We had absolutely nothing planned for our last day apart from dinner at Europe Wine Bistro again.
Michael decided he needed a haircut so Bethany and I dropped him off a Supercuts and headed into Venice to take a couple of pictures.
After picking him up and a quick visit to the supermarket for drinks, we decided to use another of Florian and Bruno’s tips and headed for Myakka River State Park.
The state park is a protected area where different birds and animals live but is especially known for alligators.
We visited the welcome center and then drove into the main part of the park to the biggest lake. We passed lots of camping grounds on the way.
We walked up to the edge of the lake being careful not to go too close. We then went up to the restaurant and actually saw an alligator in the water nearby.
After a look round the gift shop we made our way towards the exit and stopped at the tree walk and nature trail.
The tree walk involved walking up 36 steps in the first tower, then across a wooden bridge in the trees to a second tower.
There were then a further 80 steps to the top of the second tower. This brought us well above the tree tops so we could see for a long way across the park and the surrounding countryside.
After we made our way down the steps, Bethany and I decided to walk round the nature trail keeping and eye out for birds 🦅 , snakes 🐍 and lizards 🦎 . There were wooden bridges and walkways on route for when the ground is wet. We heard lots of scuffling in the leaves and undergrowth but only actually saw one lizard 🦎 .
After returning to the car we drove back to the house to get ready for our final meal at Europe Wine Bistro.
We packed all our leftover food and drink into the polystyrene cooler and other bags to give to Florian and Bruno. It seemed a shame to leave it all in the house to be disposed of.
We had decided that we were going to have tapas for our dinner so it was just a case of choosing from the large range of dishes. We chose 21 dishes as recommended for 3 people. They all came beautifully presented and served with bread. As we were ordering we had said “we’ll start with these and we can always order more.” It wasn’t necessary to order any more as they were filling.
I had managed to leave a little bit of room for dessert as Bruno had promised to do his ‘drunken pears’ for the next time we visited.
They were delicious! 😋
As we were still at the restaurant at the end of service, Florian and Bruno invited us to go for a drink with them. They took us to a wine bar that they go to regularly and we sat outside while drinking a great bottle of red wine.
We decided that we really had to go back to the house to pack as we would be leaving at 8:30am the next day. We said our fond farewells and promised to visit again.
I was surprised how easily the packing went considering all the Starbucks mugs, fridge magnets, t-shirts, clothes, sweets and macaroni cheese that we had bought. We were all set for the journey home.
Crouch Family On Tour 