February is a celebratory month for us, since in the span of one week we have Valentine’s Day, Craig’s birthday and my birthday. Since we like to try to plan most of our adventures on the weekdays to avoid the rush, the timing worked out perfectly for a special trip for Craig’s birthday. We decided to explore the gulf side of Florida this time, with a trip to Sarasota!
Although I am generally a pretty detailed planner, one element of bus life I’m learning to embrace is the joys of winging it. So for this trip, I made a list of some to-dos, booked one Harvest Host, and decided we could figure out the rest of it as we went. The beauty of this is it allows us to stumble on lovely places that are a little off the tourist track and gives us the time to spend exploring these places.
MYAKKA RIVER STATE PARK
As we were driving down to Sarasota, with no plan on where we were parking for the night, I found Myakka River State Park on the map and, for $6/car to enter, I figured this might be a two-for-one, a beautiful spot to explore for the day and a place to camp for the evening. Unfortunately the camping was booked for the night, but this lovely park was still worth spending the day checking out!
We first headed out on the Boylston Nature Trail, which was a lovely and informative walk through the woods. It was a nice, easy nature trail, featuring signs pointing out some of the natural elements seen throughout the loop, like descriptions of local air plants and wildlife. I love trails like this that highlight and inform you about some of what you’re going to see on your walk so you can get a better understanding of the environment you’re walking through. The focal point of this trail was the Myakka Canopy Walkway, a 100 foot long bridge through the hammock canopy. The first tower is 25 feet up and leads to the bridge, and the second tower continues up 74 feet in the air for an extended view of the canopy. Unfortunately, the higher tower was closed due to COVID when we visited, but we still really enjoyed a walk through the trees. No dogs were allowed on the canopy walk, but it was easy for us to take turns on the ground with the pups while the other enjoyed playing in Lothlorien amongst the palms (or maybe that was just me).
As we continued our exploration drive through the park, we noticed a lot of onlookers stopped at a bridge, and took a pop out to see what was going on. And here we saw alligators, drifting lazily in the water! It was such a cool sight, we couldn’t help but stop and watch for awhile, especially when one looked like it was hunting some prey. At this stop, we also noticed some kayakers in the related waterways, so we definitely have this spot on our list to come back and try some kayaking. The rest of the park had some other nice sights as well, including a bird walk boardwalk trail (say that 10 times fast!) out to the waterfront of Upper Myakka Lake that even had a sign posted showing what kinds of local birds you might see in the area.
Here we also found another perk of driving our home around everywhere. After doing some birdwatching, we were both hungry for lunch, and it was nice to not have to plan for that, but instead just raid our fridge for snacks so we could get back outside! We finished up our time here with another little walk on a trail to get the pups some more exercise, before swinging by the gift shop where we noticed they also run boat tours on Upper Myakka Lake to observe the local wildlife and learn about the park. We really enjoyed our impromptu stop at this lovely Sarasota state park!
SARASOTA SIGHTS
Since the evening was approaching, we thought we might hit a key Sarasota sight for sunset - Siesta Key beach. But when we got to the parking lot, we found another pleasant surprise already there… another Skoolie! Obviously we had to stop and chat, and were delighted to meet the Wabi Sabi bus, a lovely mother and her children who were off exploring their way through this country together. Victoria was kind enough to invite us to follow them back to Cracker Barrel for the night, and we were excited to try our first foray into free camp living with our new friends. We ended up loving our stay at the Cracker Barrel, although our lack of curtains made for some bright sleeping, so we knew we needed to make some of those. The discovery that overnight parking was more abundant than we thought really was such an exciting and encouraging fact, and it really eased my anxieties regarding planning.
The next few days were spent exploring what the Sarasota area had to offer. Since our Cracker Barrel was in Venice, a little south of Sarasota, this put us in a perfect spot to swing by the Brohard Dog Park. We had some difficulty finding the correct address (it's incorrect on Google, check here for the most up to date information on the park) but, once we did, Reese and Winston really enjoyed running around in the sand and dipping their paws in the gulf waters. It was nice to get these silly boys a chance to stretch their paws and get to enjoy some of what Florida had to offer!
