Scottishnellies Redundancy Trip Jun18. Day 5 AMI Anna Maria Beach Cottages, The Sandbar

[scottishnellie]

I slept til 7:45 👍

Kieran slept right through to 8:45am which is completely unheard of for him!

once up, showered suncreamed, & packed, we checked out at 9:45. Meant to say yesterday that there is a vending room behind the lifts and this is where you get your towels (using your room key) and free tea and coffee.

As you come out of the hotel and turn right there is an ihop 200 yards across the road and we went there for breakfast.

kieran had a spilt decision breakfast

Kevin ordered a spicy omelette

Hannah had cupcake pancakes

and I just had a French vanilla coffee, although I stole most of Kevin's hash browns

right after ihop there is a wee set of shops including publix, cvs and dollar tree. Plenty of options to get supplies for your hotel room 👍

We picked up a couple of snorkel masks for the kids and some beer and Seagrams for us. The woman asked if she could cut the corners off the packaging to make it easier for us to get in it which was appreciated!

Then we waved goodbye to St Petes and set off on the 50min drive to Anna Maria Island

We drove over the big bridge

Found Anna Maria Beach Cottages and she said the room would be ready in 15mins.

So we had a wander over the wee wooden bridge to see the beach. Wow! This place is gorgeous!

Kieran was straight into the sea

went back and went into the cottage. It's so cute! This place wasn't cheap but we were very limited as we only wanted one night. Lots of places have a 5 or 7 night minimum stay.

I also could've gotten a studio here which would have been cheaper but I had decided that by now we would want a bit of extra space with different bedrooms.

I was really happy with how homely this wee place feels. Got ourselves organised and went to the area where the hotel have chairs umbrellas and bikes for guests to use free of charge

then collected beach towels from the office and off we went back to the beach. All set up

It was now 2pm, roasting hot, and that clear blue sea was calling!

Every one of us headed for the water and we bobbed about in here for ages. The water is lovely, warm and clear and the kids with their diving masks on were able to see fish swimming past them.

Although Hannah got a shock with the first one, fleeing up out of the water spluttering ^oh my god - a big blue fish right in ma face! ^

The kids loved diving for shells

And we all had a go at bodyboarding

With varying degrees of success as you can see from my first attempt

I got the hang of it eventually. Kinda. After the kids nearly drowned from laughing at me..

The sand here is so soft. It's like walking in icing sugar. Not like any other sand I have ever felt. It's so nice to walk in!

At 4pm the kids and I walked along to Ginny and Jane Es bakery

only to find we had just missed it!

So we went to the place next door and had ice cream

then back along the road where Hannah went to the cottage to get ready and kieran and I rejoined Kevin on the beach.

after a while we crossed the bridge back to the cottage and kieran went for a dip in the hotel pool while Kevin and I kicked back on the porch with a beer

Hannah was having a very teenager day, nothing working, everything hurts, nothing fits, she hates her eyebrows. We eventually worked our way from ^Im not going out so get out of my room^ to ^Im not putting makeup on and will only come if you promise not to take any photos of me^.

Thankfully by the time she had walked along the road in the breeze chatting she had calmed down and was loving life again. And she looked lovely!

The sandbar is only a 9min walk from the cottages. We checked in with the server and were given a pager saying 1hr15 for a table on the sand, so we got a couple of drinks. I had a ^five o'clock somewhere^

and had barely started it when our pager went off. So we had only waited 15mins.

I had grilled salmon

Kevin had jambalaya

Kieran had shrimp platter

And Hannah had chicken with a pumpkin waffle

The sunset came and went, and was a bit ^meh^ in comparison to Bongos to be honest. Firstly it was more cloudy tonight.

Secondly there was so many people came down to the beach to see the sunset that it was mobbed and we couldn't see anything from our table but other folk.

It actually got better after the sunset as the beach cleared, the restaurant calmed down a bit and was all lit up pretty. The music was good too.

kieran was playing football in the sand with a wee Brazilian boy from the table behind us

and when they sang happy birthday to the boys sister the Mum passed over slices of ice cream cake to us which was so lovely

We had already ordered dessert though, so we were then eating 2 each!

I had a lychee creme brûlée and the kids had a couple of chocolate madness's. When I asked our waiter what that actually was he said ^well that's just me ma'am!). he's not wrong!

It was actually a big chocolate cake.

I wasn't sure about the creme brûlée. It had the lychees on the bottom and they tasted like big raisins to me, which I hate.

I used a coupon the lady gave us at checkin at the cottages for 2 free cocktails, moving into pina coladas.

We spent the rest of the night chatting with the Brazilian family which was pretty interesting between their accents and ours! But they were a lovely family. The dads all had to get a photo.

It was definitely nicer as the night went on and it got quieter. The food was nice enough, the later atmosphere was great, but I wouldn't rush here to enjoy the sunset - too busy.

We've had an absolutely amazing day on the beach here and I wish it was more than just one night in AMI. Next time x

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New Photo Added by scottishnellie - 23 Jun 18 4:40 AM.

[HevaDuck]

Wow it just looks fabulous what amazing memories you are making

[Taffy1959]

That's my idea of paradise it looks amazing.

Looking forward to reading tomorrow's installment

[Tigger71]

Wow - never been but want to go now!

[Cinderella]

What a pretty cottage!

[yellowrose78]

Wow this sounds like bliss! The cottage looks lovely, and the beach looks fab. Sounds like a brilliant night too, apart from it being busy, lots of great photos too

[Gryff]

Looks lovely

[jo williams]

my absolute favourite place, 10 days every year for the last 3 just love it.

[jacqui]

Another great day, love Kiearan's 'flamingo' shirt.