A little word association for our recent stops in Venice FL
and Boca Grande FL: Both are expensive retreats for wealthy snowbirds. Both are
small marinas. Both have good food.
Let’s review the chart we received at the AGLCA Rendesvous
in Rogersville AL in October:
The place we are traveling now is in the blue section filled
with old rich people. We are in the heart of old rich people territory. They are everywhere. We don’t fit quite yet. We aren’t
old and we aren’t rich. We are just passing through. But keep this in mind as we describe Venice and Boca Grande. I think it is only going to get worse too.
The waterway between Sarasota and Venice was quaint. Here is a swing bridge we encountered along the way:
More scenery along the waterway as we came upon Venice:
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| Crows Nest Marina from the water as we entered |
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| Venice Inlet |
We liked this home on the way between Sarasota and Venice. It is empty spec home. This is what homes here look like to me:
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| Ludington |
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| Venice |
We arrived in Venice FL on Saturday Jan 5. Lately most days are sunny and breezy, starting out crisp in the morning and turning warm in the afternoon. Mostly clear skies with lots of stars in the night. We stayed at Crows Nest right on the Venice Inlet at the south end of Venice off the south Jetty. This marina is quite small but very nice. This is the view from the marina.
It is pretty clear why the pelicans like this spot. There are fish everywhere in the water. Gazillions of them. We snapped these photos of ribbons of sheepshead right at our dock. They jumped now and then too. Probably a bad idea for the fish but delightful for the pelicans. A few words about expenses: This section of Florida is pressing the edges of our budget in so many ways. Marinas here are consistently over $2.00 per foot, some as high as $2.75 or $3.00 per foot per might. Boca Grande was $3.25 per foot a night. The odd part is most of the marinas we visit are less than half full. Sometimes we are the only boats in the marina. I guess other people think it is expensive and are staying away. Or there are just not that many boaters any more.
The expense issue for us is sort of the same as food and weight. If you always eat like it is Thanksgiving you will get fat. If you eat like Thanksgiving once in a while you can eat lots of salad to compensate and you won't gain weight. We are traveling in a very expensive section right now (the old rich people, remember?). These prices are pushing our budget in a big way. We try to arrange special deals off of Facebook or our boating associations to reduce the prices. Sometimes we can negotiate a weekly rate cheaper than paying for individual nights. We will also anchor out to balance the costs. We eat on the boat or eat out at lunch and on the boat for dinner. We are managing the overall costs but the daily costs down here are shocking.
Back to Venice: Crows Nest restaurant was always mentioned when we asked locals for the best restaurant.
We ate at the restaurant one night and sure enough it was really good. Judy and I split an order of snow crab claws caught right in the water outside of the marina. Delicious and quite a treat. Very sweet. Splitting the meal not only held down the cost of these expensive gems but helped on portion control too (also a problem lately).
We rode our bikes into town about 10 blocks away. The statue
animals here are turtles and dolphins. Along the way we enjoyed the beautiful
scenery – big houses, lots of condos, waterfront views.
This barber shop was closed but look at the cool way they decorate!
And Venice has a Kilwin's. Turn on that smellovision again because this carmel corn smelled great!
Kermit pulled a muscle in his back while washing the boat in
Sarasota. At first it was just a nagging ache, not a big problem. While we were
having lunch at TJ Carneys (great turkey sandwich with coleslaw and Russian dressing
for me and Reuben for Kermit), Kermit’s back really started to knot up. We
decided to take a quick detour to the local YMCA, a short cab ride away to exercise out the problem. . So we
left Judy and Mike to shop while we went to the Y.
It was beautiful with a huge
cardio machine area and a great free
weights section. They had a huge Olympic sized pool. Kermit was able to stretch
and strengthen the back and ab muscles nicely. I had a great workout too. We
hopped back in the taxi and went back to the downtown to find Mike and Judy and
our bikes. 
