This was a fun trip. The weather was beautiful, but chilly, which was for the best, since I made us walk all over the island. Oh, for those of you who don’t know, downtown Venice is a little island.

I’d made a list of all the places I wanted to see, to make sure that we’d stay on task.

We parked by the library/community center. It was PACKED! Actually, the whole town was packed. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon in season, so the snowbirds were flocking to Venice Avenue. There was also an orchid sale going on at the community center, and that seemed to draw quite a crowd. We did go into the library, just to get a feel for the place.

Next, we walked along Nokomis to Venice Avenue, taking in the sites and avoiding the crowds. How lovely is it that they have a Kilwin’s? Maybe there’d be some ice cream on this trip! We headed east until we hit the beach.

Because it was a cool, windy day, the beach wasn’t very crowded. I was surprised by the rough surf, which is not something I’d seen before on the Gulf coast. Turns out that Venice Beach is one of the few beaches without barrier islands (unlike Ft. Myers, for example), so there’s nothing to stop the waves from crashing in. No one was swimming: that water was COLD! I scoured the shoreline for shark teeth, but found none.

After that, we headed back to the main drag and had lunch at this great little bakery/cafe. Because we were chilled to the bone (and because we were running short on time), we drove to the rest of our destinations: The Venice Pier; the South Jetty; and the Venice Theater.

Took TONS of photos and some video, which should be ready soon.