We liked Bradenton!

We came into Bradenton on Thursday, Feb. 7th and stayed two nights at the Twin Dolphins Marina. I knew we’d like it right away as our slip assignment was F-5. That meant to me it’d be close to shore (with such a low number) and the floating docks are always a treat. We felt pretty pampered with a beautiful heated pool, hot tub and private showers. The marina provided discount coupons for the restaurant and museum and a free bag of ice a day. There’s a really nice restaurant, Mattison’s, right at the marina and we went there Thursday night. It felt very “Hawaii-like” eating outdoors, with tiki torches, live music and a view of the water. We got to use the bicycles quite a bit here. Here's the manatee fountain in front of the marina.

On Friday we toured the South Florida Museum which is about a block from the marina. Em got to see two of the planetarium shows and the feeding of the manatees. (Paul didn’t spend near as much time there as he had boat projects). There are four manatees there right now: Snooty is 59 YEARS OLD and has never lived in the “wild”; there are three 2-year old females that will be released when they are ready. Snooty totally ignores them as he doesn't know he's a manatee; the staffperson said he thinks he's a lapdog! That's romaine lettuce floating in their tank; they also eat water hyacinth and Snooty gets special treats of cabbage and apples. We see lots of signs for “manatee zones” but have never encountered any except these in the aquarium.

We saw a lot of Island Packet Sailboats being prepped for the big Miami Boat Show. They’re built near here in Largo, FL; we got to go aboard a 37ft. motor-sailor but we like our boat better! We got 11 gal. of diesel before we left; we had to wait quite awhile for a yacht to finish fueling. The dock attendant said he took on 1100 gal. of fuel. At over $3 per gal. that was quite a bill. Makes us really glad we have a sailboat. We haven’t gotten to sail all that much but we only go through about .75 gal. an hour motoring. We’d definitely recommend the Twin Dolphins Marina in Bradenton – the nicest marina we’ve stayed at for some time.