‘It feels good.’ Beachgoers pack Anna Maria Island on first weekend since reopening 

Saturday’s temperatures in the mid-80s paired with a mostly sunny sky made it a picture-perfect beach day on the shores of Anna Maria Island.

For many area residents, it was their first chance in weeks to see Manatee County’s treasured shorelines due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With beaches reopened since Monday, this Mother’s Day weekend is the first full weekend that will see beachgoers back on the beaches, albeit if only for two hours at a time.

Traffic to Manatee Public Beach in Holmes Beach was stop and go for more than an hour and backed up well past 75th Street West and Manatee Avenue West by noon on Saturday.

It almost seemed normal again.

While beach traffic is never fun, normalcy is something Manatee County residents have been craving since the pandemic hit the area in March, closing beaches, restaurants, bars, schools and more.

“It feels good,” said Rachel Weeks, an employee of Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, who has been working from home.

“Just getting out here for a couple of hours feels like getting back to normal,” Weeks said.

A mother of two and celebrating her birthday, Weeks said it’s important to feel some sense of normalcy, especially for the children.

“I know some people who work with children and they tell me they are seeing a lot of behavioral issues with the kids recently,” Weeks said. “Everyone needs to feel something different, but put things in context and be mindful of this situation.”

Getting the kids out of the house offers a different kind of relief, as well.

Laughing out loud, Weeks noted, “I’m just glad school is almost over because I suck at being a substitute teacher.”

Celebrating her birthday with Weeks at Manatee Public Beach in Holmes Beach was her sister, Becka Nickens.

Saturday was the second time since Monday the sisters were able to get some sun and sand time. They also went on Wednesday, two days after the beaches reopened. The sisters said Saturday drew a much larger crowd, but that everyone seemed to be doing the responsible thing.

“All in all, people seem to be keeping their distance,” Nickens said. “I don’t have a problem with what I’m seeing.”

An ER nurse on the front lines of the pandemic, it’s a strong endorsement from Nickens on how people were managing to enjoy the beach but respect the situation.

Manatee Public Beach was packed, but in a safe way: Individual clusters of families and friends were together but separated from other groups.

Manatee County employees guided people into the parking lot and gave them fliers noting the time they arrived, so they knew what time to leave. Though traffic was an issue to the island, parking was not as officers were only allowing vehicles to enter as long as there was parking.

As one said, “It’s going smooth. There have been no problems.”

Families walking to the beach were communicating with one another about what time they had to leave and made sure to set up at a reasonable distance from others.

“Manatee County has done an excellent job from the beginning,” Weeks said. “I don’t know if you can ever say they made the right decisions, but they made the only decisions they could then and now, in an attempt to allow us to get back out. It’s been stressful for all of us and everyone needs a break from the stress.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 2:55 PM.