Mo Green
12-10-2004, 04:34
Apologies for those of you who have already read some of this under my trip report but it has been suggested that I also put a report under Gulf Coast.
After driving 1500 miles in 9 days down the East Coast, it was enjoyable just to relax by our pool and spend a few lazy days re-visiting some of our favorite local spots:-
Stump Pass Beach looking for shells and sharks teeth while watching the sun go down. The storm which greeted our arrival in Rotonda West had thrown up lots of empty shells including a huge shell of a horseshoe crab which looked like something alien sitting on the beach. Further along the beach a large piece of driftwood has been decorated with shells.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Mo Green/2004923183535_StumpPassBeach.jpg
Stump Pass Beach with usual crowds!
Don Pedro Island – a fairly cloudy day so, carrying drinks and a picnic (there are no shops), we caught the local ferry and walked to the beach stopping to watch a gopher tortoises cross the sandy track. We walked down to the Nature Reserve on the southernmost tip of the island then walked back along the deserted beach with our own private dolphin ‘show’ a few yards away. We hardly saw another person from the time we left the ferry until the time we got back on it but this is definitely not a trip for a very hot day.
Punta Gorda – the lovely old town with sidewalks and unusually ‘kerbside’ parking. (How much of this has since been damaged by Hurricane Charley I don’t know) then onto nearby Fishermen’s Village for lunch at the restaurant at the end of the pier. On the way back down the pier we could not resist a present from the Gadget shop for our gadget mad son-in-law and finally we found just the right picture for the great room in our villa.
Gasparilla Island – olde worlde Florida – we drove into the main old town of Boca Grande for quaint shops, nice restaurants. Visited the Loose Caboose café and had some of their homemade ice cream reckoned to be the best in Florida. The laid back attitude of the island shows in some of the local street names - Damifiwill St., Damificare St. and Damifino St. On our drive around the island, being careful of the locals who drive around in golf-buggies, we spotted a couple of Iguanas then as we left Boca Grande we were lucky enough to see Osprey feeding their young in nests on tall nesting poles right beside the road.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Mo Green/2004923183654_Ospreynest.JPG
Old Englewood – quaint with antique shops
Port Charlotte – for retail therapy - shops, shops, and more shops!
No trip is complete without a trip to our favorite restaurants:-
Tiffanys - for breakfast (where else!), where the locals go for brunch after church on Sunday.
Lickety Split Café - stuck in a 1950’s time warp! Great for snacks and ice cream. Try the sweet-potato fries with sugar and cinnamon, yummy.
Sharkeys beside the pier in Venice where the waves lap on the beach just yards from the table
Rum Bay restaurant on Palm Island – caught the water taxi from Placida Marina. We are hooked on their delicious home-made bread and honey butter and always eat far too much before our order arrives! As usual, at sunset, we caught the last water taxi back from Rum Bay to the mainland and were delighted to be followed by dolphins.
This time we seemed to see far more of the local wild life. With Rotonda West having it’s own nature reserve and still having several undeveloped plots, we had grown used to the alligator in the canal at the back of our house, turkey buzzards sitting on the roof on ‘garbage’ collection day, watching the family of raccoons play on the opposite bank, fire-flies attracted by our pool lights at dusk and chasing off the armadillo who is determined to burrow into our lawn but we were really excited, on driving past a Nature Reserve, to see an American Bald Eagle fishing from a small lake only a few yards from the main road. We knew that Eagles nested there, although that part of the Reserve is strictly out of bounds in nesting season
After driving 1500 miles in 9 days down the East Coast, it was enjoyable just to relax by our pool and spend a few lazy days re-visiting some of our favorite local spots:-
Stump Pass Beach looking for shells and sharks teeth while watching the sun go down. The storm which greeted our arrival in Rotonda West had thrown up lots of empty shells including a huge shell of a horseshoe crab which looked like something alien sitting on the beach. Further along the beach a large piece of driftwood has been decorated with shells.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Mo Green/2004923183535_StumpPassBeach.jpg
Stump Pass Beach with usual crowds!
Don Pedro Island – a fairly cloudy day so, carrying drinks and a picnic (there are no shops), we caught the local ferry and walked to the beach stopping to watch a gopher tortoises cross the sandy track. We walked down to the Nature Reserve on the southernmost tip of the island then walked back along the deserted beach with our own private dolphin ‘show’ a few yards away. We hardly saw another person from the time we left the ferry until the time we got back on it but this is definitely not a trip for a very hot day.
Punta Gorda – the lovely old town with sidewalks and unusually ‘kerbside’ parking. (How much of this has since been damaged by Hurricane Charley I don’t know) then onto nearby Fishermen’s Village for lunch at the restaurant at the end of the pier. On the way back down the pier we could not resist a present from the Gadget shop for our gadget mad son-in-law and finally we found just the right picture for the great room in our villa.
Gasparilla Island – olde worlde Florida – we drove into the main old town of Boca Grande for quaint shops, nice restaurants. Visited the Loose Caboose café and had some of their homemade ice cream reckoned to be the best in Florida. The laid back attitude of the island shows in some of the local street names - Damifiwill St., Damificare St. and Damifino St. On our drive around the island, being careful of the locals who drive around in golf-buggies, we spotted a couple of Iguanas then as we left Boca Grande we were lucky enough to see Osprey feeding their young in nests on tall nesting poles right beside the road.
http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/Data/Mo Green/2004923183654_Ospreynest.JPG
Old Englewood – quaint with antique shops
Port Charlotte – for retail therapy - shops, shops, and more shops!
No trip is complete without a trip to our favorite restaurants:-
Tiffanys - for breakfast (where else!), where the locals go for brunch after church on Sunday.
Lickety Split Café - stuck in a 1950’s time warp! Great for snacks and ice cream. Try the sweet-potato fries with sugar and cinnamon, yummy.
Sharkeys beside the pier in Venice where the waves lap on the beach just yards from the table
Rum Bay restaurant on Palm Island – caught the water taxi from Placida Marina. We are hooked on their delicious home-made bread and honey butter and always eat far too much before our order arrives! As usual, at sunset, we caught the last water taxi back from Rum Bay to the mainland and were delighted to be followed by dolphins.
This time we seemed to see far more of the local wild life. With Rotonda West having it’s own nature reserve and still having several undeveloped plots, we had grown used to the alligator in the canal at the back of our house, turkey buzzards sitting on the roof on ‘garbage’ collection day, watching the family of raccoons play on the opposite bank, fire-flies attracted by our pool lights at dusk and chasing off the armadillo who is determined to burrow into our lawn but we were really excited, on driving past a Nature Reserve, to see an American Bald Eagle fishing from a small lake only a few yards from the main road. We knew that Eagles nested there, although that part of the Reserve is strictly out of bounds in nesting season