Sunset from Venice Pier

Wednesday Jan 24
We had arranged to meet up again with Philip this evening down in Venice, almost an hour further south from Anna Maria Island, so we decided to head down there for the day. It was a sunny morning in Anna Maria Island, but by the time we got down to Venice area, the clouds had taken over, though it was still quite warm. We headed down to a beach south of Venice, actually the second we tried, as we couldn’t find a parking spot at the first one! The beaches here are not as nice as AMI which have beautiful white, powder soft sand. Here they were more of a grey colour. Whilst there are quite a number of shells on the beach, the thing to look for here is fossilized shark teeth. Ten million years ago, when Florida was submerged underwater, the area was teeming with sharks. Over time, as the water receded giving way to land, the prehistoric sharks died - their skeletons disintegrated, but their fossilized teeth remained. The Venice coastal area sits on top of a fossil layer that runs 18-35 feet deep. With storms and waves, the fossils are slowly driven into the shallow waters and then up onto the beach. Most people looking for them would be at the waters edge, using some form of a strainer, and dredging up sand and searching through it. However two couple were just lying on a blanket of shells in front of us, and just sorting through by hand. I wasn’t particularly bothered for myself, so we just sat and read our books and watched other people! We also took a walk along the beach when I captured a pelican bobbing on the water, gulping down his catch - see extra! We left in time to drive to Venice fishing pier for the sunset, which was a little after 6, and was the best we’ve enjoyed since getting here.We were meeting Philip at 7.30 at his favourite Thai restaurant, so that left us time to enjoy a drink at the bar at the beginning of the pier, before driving the short distance to the restaurant. We enjoyed a very good dinner and enjoyed each others company again, then it was time to head back to our accommodation.
Step count: 10,857