Next to Last Summer Weekend - Myakka State Park

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost gone.  WHEW!  And also hard to believe that this coming weekend will mark the sixth anniversary of my move to St. Pete.  Time flies when one is having soooooo much fun.

To begin the weekend, Steve and I went to one of our favorite cafes, Meze 119 Bistro.  It's Middle Eastern vegetarian and the food is delicious.

On Saturday we took a trip down to Myakka River State Park which is just east of Sarasota.  Since Steve moved here from San Francisco early this year, and being a park ranger in a previous life, he hasn't been to many places outside of St. Pete and was craving an outing to an area where he could see some of Florida's natural ecological systems.  And I can't say I've seen too many either beyond St. Pete proper.

It was a short drive to the Park.  It was magnificent!  It was amazingly quiet.  You could hear a whisper from a distance.  Those black buzzards in the tree could overhear our whispered conversation very easily.  :-)

We went to the Canopy Walkway which is suspended 25 feet about the ground and extends 100 feet through the hammock canopy.  A tower soars 74 feet in the air at one end, "to present a spectacular view of treetops, wetlands and the prairie/hammock interface.  You can look down on eagles, hawks, vultures and the tops of live oaks and palm trees."

We spent several hours there, then headed over to Siesta Key to have some dinner.  We made a pit stop for gas and some refreshments (a Big Gulp and a Slurpee!) on the way.  We walked around the Siesta Key Village for a little and had dinner at The Hub before heading back to St. Pete.

Sometime in the near future, we'd like to pack a picnic lunch and head back to the park.