A Week Away in Anna Maria Island

We started our month with a family vacation to Anna Maria Island, Florida! Here we are on August 22 and I’m still hoping to catch up (yikes!).

My husband’s family has vacationed at the same condo annually for roughly 30 years! It belongs to his uncle’s family and T started going with his parents and brother when he was about Bean’s age. They know the island so well that it really feels like a home away from home. I think this with my eighth or ninth trip with them. Bean went twice as a baby, but this was Dude’s first trip to the ocean!

Off We Go

This was our first time flying with both kids and it went pretty well! Our daughter has flown twice before, but she was very young and doesn’t remember it. 

My #1 tip for flying with young kids? Car seats.

Yes, it’s a huge pain to lug them through the airport. It might not be manageable for everyone to bring car seats, especially if you’re the lone adult traveling with multiple kiddos. For me and T though, the car seat is the MVP. 

This year we traveled with my husband’s parents. When our flight started boarding, T and his dad got on the plane with the car seats and strapped them in. When our zone was called, my mother-in-law and I boarded with the kids. They went immediately in their car seats, and that’s where they stayed for the flight.

The MVP if you asked our kids? The tablets.

On Prime Day, we purchased new tablets for the kids. Our old first-gen iPad is about done, so we had been on the hunt. We found the Kindle Fire HD 8 for Kids on crazy-good sale (still on sale for a decent price!) and scored two of them plus cushioned cases for less than $150. We waited until the week before we left to unpack them, so they still held that “new toy” appeal for the kiddos. 

The flight was not without a few minor hiccups (turbulence led to a few tears) but all-in-all, I was patting us all on the back for a mostly stress-free ride.

Anna Maria Island

We didn’t land in Sarasota until long after the kids’ bedtime, so we went to sleep quickly after arriving at the condo out on the island. We woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the next seven days!

This place is so beautiful. Although I know of many people who vacation here, it never feels super commercial/touristy. In fact, AMI just got their first hotel on the island in the last year or two! Visitors usually rent condos or beach houses. 

The living really is easy here. I think the first year I visited AMI with T’s family, I packed cute dresses and wedges… and quickly learned that those things are unnecessary. There are a couple of nicer restaurants but we stick with more casual fare most of the time. Track shorts and flip flops all the way!

Our Favorite Places to Eat in AMI

Eating is my favorite thing to do basically any time, any place. That holds true in Anna Maria Island too! Here are a few of our favorites.

The Feast: Love this place! So great for dinner, but make a reservation.

Peach’s: Perfect spot for a quick breakfast or lunch. The Monterrey Chicken Wrap is my #1.

Beach House: Good food, great view. The bartender there really knows how to make a drink too.

Oma’s: Italian place with the most garlicky shrimp scampi ever. (This is a good thing in my book!)

We have also tested multiple ice cream shops on the island 😉 Two Scoops was fine, Small Town Creamery was good, Anna Maria Island Creamery & Bakery was great, and Dips was YUM.

A final can’t-miss is The Donut Experiment! Be prepared to wait for a bit, as the donuts are made-to-order and there’s often a line, but oh gosh is it worth it.

Staying Busy in AMI

Or not 🙂 This is not a place we go to be busy.

We spend most of our time outside. A standard day’s schedule is beach > pool > eat > beach > pool > eat > pool > put the kids to bed > drink beer while playing Uno.

We stay at a condo called Playa Encantada, right on the Gulf coast. It’s just a short walk through some greenery to get to the sandy white beach. Our particular area of the beach has never once been crowded, which is ideal in my book.

There are plenty of beach shops to check out. You know the ones: they’re like a big warehouse full of stuff you don’t really need, but you buy it anyway. I’ve found a few others that are super fun to check out.

Island Cabana: Beachwear, tchotchkes, and more. They sell a few higher-end brands too, like Lilly Pulitzer, Trina Turk, Alexis Bittar (my fave!) and Kendra Scott.

Pink & Navy: More clothes and accessories.

Restless Natives: Fantastic gift shop featuring locally-made items.

West Coast Surf Shop: Clothes, accessories, surf gear. A Florida institution.

Ginny & Jane E’s: Odds and ends and stuff and things and cinnamon rolls.

Publix: Haha, I’m half-kidding. We don’t have Publix in Cincinnati though, and my husband’s family seems to love this place.

For the first time this year, I got to go to a Bradenton Marauders game. T and his family have gone before and suggested it would be a fun way to change things up one night. It was about 25 minutes away on the mainland. Tickets were inexpensive, beer was crazy cheap, and I had an awesome dough pretzel. It wasn’t crowded at all so we had great seats. The kids enjoyed it!

One More Suggestion to Stay Busy…

Sneak away with your husband for 24 hours in DisneyWorld!

I’ll share more about this in an upcoming post, but T and I drove to Orlando for a whirlwind Disney trip. The kids stayed in AMI with their grandparents and don’t know we were there, so shhhhhh.

As fun as Disney was, it’s hard to top sunny days swimming with these two.

Or walks along the beach with this handsome guy.