#6 The Myakka and the Mote

Although Lake Manatee State Park, where we camped the last two weeks, is a relatively small park, nearby Myakka River State Park is fairly large. A seven mile scenic drive through the park takes you by the oak/palm  hammock and along the lake shore. Developed by the CCC in 1934, the park has restored many areas of unique Florida dry prairie.

We visited the park mainly to take the air boat ride on the lake and hopefully spot some alligators and other wildlife. The park has two airboats that are powered by rear mounted engines with airplane style propellers.

We were able to see a number of gators, some of which were 8 or 9 feet long.

A wild pig on the shoreline was actually swimming no more than 100 yards from an alligator just moments before this picture was taken. A blue heron is in the foreground.

The park also has a 100 foot long Canopy Walk that gets you up into the trees on a somewhat shaky walkway.

You can see the 74 foot tall tower behind Anne at the end of this walkway from which you can see the canopy of trees and wetlands in the distance. It was pretty cool.

Although we are not much for sunbathing, we wanted to  spend some time by the beach, so we went to Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island. It was about 82 degrees that day, but the water was more like 65. Nevertheless, there were some die hard swimmers and many more basking in the sun on this  powdery white sand beach.

We wanted to go to a few seafood restaurants in Sarasota. Since she likes fish, Idgy thought she should be going along, and consulted the tourist map.

         

(we snuck out without her)

Jared told us about an iPad app called “YELP” that helps find any kind of point of interest at your location (using the iPad’s GPS). We use it frequently for finding restaurants, camping, specialty stores, and lots of other places. What is especially neat about it is the reviews, particularly on restaurants. We went to a few of the seafood restaurants we found, and were not disappointed. The grouper Ruben sandwich and amberjack that we had at Captain Brian’s were really good.

We finished up our sightseeing in the Bradenton/Manatee/Sarasota area with a visit to the Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium and the adjoining SOS (Save our Seabirds) sanctuary for injured birds.

The Mote is a smaller aquarium that is well laid out and easy to navigate. Like many of the attractions we saw here, they had excellent signage. As usual, we took lots of pictures, and here are a few favorites:

We finally had a good view of the manatees with these 1200 and 1700 pound 33 year old mammals that have been raised entirely in captivity and now reside at Mote.

Right next door to Mote is the SOS organization that rescues and treats seabirds (90% are injured through encounters with man). Because of the extent of injuries, none of the birds on display will be going back to the wild. These sandhill cranes have prosthetic legs.

The bird habitats were generally very nice, and you could see about 30 species on display as well as some funny looking people leaning on the statuary.

 Departing from the Sarasota area, we think about the great state park camping, even greater weather, and the many interesting things to see and do in the area. We would have to say that our stay in the Sarasota area has been altogether enjoyable.