There's a county in Florida that's so proud of its eccentric native herbivorous marine mammal, they named the county after it. We're talking about Manatee County, incorporating the city of Bradenton and smaller towns of Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach, Longboat Key, Holmes Beach and Palmetto. One of the main drags in Bradenton is called, appropriately enough, Manatee Avenue and on it and other streets in town you'll see a plethora of businesses and places that proudly use Manatee in their names. We love this and like to take the names literally, as if Manatee Dental is where a manatee goes to get his teeth cleaned and Manatee Termite is the exterminator of choice for sea cows everywhere.
Kudos to you, Manatee County, for picking such a lovable and kooky creature for your namesake. Below is a gallery of some of the local signs that amuse the eccentric traveler along the way:
I'm guessing manatees prefer Whirpool
The main drag through Bradenton
This manatee's teeth (manateeth) light up at night. Just thought you should know that.
If you look closely you'll see a manatee in a recliner. Just thought you should know that, too.
You might think Manatee High School's sports mascot would be the, oh, I don't know, manatee, but they're the Hurricanes because, let's face it, manatees just aren't that intimidating.
We're guessing if you want books about manatees, they got 'em
Bradenton has a manatee celebrity named Snooty at the local aquarium, which I'm sure we'll blog about in the future, and there will be another lousy "Oh the humanity" joke, I guarantee.
That was exhausting!
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