What are the chances?

Yesterday we visited Venice and Venice Beach.  We had been there previously and really liked the area.  It was another beautiful day and it was much closer than I remembered; North on Rt. 41 for about 45 minutes.  We did stop along the way at a little florist and ordered flowers for one of my best friends, Su, who is in the hospital, yet again.

Venice is a great little town that was originally planned as a retirement area by the railroad prior to the Great Depression.  It was called Venice because of all the canals in the area, so nearly every property has water access.  There is a really neat historic district with palm lined streets and lots of little shops and restaurants.

We left our car in the beach parking lot, which offers FREE parking.  I don't think there is a beach lot in the State of Maine that is FREE.  This not only allows FREE parking, but has very nice restrooms and a small concession area.  And the parking is FREE for however long you want to stay!  and they have lifeguards.

 (photo by Mr. Bill's camera)

The beach is very nice and deeper than Stump Pass Beach.  The shelling is better here, too. 

 

There were flocks of birds sitting on the beach, which would mean that there was lots of bird **** on the beach too I would imagine.

 

Look at this pretty seagull.  

We stayed in the sun for about 2 1/2 hours, which wasn't terribly comfortable because of the yucky chairs we were still using; however, we perservered.

Mr. Bill decided that we needed to walk (as he continues his mission) so we headed down the sidewalk, not knowing where we would end up.  After 30 minutes, which is usually when we turn around, we came to a very nice park.  There was a sign indicating Casey's Pass which became part of the Intracoastal Waterway System in the 1960's.  This one is looking back to where the first photo in this post was taken.  If you double click on that first photo you can see the jetty in the background.

 

 We proceeded to walk to the end of the jetty and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was paved so we didn't have to jump from rock to rock like the jetty at Drake's Island.  We were standing at the end enjoying the great weather and the view and Mr. Bill noticed that the woman standing next to us was wearing this...

 the exact same Acadia t-shirt.  Hence the post title "What are the chances?"  We stuck up a conversation with Judy Brown and her husband, Cubby.  They live in Maine near Ellsworth and own an appliance store.  Too funny!

Before returning home we stopped in the historic district for something to eat at T. J. Carney's, a nice Irish bar and grill.  I also spent a few minutes in a little quilt shop down the street.  

Today we drove the other direction, south to Sanibel and Captiva Islands.  There was quite a bit of damage suffered from Hurricane Charley but it wasn't evident today.  In fact, there were a number of times when our jaws fell open as we gazed upon HUGE houses.  We just kept wondering why people needed such ostentatious places to live.

We discovered that they really don't want many people using the public beaches as there were, maybe, 20 parking places.  We drove to the end of Captiva only to find the parking lot full and several cars waiting for a space.  From there we drove back up the coast to another lot, same situation.  We crossed the bridge back onto Sanibel and found a place in the tiny lot there.  $2 per hour to park, still cheaper than Drake's but we did have to walk back over the bridge to the restroom. 

We stayed a couple of hours.  It was very quiet, there were piles of shells and the sand was finer, more like Maine.  The temp was near 75*, not a cloud in the sky.  We were much more comfortable today because we stopped at the BIG K-Mart and bought these top of the line, $40 beach chairs...

 

They are beautiful, aren't they?  They are backpack chairs so we can store our towels and they have their own pillow and cup holder!  I actually think that for the price they should come with their own cabana boy serving drinks, too.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)