Nature on Anna Maria Island

The beauty of God's creation was truly evident:

Lots of birds ...

water ...

shells ...

sea life ...

plants ...

sunsets ...

Praise the Lord!

Anna Maria Island (Spring Break 2013)

Now I see why so many people travel to Florida for spring break! This year I joined the mass exodus from west Michigan and flew to sunny Florida on April 1. We left the Chicago airport on a cloudy, cool morning and emerged from Tampa's airport a few hours later to sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s. What a wonderful difference! After getting our rental car, we drove about an hour to Anna Maria Island on the gulf coast, right near Bradenton.

We stayed at the Tradewinds Resort in the middle of the island. The beach was right across the street and the dock was on the bay. The cottages were simple, but charming. And I loved all the palm trees. The biggest thing I noticed was all the green in Florida.

We had a nice mix of relaxing time vs. activities. I spent about an hour on Tuesday morning hiking at a little park - Coquina Bay Walk - at the southern end of the island. Saw mangrove trees, several birds, lots of plants, and even talked with a little lizard. 

On Wednesday morning I took a kayak tour at Emerson Point Preserve with Shan-T Kayak Tours. We spent about 3 hours kayaking through mangrove tunnels, out on the bay, and in a little cove. It was awesome! The water was so clear we could see sea stars, sponges, and various fish among other sea life. Our guide was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot, including information about conch and sea cucumber - he also took our pictures while we held these interesting species of sea life! This was probably my favorite experience of the week (and only my second time kayaking).

Later in the week we visited the Southeastern Guide Dog School to pet some puppies and then visited the Mote Aquarium. After attending the Sea Lion show I got my picture taken with the sea lions!

We spent time just relaxing, both at the pool (and at our "sister" resort down the road after our pool was closed for repair) and at the beach. I also spent quite a bit of time sitting on the dock by the bay, searching for dolphins or manatees. Apparently I just missed a group of 5 dolphins swimming under the dock the day before, so I spent 4 hours the next afternoon waiting for them to return. Of course they didn't. But I did spend about 20 minutes conversing with a new friend. (We did see one dolphin swimming out on the north side of the island one evening.)

We enjoyed a nice dinner (and sunset) at the City Pier restaurant our first evening on the island.

What a wonderful, relaxing week! I think I like this idea of escaping going to Florida during spring break!

Thanks, mom and dad, for going with me.

The Posts I Haven't Been Able To Write

I've had great intentions of writing several posts during the last month but haven't been able to because of:

a. being overwhelmed with other things that had to be done

b. getting sick (at a most inconvenient time)

c. having very slow internet during spring break with filters that prevented me from accessing many websites on my computer (including Facebook, YouTube, and anything with blogspot in the URL (meaning I couldn't access my own blog).

And now I'd rather post sunny spring break photos and write about sunny days. So, here is the abbreviated version of those other posts that didn't get written during March.

Customer Service

I spent two days in Detroit attending an educator technology conference with several colleagues from my school. We had a great time and learned/shared a lot with other teachers. We were really excited to stay at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center along the river. Unfortunately we had several difficulties: they had overbooked and so we didn't have the type of room we had requested, the ceiling light didn't work, and there was a problem with the boiler which left the water freezing (ice-cold showers - not so fun). There were two redeeming factors in the situation, however. The first was the incredible view. Our room looked onto the river and city with a huge window (the whole wall). We enjoyed the view at night with all the lights and also saw a beautiful sunrise in the morning. 

However, the beautiful view alone would not have been enough that I'd recommend the hotel. What really saved our experience was the employees we met who did everything they could to make our experience better. The head valet man (not sure what his actual job title is) helped us find the parking lot late at night, the receptionist at the front desk apologized for the room and gave us a free buffet breakfast, and the restaurant manager made a special order of french toast for us. Everyone we met who worked there were so polite and kind. Even now, a month later, I smile when I think of Jerome coming to our table with a beautiful plate of hot french toast, garnished with strawberries.

Let It Go

     The last week of March was incredible busy. With parent-teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday evening, my students had to finish their conference booklets on Monday as I do student-led conferences. We also had an Idita-Read reading party Monday afternoon that I had planned and a Passover Seder with the second graders and invited parents on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday was the last day of school before spring vacation, which I had not even thought about packing for yet.  Definitely not a good time to be sick. 

     When I initially began feeling sick on Saturday night, I tried to convince myself it was just a little bug and I'd be fine: "I can't be sick until Wednesday!" But by Sunday afternoon (and a visit to Urgent Care) I had to finally give in and let everything go. "Sometimes" things are out of our control. They had the reading party without me. The kids did other work that week and we finished the conference booklets after vacation. Both our Passover Seder and parent/teacher/student conferences were rescheduled and done this past week. Although I hated being sick (and making everything up after vacation), it was a good reminder that flexibility is key in all of life.

April Fool

My parents and I flew out of Chicago on Monday, April 1 for a southern spring break. Destination: Anna Maria Island, right on the gulf near Tampa, Florida. It was fitting that we left on April 1 for two reasons: due to a mix-up with the car rental agency (Hertz - never call their corporate line, always deal with a local office!), we ended up taking an expensive taxi ride to a location that was not near the airport. (Although the workers there were also nice and apologetic - good customer service.) By the time we finally got to the island we were ready for supper. We took the island trolley to the City Pier restaurant and found we'd have to wait about an hour to be seated. After waiting quite a while and noticing that others who arrived after we did were being seated, we asked how long it would be. The hostess couldn't find our name at first and then realized she had crossed it out without ever calling us. The manager apologized and seated us; we ended up having a wonderful dinner (probably my favorite restaurant on the island). Again, it came down to good customer service.

O.K. - I guess I'm all caught up now. Time to think about sunny, warm spring break in Florida!