The bombogenesis that crippled the northeastern United States last week began with unusually cold temperatures, ice and snowfall as far south as Tallahassee, FL. We didn’t see snow on Anna Maria Island, but the four days of colder-than-normal temps there turned what we thought would be our winter beach vacation into an adventure of creative indoor play (uhh… we’re talking 6 and 3-year-old play here.) Add to that a rather benign but nonetheless invasive stomach flu bug to round out our fun family Florida fling. 

Nice house, though, we had rented last April with its 4 big bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 3 spacious floors, with lots of closets, the better to play hide-and-seek.  And there was plenty of room in the dining room to play “Airplane Ride” using all the chairs and stools.

It was a Rankin – Schultz reunion of sorts. My sister Harriet and her family and our family, with our focus, of course on the 4 grandchildren: two 6 ½ year old girls, Alannah and Lillian, and two 3 ½ year old boys, Elliott and Bobby.

The week began on a high note – sunshine and blue sky as we arrived on the island. Once the beds were divvied up and the luggage brought in, the kids excitedly tried out the heated pool. I think we even had to apply sunscreen! Ditto the next day when the temperature rose to 67, the sun shone, and we spent a good part of the day building sand castles and digging holes on the beautiful AMI beach a block from our house.

And then – Happy New Year! The cold and rain set in …. and lasted, for the next four days! Temperatures like 45, 42, 39 took over and a common comment heard among us was, “Well, it’s warmer than Michigan.” A pretty flimsy justification for our bad luck.

Thank goodness for the free trolley that runs up and down Gulf Drive. The kids loved that. It took us to the Donut Experiment one morning for choose-your-own-donut-toppings and the SandBar Restaurant one evening for seafood dinners. Another day we drove into Bradenton to the South Florida Museum, home of a manatee rehabilitation aquarium as well as interesting displays explaining South Florida’s natural history. Thursday was the beginning of a warming trend. The sun tried to shine, and Annie and I checked out Robinson Nature Preserve in Bradenton. We walked the 3 mile loop and saw wood storks, anhinga and kingfishers as well as various egrets and herons.

Grandpa in the swivel chair

The flu bug? Well, at least it got just one of us at a time, and it didn’t last too much more than 24 hours for any of us. Michael, Annie, Joe and Lillian survived the week without succumbing. They get the way-to-hang-in-there awards.

By Saturday the 6^th we had all dispersed – Rankins and Ross’s back to Knoxville, Fox’s to Ann Arbor, Annie to Sacramento, and Michael & I off in the Siesta to Withlacoochee State Forest 40 miles northeast of Tampa. It’s warmer now. Today was a beautifully sunny 65 and tomorrow will be 74 degrees.

Even so,  our Anna Maria week will be remembered for the good times regardless of the weather.

At South Florida Museum