The Hendo's Dream Florida Holiday... Take Two - Day 6... Anna Maria Island & Captain Fins boat trip

[sophsters]

Day 6 was Anna Maria Island day! Yay! After speaking to others on the Dibb i made the choice to go here for our beach day, and we werent dissapointed. I had looked online to find a boat tour and came across Captain Fin on facebook, and decided to book a trip with him to see if we could spot some dolphins or manatees.

We had breakfast at the villa, Marc was wanting the rest of his white castle micro burgers but i managed to distract him with a croissant and we hit the road about 9am for the nearly 2 hour drive to Anna Maria Island. I love driving through the countryside and watching the horizon change to a coastal view, especially with all the palm trees. Arriving a little too early we tried to park up at the first beach we came to but it was far too busy, so we popped to Publix and got a few munchies, and sat outside eating some doughnuts.
We then drove down to Bradenton to scope out the boat ramp we were to meet and found a nice picnic area and had our lunch, watching the locals and tourists go by.

We walked over to the ramp just as Captain Fin was just pulling up and he greeted us with a big smile, while a huge blue heron sat watching the fishermen on the end of the pier!

Silly me to book a trip at 1pm... it was very very hot. The kids struggled a bit and had to sit in the shade, but after a short journey we came across a small pod of dolphins with babies feeding under the bridge. There were people trying to get very close and swim with them and the dolphins were starting to get angry, slapping their tails etc so we left them to it and went in search of manatees. He tried hard to find some for us but it wasnt to be, but we found more dolphins to watch and one even rode in the wake of the boat very briefly.

Id highly recommend taking a trip with Captian Fin, he was very friendly and full of knowledge on the area and wildlife, and it was nice it just being us on the boat.

After our lovely trip we went across the road to Bradenton beach for a swim, it was so lovely and warm! I really wanted to go to the north beach but we were so tired from the heat and swimming, that we headed home via Taco Bell for the best fast food meal ever... the double Chalupa meal so good!

Id love to come back here and see the other beaches, maybe spend a day or two... one day!