Enchanted Island Visit to Anna Maria allows for variety of adventures

“Build me a bungalow/Big enough for two/Big enough for two, my honey/Big enough for two”

– Campfire song

My father used to lead the Little family in a rousing version of this song, and it came back to me while staying in Florida this past February. We rented a nondescript but fully outfitted (except for colander) beach apartment on Anna Maria Island, a 71/2-mile-long, sometimes quite narrow barrier of sandy land. The northernmost island in Manatee County, Anna Maria is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico on the west, Tampa Bay and Anna Maria Island Sound on the east and Sarasota Bay to the south.

Our home away from home came with a name, “Stone’s Throw,” which we quickly learned referred to the distance we were from the beach, which is where we wanted to spend as much of our allotted week as possible. There were miles of white sand and good shelling.

Florida was on the chilly side the first three days, with winds that raised surfable waves; clusters of teens in wet suits bobbed up and down in the surf. We kept our sweaters on and sometimes wore fleece over those. The brisk temperature reminded us of Maine in September – a lovely time of year, but not exactly what we had bargained for.

Resigned to a few days of cooler, overcast weather, we took to the road. The shopping was a bit slim. There is a generic quality to resort-area merchandise, as if the same marketers supply every outlet, adjusting merchandise according to locale. Case in point: Last year in Mexico, the T-shirts read: “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila floor.” In Florida, another three-syllable drink, the martini, landed you in the same spot.

There are some fun shops, such as Ginny’s Antiques and Art in Holmes Beach, which doubles as a coffee and tea bar. At the other extreme is Saint Armand’s Circle on St. Armand’s Key south of Anna Maria Island, a collection of high-end boutiques and ice cream parlors (including a Ben & Jerry’s). After some window-shopping, we dined at Tommy Bahama’s, enjoying a Jamaican pork dish and a few exotic drinks (we were obliged to eat at the bar due to an overflow crowd – reservations strongly recommended).

One of the highlights of our travels was the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, an amazing collection of European, American and non-Western art with a focus on 17th century Baroque works. Might sound like a yawn, but the art is often strikingly unusual, such as the haunting “Blue Madonna,” by the Italian artist Carlo Dolci. You also will find canvases by Rembrandt, Rubens and El Greco, among many masters. The 66-acre estate, which overlooks Sarasota Bay, also features the Circus Museum (Ringling was an impresario as well as business tycoon), a 32-room Venetian-Gothic mansion called “Ca d’Zan” and formidable trees, including towering banyans. Admission on Mondays is free, as we learned by luck. We also found out you need reservations to visit the mansion.

After the Ringling, we discovered Burns Court, a small side street off Pineapple Avenue in Sarasota that offers a cluster of restaurants and a movie theater specializing in independent films. We had nearly an hour to kill before “In America” began, so we went next door to 5 One 6 Burns and ordered large appetizer salads – the perfect repast for the time allotted us.

Another highlight was walking the length of Greer Beach, a nature preserve at the tip of Longboat Key. We watched dolphins arc through the waves and studied a mixed flock of seabirds that seemed almost tame. At one end of the beach a stand of trees had succumbed to the tides and turned a lovely silvery gray from the salt, sun and wind. Egrets, small herons and other birds perched in the thickets.

Speaking of egrets, we encountered a particularly statuesque example of one while visiting the city pier in Anna Maria. At the entrance to the bait shop-restaurant at the end of the wharf stood what we thought was a statue of a great white egret, nearly 5 feet in height. When we approached, the bird moved slightly, taking us aback. It barely stirred as we walked past.

We bought food supplies at Publix, a supermarket with everything Hannaford has, including homemade pastries and a deli. We did give in to dining out a few times. The Island Creperie in Bradenton Beach took us back to Brittany by way of a French staff and delicious buckwheat crepes filled with prosciutto and brie, and dessert crepes with coconut, chocolate and whipped cream. This restaurant did not appear in any guide we consulted, so there’s something to be said for keeping your eyes open.

One night we checked out Mr. Bones BBQ in Holmes Beach, a funky-looking eatery that features a dancing, spatula-wielding skeleton on its road sign (and T-shirts and other paraphernalia within). The foyer features a coffin filled with beer from around the world and a sign that brags: “No salt, pepper, ketchup, etc. allowed in dining room. Don’t even ask. Our food is expertly made by New Orleans trained chefs. No improvement is needed.” Our meal bore out the truth of this boasting.

No journey can be worry-free, and ours to Florida testified to this fact. On the way down, our luggage missed its connection and spent the night in Memphis. We didn’t need to deliver son James to the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy till the next afternoon so having no bags wasn’t a disaster. In fact, with time to kill, we drove to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and had a fine visit with the grand surrealist painter, whose art remains fascinating, deranged and enigmatic. We were particularly taken with the title of one canvas: “Weaning of Furniture Nutrition.”

Another minor inconvenience occurred when we took our first walk on the beach and almost immediately began to cough. Everyone we passed seemed to be suffering in the same way. The source of this irritation was revealed in The Islander, a free local paper, later in the week: “A red tide bloom is causing coughing and running noses along some parts of Southwest Florida, including Anna Maria Island,” read the report. The red tide also explained the occasional dead fish along the shore.

The bad air and stranded fish soon were swept away by a brisk wind, which was followed by two days of perfect blue skies and 70-degree afternoons. We got the tans we needed to show off back home and our son found a forehand to carry him into the spring tennis season. A nice mix of art and food may entice us back another year.

Carl Little can be reached at little@acadia.net.

If you go:

. Clothing: For Florida in February, be sure to pack a couple of light sweaters and-or a windbreaker.

. Accommodations: There are many Anna Maria rental sites on the Web. We used www.annamariaparadise.com. Rental for the week was $570, plus an $85 cleaning fee. The rental included access to a small pool in the neighborhood. For the “official guide” to Anna Maria Island, go to www.amichamber.org.

. Food, gas and dining expenses: about the same as in Maine. Lunch at the Island Creperie ran us about $25. Dinner at Mr. Bones BBQ was around $40.

. Museum Web sites: www.salvadordalimuseum.org; www.ringling.org.

. Car rental: We rented a compact from National. We had a quarter tank after a week of driving. Easy pick-up and drop-off at the Tampa International Airport.

. Places we would have liked to have visited: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota; South Florida Museum and Manatee Aquarium in Bradenton; and the Tampa Museum of Art.

The area also offers plenty of deep-sea fishing (a few names of outfits: “Happy Hooker One,” “Reel Crazy” and “Show Me the Fish”), parasailing, diving excursions, sailing and scooter rentals.