Venice Florida

We were on a mission to find the best beaches to comb. We headed to Venice, Florida for a day of exploring with Cousin Aaron. Venice is about 1/2 hour north of Englewood. Our first stop, the Venice Fishing Pier located on the beach in front of Sharky's On The Pier. Anyone can fish for free from this pier without a fishing license. Cool! Visitors can also rent fishing rods & reels or purchase bait. We walked the pier to enjoy the views. Wow! So beautiful.

It was windy & chilly the day we visited Venice Beach but we didn't care. The sky was blue, the sun was shining & it was still a long shot warmer than our home in Northern Michigan! We walked the beach looking for shells & shark's teeth but didn't find any on Venice Beach. Recent beach reclamation projects undertaken throughout Florida have temporarily changed the beaches. They're beautiful but the added sand covers the shark's teeth. That's what we were after!

We spent a lot of time on the Venice Fishing Pier watching the fishermen, birds & the waves. But, after striking out on shark's teeth, we decided to check out another beach just down the way. Jason walked the shoreline while Cousin Aaron & I followed in the wagon. I think we'd all agree, we liked Casperson Beach even more. It was rocky, beautiful and the beach combing was better! 

Casperson Beach

The bird watching is fantastic in Florida. So many varieties you just don't see in Michigan. These little guys (below) are Sanderlings and they are hysterical to watch. They chase the waves to pick for food in the sand, then the waves chase them. Back & forth they go as fast as their little legs can carry them. Sanderlings are migratory birds that spend August-April wintering in Florida before returning to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

We were hooked on beach combing and quickly turning into beach bums but we did take some time off the beaches to explore downtown Venice too. As you can see from our postcard below, Venice is a beautiful area. Visit if you can!

Postcard Image

We had a great breakfast at Abby's on Miami. Two actually, we returned again for their Crispy French Toast. Yum! We ate outside on the sidewalk cafe area set up out front. Dining street side in Venice reminded me of Charlevoix, MI. It wasn't just the drawbridges or the look of the town. Venice feels like Charlevoix. The town is nicely landscaped. Upscale shops line the streets. The people were friendly offering pleasant greetings to us as they passed by. Venice is a dog friendly town too. Several parks & beaches allow pets. A few allow pets to play leash-free!

After breakfast, we popped into Sea Pleasures & Treasures gift shop in search of postcards for Uncle Ed but it was the shop's extensive fossil display that caught our attention. The rarest fossils are on display but the shop offers plenty of fossilized shells, bone, shark's teeth & corals for sale too. Sea Pleasures & Treasures is located at 255 W. Venice Avenue in Downtown Venice. The shop doesn't have a website so we'll give them a shout out to spread the word. It's worth a visit to check out their incredible display!

If you're interested in rocks, minerals, crystals or fossils you'll definitely want to visit Earth Treasures too. It's located in Downtown Venice across the street from Abby's on Miami.

​Jason & I have been rock hounds since childhood. We love browsing rock shops. We purchased several different types of fossilized shark's teeth for the kids back home from this display. Earth Treasures has a cool Facebook page too. You can check it out HERE.

Venice & Casperson beaches were beautiful but we had better luck finding shark's teeth, fossils, shells & coral outside our front door on the the beaches of Manasota Key. We were determined to find the best spot on the Gulf for beach combing. So we decided to check out the beaches on Sanibel & Captiva Islands. 

Stay tuned for our next adventure!