We spent the day visiting a museum, walking on the beach, and tracking down a large sculpture.
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton is an interesting combination of displays. They have a manatee rehab facility, a planetarium, and great displays about the history of Florida.
One of the most informative exhibits in the museum was the manatee rehab center. The museum is set up as a rescue center for smaller orphaned or injured manatees. They feed and treat the manatee until it is large enough to go to a bigger facility. The ultimate goal of the process is to return the manatee to where it was found. This is because they imprint an area and try to return there. There were three manatees in the facility on the day we were there.
A second display that we enjoyed was a photography exhibit that featured endangered animals. The photographer did a great job of showing the personalities of the animals. He also asked that we take selfies of the photos to share the info about endangered animals.
After the museum, we went back to the beach for another stroll on the sand. The walk on the beach was fun.
During our walk, we observed a male Sandwich Tern trying to meet a female. He was offering a fish. She was mostly ignoring him.
After the beach, we went on a search for a famous statue made from a New York Times photo taken in New York City after the end of World War II was announced. Our search took us to Sarasota Florida. Sarasota is one of the rich areas of Florida. We saw cars that may have cost more than our house. We saw a Lotus Elise and a Bentley. We also saw more Corvettes than you could count because there was a Corvette rally that day.
We also saw some street musicians playing for the crowd.
We ate at a fancy new restaurant in Sarasota. The meal was very nice. After lunch we continued our search for the statue. We found it. The sign by the statue called the statue “Unconditional Surrender” because the photo the statue was based upon was taken on the day of the Japanese surrender. I prefer to call the statue “the kiss”.
It was great to visit with family, but it was also time to go to our next stop. So we said good bye to Carl and Bonnie. Thanks for two great days in Bradenton.
