Early birds were rewarded with easy access to Anna Maria Island. Late arrivals? Not so much
By 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, beach traffic was already backed up to 67th Street West on Manatee Avenue heading to Anna Maria Island for the first day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
They should have heeded the advice from island officials to get to the island early. Those who did were rewarded with light traffic and easy beach spot pickings.
Tiffany Nichols and her family drove down from the Lakeland area. They visit Coquina Beach several times a year. Nichols said she is familiar with the holiday weekend’s chaos on the island so the family was already setting up shop on the beach shortly after 8 a.m.
“Our strategy was to get here early,” Nichols said. “The earlier we got here the better off we thought we would be.”
Traffic on Cortez Road at 8 a.m. was still light and it was an easy trip onto the island. Parking along Cortez Beach was the first spaces to be gobbled up. By 9:30 a.m. there wasn’t an empty space in sight.
By 10 a.m., there was still parking available on Coquina Beach, which boasts the largest parking area, but it was filling up fast.
The many picnic tables along Coquina Beach, however, were at capacity by 8 a.m.
The Rosales family occupied one of the picnic areas, celebrating a birthday of a family member.
“The picnic areas fill up fast,” said Inez Rosales. “My nephew came around 6 this morning to make sure we had a spot for my granddaughter’s birthday. We have come almost every holiday weekend to celebrate her birthday.
They didn’t come last year and neither did the Nichols family. There was a lot of uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic in May of 2020. Though people did come to the island last year, it was nowhere close to what most Memorial Day weekends look like.
Vietnam-era veteran Richard Ivars was walking the beach alone on Saturday doing a little “people watching,” and enjoying the beautiful morning as the blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico lapped the sandy shore.
Despite reports that red tide in Manatee County waters are gaining strength, there was no sign of it on Saturday as swimmers took to the Gulf waters.
“It’s good to see so many people out and about again,” Ivars said. “I hope everyone has a great weekend and tries to remember what this weekend is really about.”
Nichols does, and though her two children are still very young, she does her best to explain what Memorial Day means to her children.
“We try, but they don’t quite get it yet,” she said. “My stepbrother is in the Navy so it’s starting to mean a little bit more to them because they are starting to know that family sacrifice and military sacrifice is a big deal. But they are still very young and have a long way to go.”
Officials remind visitors to the island this weekend to be patient and arrive as early as possible for the remind visitors to the island this weekend to be patient.
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 12:56 PM.