Cortez Fishing Festival

Today was another gorgeous warm sunny day on the Gulf coast so we headed to the Cortez Fishing Festival. The two-day 29th annual Cortez festival, said to attract more than 20,000 people, offers a little bit of everything that people associate with old Florida. There are almost 100 historic structures, including the newest addition: the 60-year-old Monroe Cottage, transplanted to Cortez from Bradenton Beach in January. Outside Cortez's Maritime Museum sit a variety of vessels meaningful to Florida history, including a collection of fishing vessels used by Florida settlers from the Bahamas; the Sallie Adams, a 21-foot skipjack named after the first settler to be born in Cortez and mullet boats representative of those used by settlers from North Carolina. Vendors offer a host of seafood, and arts and crafts and live music fills the air.