December 4th
Venice Yacht Club was awesome! The cruise from Sarasota to Venice was a beautiful 18.4 miles. Venice is one of my favorites so far. Right across the street from the beach. You can even hear the waves from the marina. Dock master Myles is very accommodating and friendly. Donzi loved walking all over this town. Adeline’s Nana and Granddad used to live here and she recalled eating at the Crows Nest restaurant a few times. It’s located right on the inlet. We biked to Ace Hardware for some Christmas light accessories we plan to string on our new ladder. We are en route to Useppa Island club now. 37 miles south of Venice. For about 15 miles we were on a narrow man made part of the ICW with a bike path on either side the whole way. There are lots of manatees and not much marine traffic. Week day ICW runs are the best. Stand by.
We arrived to Useppa Island Club Wednesday afternoon around 2 PM. We docked at the main dock in front of the dock office. Our friend George got us two nights here under his membership. This is a 150 acre island that is like being back in the 1920s. There are no cars here it’s only walking or using a golf cart. This place is stunning. The tropical foliage is amazing, the homes are beautiful and the grounds have been upkept to the tee. It feels like we have the whole island to ourselves. We enjoyed a nice walk all the way around the whole island one morning. We saw a lot of interesting things and could really appreciate the quiet way of life here. Only about a handful of residents reside here full time and we were lucky to meet some of them. There is no police to worry about here, no noise and no drama-just classic island time at its finest. The Caloosa Indians used to inhabit here. Tomorrow we are headed to Cabbage key which is right across the ICW just .8 miles away.
We checked out of Useppa Island late so that we could enjoy the museum the morning of our departure (Friday). We eased on over to Cabbage Key smoothly and got a great spot just below the famous restaurant here. This island is beautiful like Useppa but more of a woodsy feel and a little less tropical. We enjoyed a nice walk and climb up to the top of the water tower which offered incredible views. Dinner was something we were very much looking forward to because I remembered how good it was on my first time coming through here. Supposedly this is where Jimmy Buffett wrote “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” The restaurant is also famous for their stone crab claws. We were a little disappointed to find out they were all sold out of those but the smoked salmon appetizer we got instead was very satisfying so we quickly got over that. The next morning we got up and headed towards Cape Coral (Saturday).
Pura Vida Loop 