Of course, the first part of our day had to include pickleball! After 7 very good games, we returned to the campers, packed lunches and began our day trip north. Our first stop was Siesta Key.
Since we were all starving from a morning of pickleball, we ate our lunches first at the picnic tables near the beach pavilion. Then, we took our chairs and walked across probably the widest beach Chuck and I have ever seen so we could set our chairs closer to the water. The below picture is looking back toward the pavilion.
Siesta Key is a very popular beach.
Can you imagine how crowded it must get in the busiest season of snowbird winter?
Bonnie and I took off walking south along the beach but there weren't many shells and no sharks teeth to be found but the water was clear, blue and refreshing to our feet.
We didn't want to walk too far because we had many things to see and do today. We returned to find Ken enjoying the sun.
Chuck walked northwards on the beach looking for shark's teeth. The breeze kept him cooled off while he was walking, but when he came back to rest, he had to borrow someone else's shade to try to cool off. :)
After a few more minutes, we packed up our chairs, and headed further north to the Drum Circle Distillery. Ken had booked us for one of their tours at 2:30. The distillery is located in a small warehouse that is probably not more than about 3,000 sq. ft. in size.
The distillery began in 2007 and after 2 years of trying different mixes and temperatures to distill the rum, Troy Roberts perfected is Siesta Key spiced rum.
All the work is done by Troy, his partner Tom Clarke, and his fiance, Nanci Vantovec. Troy's dad also assists with the mechanical work like when he crawled into that little hole behind Troy in the above picture to assemble the paddles for stirring the rum. Eeeks!
During the tour, Troy showed us all aspects of the distilling process without giving out his secret formula, of course! The still he uses consists of a large amount of copper which acts to smooth out the rum.
A batch of rum produces about 900 bottles of rum. And who does the bottling? Troy and Tom. They can fill 4 bottles at a time but the stickers, corks, and shrink-wrap all are done one at a time by hand.
This 3-person operation has become very successful and has won international competitions against the big boys like Bacardi on two different occasions. Talk about a hands-on operation! We could tell that Drum Circle Distillery is certainly a labor of love for Troy and a very successful one too!
After the distillery tour, Ken had us take a vote as to whether we drove straight to our dinner stop or take the long way around so we could see more beaches. We all voted (sort of) for seeing more of the beaches. We drove out the Ringling Causeway across the bay to the beaches going up towards Bradenton Beach.
We stopped at Coquina Beach and walked over to where 4 men were working on a sand sculpture.
They had only started this morning and look at what all they had done.
We presumed that these piles of sand were for the sand sculpture competition that was happening on Saturday.
Although not as wide as Siesta, Coquina is a wide beach also.
We walked out to the water and looked for coquina shells but didn't find any.
There were lots of birds on the beach,
but the Black Skimmer is one of my favorites.
What a beautiful day!
After all the touring and beaching, we were plenty hungry enough for our next stop: Fire Stone Pizza. For $8.39 plus the cost of your drink, you get all the salad, soup, and pizza you want.
And then, after we had eaten all the delicious pizza in every combination we could possibly want, we had our choice of sundaes for dessert! Everything was so good and we ate so much!
It was dark when we left Fire Stone Pizza and the moon was out full tonight. Chuck took some pictures of the moon through the windshield of Ken and Bonnie's car and this one turned out terrific! Good job, Chuck!
One more stop on our way back home was Trader Joe's. We had never been to a Trader Joe's so this was a new experience for us too. Their groceries, produce and fresh meats looked very tempting but my full stomach (plus our full cupboards) kept me from buying anything. We will have to go back on an emptier stomach! :)
After a very busy day full of lots of new sights and adventures, we called it a night and got some rest. :)
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