To avoid the crowds, we opted for an early to mid-week stay-cation, renting a dog-friendly home on the Island in October. The colorful beach cottage has been completely renovat- ed with all modern appliances, fixtures, flooring and furniture. Clean and bright, the home is tastefully decorated with beach-themed art and thoughtfully stocked with plush linens, pillows, towels and robes. The kitchen is completely equipped as well – just bring food, beverages and ice.
When making the reservations
Photos above: Our Anna Maria Island cottage. Below: Angel and another beautiful sky at sunset.
through Island Real Estate, I forgot to request a fenced-in yard for the dogs. This forced us to take walks with the dogs, where we discovered, among other things, a park bench overlooking the bay, just a few yards from our rental. Sitting there with my best friend of 38 years and our three dogs, this became a place of Zen for all of us. The barely audible sound of a breeze whispered through the old Australian Pine Tree that shaded us. The combination of salt air and waves gently lapping up towards us was transforming. We practiced learning how to breath deep again. What's more, the dogs were enjoying the new experiences, including their first time watching pelicans swoop in to dive for fish. As vacations go, this one was
pretty uneventful. And that’s a good thing, considering what we had been through the month before - the death of my mother and Hurricane Irma. We agreed to make no plans on this trip, other than where we would treat ourselves each evening for dinner (and treat ourselves, we did). The days were spent napping, reading and walking to that park bench on the water. In actuality, this was all quite the
opposite of what I had originally planned: a working getaway. It would include writing thoughts in a journal for an upcoming feature, meeting dogs and listening to their humans tell stories about them, while taking lots of photographs. The thing is, I didn't even feel like picking up my camera. The scenery, while beautiful
70 THE NEW BARKER
and relaxing, did not inspire creativity in the least. This, I realized, was a severe case of burnout. Quiet obser- vation was in order, in hopes of restoring something lost. “Forever is composed of nows,” wrote Emily Dickinson. We enjoyed watching dogs
taking their humans on walks through residential neighborhoods and quaint shopping districts. Some rode alongside their humans in one of the many golf carts tooling around town. Most folks had more than one dog with them, so we felt pretty comfortable with our crew of three. There was always a steady stream of humans and dogs walking to and from Anna Maria Bayfront Park, a dog-friendly park on the northern tip of the island and in view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was about a block up from where we were staying. There
are
picnic tables under a pavilion, a couple of grills, water and electric. The streets are lined with older
Florida ranch homes, mixed in with larger, usually two-story, newer homes. There are plenty of restau- rants and cafes serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to satisfy almost everyone’s palette. Our favorite for coffee and breakfast is Ginny’s & Jane E’s Island Bakery, Cafe and Store. It’s in a converted IGA Grocery Store. Go for the food and walk off your breakfast checking out all of the antiques, one-of-a-kind handcrafted merchandise and local artwork inside the store. For lunch, we enjoyed fresh
seafood at the Sandbar Seafood & Spirits, overlooking the sparkling Gulf of Mexico. Our special date night, sans the dogs, was an incompa- rably, wonderful dinner at the award- winning Beach Bistro. Our server told us about the King Tide, explain- ing that the unexpected but natural phenomenon caused heavy flooding across the island. It happened just a few days before our arrival to the island, which explained the water- logged grounds, sea debris and pockets of standing water in some areas.
www.TheNewBarker.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
