-filled as well. Enjoy your Monday everyone.