Thanksgiving 2018 on Anna Maria Island

It's Thanksgiving! Family Time!

We opted for a destination Thanksgiving and chose Anna Maria Island, Florida. I had never heard of this place until we booked the trip, then I realized that many people know of this gem and I hadn't been paying attention. We rented a nice big house to accommodate our growing family, and brought aunts, uncles and cousins together for a week of fun. While this vacation is a much needed break for me personally, I am still impatiently wading through my chemotherapy regiment. My blood counts are low, my treatment is delayed more often than it's not. While I'm not tied to a hospital bed, and I'm thankful that I can travel during this time, I still need to have my blood checked each week to see if it has crawled back up into the acceptable range. Two separate times during this week, my dad dutifully drove me to a lab in Bradenton, FL to have my counts read. Both times I failed the test. I packed the chemo pills with all intention of taking them, but my body said no, and I packed them up again when we returned home.

As far as the fun side of sightseeing goes, we had lots of adventures. We took a boat tour with Egmont Key Adventures where we immediately saw a pair of dolphins swimming around the docks. The water was a brisk, November temperature so I stayed on the boat, but Grammy, Uncle Chris and the girls were brave and got in to snorkel and hunt for sand dollars. They found lots of live sand dollars, which are just the most bizarre creatures, and a few shells too.

After exploring the underwater creatures, we rode to Egmont Key Island. This weird little island is on the National Registry of Historic Places, is a Natural Wildlife Refuge and a state park. There is a lighthouse on the island that dates back to 1848, when Robert E. Lee advised that the island be used as a strategic defense location. It was a holding place for Seminole natives to be held, a sanctuary for southern, pro-Union people during the Civil War and used as a military prison for the Union. 

Despite it's colorful, and sometimes grim history, we refer to it as Turtle Island. There are tortoises roaming the island freely - and they're everywhere! "I found a big one!" "Not as big as this one!" "Here's the grandfather giant one!!" It was fun to roam and scout for turtles on this semi-creepy, historic place.

The "big kid" cousins

I got some sweet lovin' from my big kids.

At the recommendation of a friend, we spent a day off of Anna Maria Island at the Florida Aquarium. We were told to expect a variation on your average aquarium, this facility has a focus on saving the habitat of native species and rehabilitating injured animals to prepare them for release back into the wild.  

There were tanks of colorful fish, and tanks of artificially grown coral. We saw gigantic sea turtles eat and beavers play like kids at recess. 

Uncle Chris joined, and helped Alex be brave about touching the stingrays. They were almost pet-like as they rubbed their wings up against your outstretched hands. A group of stingrays is called a 'fever', now you know. 

Alex got so brave after his experience with the fever, that he pet this fun little shark!

Manatees seem like the most gentle, strange and exotic creatures, I was really hoping to see one in the wild. We got the next best thing, and got to watch this rescued manatee as she swam around the tank and smooshed her whisker-nose into the glass on repeat. The kids just about matched her smashed nose on the glass in response. 

We were also able to just enjoy the water. Our house had a nice pool, so the cold-tolerant folks spent time swimming in the water. For the little ones, they were more of a float, either with this cool head inner-tube for the teeniest of our crew.

Or the arm-float variety that Graham used for the entire week. 

It was a special little joy to be able to watch my baby brother love on his new baby girl. This sweet little ginger was a content joy all vacation. 

The fawning didn't stop at Robbie, Gretchen got a turn holding her baby cousin. 

And Grammy is all smiles with this pink little girl. She was easy to hold and unafraid of having so much attention focused on her.

Let's not forget the beach!! Graham and Papa Mas were the first ones up each day and Papa Mas was nice enough to take his coffee to go so that he could watch Graham on the beach and let the rest of us sleep/wake up at our own pace.

Grammy kept a careful eye on all of our sand crabs, it was the perfect weather for enjoying the sound of the waves and digging endless holes in the sand.

We rented a golf cart from Fun and More Rentals, had a delicious catered dinner by The Loft 5 and took lots of pictures on the beach. Anna Maria Island was a great place to spend a holiday.