On our way home we took the scenic route through a nice
residential neighborhood. Since it was Sunday we took advantage of a few open
houses. We saw the cutest little 2 bedroom house for sale on the non-water side of the street. Isn't it cute? I would take it in a
minute. The owner was showing it. It was probably a flip. He pulled a number
out of his butt, $499k. I suspect we could have gotten it for much less!! But
we are not old enough and not rich enough and not ready to settle down
anywhere!! |
| This is the view of the yard, all shady and Florida-ee |
Rusty enjoyed long walks down the south jetty to the Gulf.
There are these really cool condos across from the marina, the Jetty Villas. I
would live there too!! These little villas have 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. They meander around in a haphazard yet pleasing arrangement around a common pool with some looking over the marina and some looking over the Gulf. Someday when we are much older and richer!!We never miss a chance to do maintenance and Venice was no exception. Even little things. Mike changed the Virginia state flag that was getting a little tattered so he climbed up to the tipy top of his boat. It made for a good photo op:
One afternoon we noticed a fire truck and EMS truck pull up and just sit there. Then we noticed a center consol drift in with lots of smoke coming out of the outboard motors. Later on the news we learned this was a big story. The engines caught fire with a family on board. The guy put the fire out but experienced some burns. The fire department was there to meet them. It was a lot more exciting on the news than it was at the dock.
We left Venice on Monday 1/7, another sunny windy warm day,
to travel a short distance to Boca Grande FL. This is the ritziest place we've been to yet. It doesn’t look
it. Lots of nice old rich people here. Good ice cream. Friendly people. Dog
friendly. Very manicured and yet not crowded.Every town has pink garbage cans doesn't it? Boca Grande does!
The walk downtown is filled with these big houses along canals and the IWW or golf courses. But the town itself is sleepy and tired looking. The wide streets are mostly empty.Mike and Judy had friends come to visit, Jim and Peggy. They joined us for a walk around the town to visit shops. This town looks like any number of small towns we visited along the rivers with the main street a few blocks long, built around an old railroad track turned into a bike trail, close to the water. Only these houses are multi-million dollar homes and the town is purposely down scale.
There are no gas stations in Boca Grande so many residents use golf carts. Since there are few cars, most people walk but you can go blocks without seeing other people.
The statues here are tarpons. Evidently this is big tarpon country with one the biggest prizes on the fishing circuit for the tarpon tournament held every year. They are also big on conservation, especially of tarpon. |
| Jim at the grocery store with the pink gas pump |
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| The Loose Caboose - we went there for lunch |
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| Like most towns, the old railroad tracks are now a bike trail |
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| This is the best restaurant in town - we didn't go there - looks pretty fancy, huh? |
We stopped in the local park. This doesn't look like any park I've been to. Funding provided by the local garden club. |
| L: Peggy, Judy, Kermit in the park |
We stayed at the Boca Grande Marina at the foot of the main
road leading to the “downtown”, actually a little crossroad. Our little 36 foot
boat (imagine thinking that our boat is little?) was dwarfed by the 53 foot
Hattaras next to us (a unique orange trim too – very chichi... or goofy... whatever), the brand new 65’ Marquis "Four Orrs" across from us with the blue lower portion, and the 134’ Trinity "Hilarium" next to the
Marquis all made us look tiny.
And we were docked next to Mike and Judy’s 50’
Viking. I thought we would grow moss we were so dwarfed by these big boats. This marina costs $3.25 per foot per night, more than we paid in Chicago even. See what I mean about expenses? At least this small marina was full.The pictures even feel crowded. The bad part of this very nice marina was it faced northeast. And the wind blew all night from the northeast directly into the marina slapping the heck out of our bows. We bounced and swayed all night. Judy and Mike couldn't sleep in their forward cabin. They slept in the salon instead because the slapping was so noisy. I was writing for The Interview Doctor and almost got seasick. I had to go to bed. Even then it felt like I was drunk and wanted the room to stop spinning. It was not fun at this marina at night. In the day though it was calm as could be.
The marina bar and restaurant was very expensive. The least expensive meal at the bar was the hot dog for $9.50. A BLT was $11.50 and a hamburger was $14.00. At dinner the fish special each night was routinely $36. The restaurant on the second floor required a coat and tie. I didn't have the heart to look at the menu or the prices. Needless to say we did not go there.