I had traveled to Sarasota with my friend, Sweeney, a few years ago, and she introduced me to the Sarasota Jungle Gardens and a love of flamingos. I knew that if we were returning to the area, that had to be a stop! It was a great pandemic attraction, since it was almost entirely outside.
We took a beautiful stroll through the Palms on Parade, where they played host to about 100 different species of palms! Out of the 4,000 or so species of palms in the world, these species were best suited to the Florida environments. I had no idea there were so many different varieties! But the highlight of the visit were the free roaming flamingos, their bright pink feathers dotting the beautiful green landscapes. And remember to bring your quarters - there’s a food dispenser so you can feed them from the palm of your hand! I find flamingos to be such beautiful and fascinating animals. Between their vibrant colors, their interesting leg poses, and their beady eyes, it’s always such a delight to be amongst these strange little fellows.
The gardens also feature some gators, peacocks, and petting zoo goats, as well as animal meet and greets. On my last visit, I got to hold a skunk and a baby gator! We had missed the animal meet times on this trip, but we did still get to see the baby gators swimming around in their tanks.
We attempted another sunset at Siesta Key, but the beaches were a little crowded for our comfort and so we just enjoyed a stroll on the soft, white sands the beach is famous for. Down by the water, we found a little bee, far out of his comfort zone, so Craig gave him a ride back to the lovely yellow flowers that line the outskirts of the beach. For this evening on our trip, we headed to a Harvest Host stop for the night, where we found fridges full of beer for our choosing. Nothing like a refreshing cold beer after a warm Florida day!
The next day was Craig’s birthday and I had a great kayak trip planned, through the mangroves at Lido Key! We launched with the dogs from Lido Key, but found out afterward the beach isn’t dog-friendly, even for launching, so keep that in mind. A very nice ranger recommended launching from Bird Key in the future, but it’s a bit more of a trip to get out to the mangrove forests from there. But once we were out on the water, Winston resumed his job as cutest kayak guide and was much admired by all we encountered. This was a gorgeous trip through the mangroves, the tunnels were delightful and cool on the sunny, warm day. It was so interesting, winding our way through the mazes of tunnels out on to the open bays, seeing the water wildlife in the shallow waters (we saw a starfish!), and wondering at these magnificent saltwater trees. What strange adaptations these trees have evolved into to survive on the salty coastlines. They have complex salt-filtration systems and tangled roots you can see above the waterline to handle the ever changing coastal tides. This makes them essential for managing coastlines, as they provide stability and strength to prevent erosion from ocean waters.
After a delightful morning on the water, we took a break to enjoy some cold coffee in downtown Sarasota. Since Craig is a big coffee lover, we hit up two different coffee shops for him to try on his birthday. But coffee just wasn’t hitting the spot on this hot day, and the dogs could use a nice walk. So how lucky were we to find the dog-friendly Bayfront Park right next to O’Leary’s Tiki Bar! We took a stroll around the park and then settled into a nice bayfront table to enjoy some cold drinks in the sunshine. It was a picturesque pitstop, sipping tropical drinks under a palm tree by the water.
We finished out the birthday celebrations with pizza and beer at our Harvest Host. This spot was another bright stop, so curtains really got bumped up the to-do list. But we enjoyed indulging in some beers and being able to stroll right back to our home. This Harvest Host was a little crowded, too, but it was nice to meet and chat with some of our neighbors!
The next morning we were heading out of Sarasota, so we headed out to Siesta Key for breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe. We found this chain on a visit to Nashville, and fell in love with their biscuit beignets (a must-try with their orange marmalade!), so when we saw there was another one so close, it was a no-brainer to stop for breakfast. We headed back out through Bird Key, taking another pitstop for a waterfront stroll where we saw dolphins splashing around in the water! A magical goodbye, and with a storm moving in over the water, we said our farewells to the gulf and Sarasota and headed back to our Ocala home base.
Sarasota was a beautiful visit, especially with the gorgeous weather we had for amazing mangrove kayaking. I can’t recommend visiting Lido Key enough and spending a morning meandering through the mangrove mazes. Sarasota Jungle Gardens was a fun, family friendly adventure for an afternoon to check out some interesting warm-weather flora and animals. And for some more adult fun, a cold drink on a warm afternoon at a tiki bar is also a Sarasota delight!
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