We were up a little earlier this morning to finish packing and get on the road. Our destination was Nokomis, Florida where Steve and Karen Limkemann are renting a unit for part of the winter in Bay Lake Estates mobile home park. Nokomis is south of Sarasota just west of I-75 and borders Venice which is on the Gulf Coast. We passed a lot of mobile home (manufactured housing) parks in this area; our first exposure to this iconic aspect of Florida. The drive down took just over three hours, most of it due south on I-75, and into a different climate zone. We arrived just after 11 AM, unloaded the car, and relaxed for a while before going to lunch at Café Evergreen.
Bay Lake Estates, Nokomis, FL.
Café Evergreen ( http://cafeeergreen.net ) has only been open for about six weeks and was not yet listed on Happy Cow. It is an all-natural, all-organic restaurant and market, with a nice variety of menu choices, some of which are vegetarian and a few of which are vegan. They serve breakfast on weekends and also have a coffee/juice bar. Linda had the Grilled Eggplant Wrap sandwich and I had the Vegetarian Burger with the Napa Cabbage Slaw as a side (both of which were in fact vegan). Both sandwiches were excellent.
Our table at Café Evergreen.
Café Evergreen dining room.
From lunch we drove to Casey Key and parked at North Jetty Park. We walked down the beach to the Jetty and watched people fishing, bird-watching, and sun-bathing as boats came and went. It was warmer and dryer here than we have been experiencing up in Williston and very pleasant. We soaked up some of that sun and took lots of photographs, mostly of Pelicans and Snowy Egrets. We then drove to downtown Venice, parked in a public lot near the Venice Theater, and walked around downtown window shopping and taking photos.
L-to-R: Steve, Karen, and Linda.
Karen and Linda walking back from the beach, North Jetty Park, Casey Key, FL.
We were originally planning on going to a Thai restaurant for dinner as it was the only restaurant in Venice listed on Happy Cow, but decided to return to Café Evergreen instead. Linda had the Kelp Noodles Stir Fry and I had the Vegan Butternut Squash Ravioli. Again, both dishes were excellent, and Linda decided to do a review for Happy Cow went we got back to our bus.
We went back to Steve and Karen’s place to relax and change clothes before going to the Venice Theater to see the 8 PM performance by The Capital Steps. We had seen them several times before at a theater in Canton, Michigan, but they had not been to that theater in the last few years. Laughter really is the best medicine, and The Capital Steps had us laughing hard for almost two hours. We returned to the mobile home, chatted for a while longer, and turned in for the night.