Everything was expensive. I snapped a photo of the real estate window. The local real estate is offered by Sotheby's. That ought to give you a clue about real estate values. The cheapest property displayed was a vacant lot for $375,000. Every home was over $1 million. Even little condos at the far ends of the island were over $400k. Can you see this beauty about 7 short blocks from the marina offered at $12 million. This is quite some place. It is fun to be a little mouse in such a fancy place.
On the second day we overheard the captain of the 134’ Trinity
say to Parker the dock hand (naturally his name was Parker) that he was stuck in the mud. He would have to
leave the marina to anchor out then ferry his clients back and forth. Such
problems. We were trying to sort the owners from the captains and having some trouble doing it. I think the Hattaras had a captain. Either that or there were two men and a woman on that boat. Hard to tell.
On Monday night we went to the marina bar to watch the BCS Championship. We overheard the wait staff talking about how George W. Bush had been in the other night. Yes, you heard me, the former President. Evidently he said to them, "Hello darlin, how you doin'?". They weren't even giggling about it. Everyday they see folks like him. This is not any old little town. I was not Bush fan but it is still pretty cool that the former President hung out at the same bar we did and acted like a regular person having a beer. Isn't that funny?
Kermit’s back was hurting again. Along our walk we passed a
small facility offering massage so we went in.Turns out Jake could take Kermit right away. He performed a kind of stretching to loosen the muscles in his hips. It worked for a while.I thought you might enjoy these photos of Kermit getting tortured by Jake
Later than night the pain came back but for a few hours Kermit was pain free.
Jim and Peggy took us on a car ride around the island to the lighthouse.
Then an exquisite dinner at South Beach Bar & Grill, a beach side restaurant where we watched the sunset.
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| L: Peggy, Mike, Judy at the restaurant before dinner |
Dinner was so good. Unbelievably good. I had an appetizer, Limoncello Shrimp, because I didn't want anything too heavy. The shrimp were perfectly cooked in butter and shallots with a splash of limoncello to give it flavor. I could have eaten a pound. I could have licked the plate. I wish I licked the plate!!Mike even had a cocktail and he doesn't drink. Actually it is Kermit's mission to get Mike to drink alcohol and eat meat. I think it is working!
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| Mike and Jim |
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| I think the whole town came out |
Sure enough at 2pm the president of Mote Marine Laboratory
and a bunch of dignitaries including Laura Bush, Porter Goss, Connie Mack, and
a bunch of others streamed out of the building along with two secret service
agents. The festivities began in full hot sunshine. The master of ceremonies
kept calling her "Barbara Bush", kind of a jerky thing to do.
One interesting part of Boca Grande was since it is a small town, even if the entire town came out for this grand opening to see Laura Bush, we still stood about 20 feet away from her. It was very friendly and congenial. Downright neighborly. And very casual.
Laura Bush gave a nice speech about how important conservation has been to President Bush and how much the family enjoys their month long time in Boca every January. I guess they rent a house on the island. And by the way according to Laura President George Bush Sr. is doing find, out of intensive care and soon to come home.
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| The lady with the pink jacket was at our marina. She is a trustee of MOTE |
One interesting part of Boca Grande was since it is a small town, even if the entire town came out for this grand opening to see Laura Bush, we still stood about 20 feet away from her. It was very friendly and congenial. Downright neighborly. And very casual.
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| Notice the secret service lady on the right? She had a male companion who stood next to Mike in the back. |
Laura Bush gave a nice speech about how important conservation has been to President Bush and how much the family enjoys their month long time in Boca every January. I guess they rent a house on the island. And by the way according to Laura President George Bush Sr. is doing find, out of intensive care and soon to come home.
The crowd was filled with Republicans – old white and rich. Everyone was nice to us and a good time was had by all!!
Next stop: South Seas Island Plantation Captiva Island for three days (we got a three for two day deal!).
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