The Gunns do Florida - Day 21 - Rain, Shopping and Salvador Dali

[bengunn]

Day 21 – Rain, Shopping and Salvador Dali

Previous episodes:

Prequel
Day 1 – The trip to Orlando
Day 2 – Animal Kingdom
Day 3 – Magic Kingdom
Day 4 – Typhoon Lagoon, Shopping and Illuminations Cruise
Day 5 - Islands of Adventure
Day 6 – Epcot
Day 7 – Seaworld
Day 8 – Universal Studios
Day 9 – Epcot and the Magic Kingdom
Day 10 – Discovery Cove
Day 11 – Kennedy Space Centre
Day 12 – Disney MGM Studios
Day 13 – Blizzard Beach
Day 14 – Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios
Day 15 - Cypress Gardens and the move to Bradenton
Day 16 – Anna Maria Island
Day 17 – Siesta Key
Day 18 – Sanibel Island
Day 19 – Our Silver Wedding Anniversary
Day 20 – Busch Gardens

The Cast:

Richard (bengunn): Chief planner
Kathy : DW, just wants to go on holiday
Josie : DD 20, at Reading University, Assistant Planner, not very good at getting up
Sam : DS 17, just done AS exams, can get up very quickly when he wants to


Thursday 5th September

This was our last day in Bradenton and the last full day of our holiday so the plan was to have a relaxing day on the beach as we had all now recovered from the previous excess of sun. Sadly this was the one day of the holiday where the weather changed our plans, as we woke up to rain and grey skies . This was the remains of tropical storm Eduarde, which had been hanging around off the east coast of Florida for the last week. It rained on and off all day and was very heavy at times, so definitely not a beach day .

We went to the De Souto Mall in Bradenton for a morning of shopping, although I don’t remember us buying very much; the mall is not very big and was very quiet. We did not fancy any of the offerings in the food court there so we left to find somewhere to eat lunch. As we walked out, Kathy was accosted by a candidate for district judge and asked if he could rely on her vote! He was quite amused when we explained that we were British as I don’t think that many come to Bradenton. We found a Subway and ate in there; the usual excellent sandwiches.

After lunch it was still raining, so we decided to go to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. It was back over the Sunshine Skyway bridge (no sunshine though) and the museum was fairly easy to find as it was well signed. The museum was excellent and highly recommended if you like Salvador Dali; the museum is almost completely dedicated to his works and there are several of his large and well known paintings there; a bonus was that they gave student discount on admission to both Josie and Sam. In the museum shop, we bought a soft clock, modelled on the Dali limp watches, to give to one of my brothers as a Christmas present.

Going back over the Sunshine Skyway bridge, we saw a lot of pelicans flying around. For some reason, which escapes me now, we had to go back to the De Souto Mall for a couple of presents. After this, we went back to the villa to start packing. We had a break to get a Chinese takeaway from the Ming Tong restaurant just up the road ($18.40) and then finished our packing and watched our final US TV of this holiday before getting a reasonably early night.


Tomorrow: Back to Orlando, Mini-golf and the Flight Home

 

[KayleeUK]

Richard

That was a lovely quiet day for you

 

[Minniespal]

Thanks for the fab report - luv reading them!!!