Travelogue - Sarasota FL Area

We returned last night from six days in the Sarasota Florida area.  Neither one of us has spent much time in that state so we decided to go check it out.  Our condo was on Lido Beach right down the street from the charming St. Armand's area of Sarasota.  The weather all week was low 70's or high 60's and almost no sunshine due to mostly super heavy fog that lasted all day until dinner time (and then the very brief sunshine made everything look as lovely as it really is) and then some overcast skies with light rain the final day.  We didn't care.  We've had plenty of sunny beach time this winter so we spent our hours exploring the whole area; lots of cruising around from the bottom of one key to the top and on to another.  And this was the first trip of all that we did not enter one bakery!!  I didn't eat any sugar, not one grain, on this trip.  I'm still in a friendly competition with a friend of mine, Mary, and we are racing to see who can make it to our deadline of April 30.   Dan good naturedly (kinda - he whined the tiniest bit) refrained from eating any pastries, goodies, candy, frozen yogurt etc even though I told him he certainly didn't have to do that and that I was fine if he did.  What a nice guy.  Here is a run down in pictures and explanations of what we did and what this place looks like with no sunshine.  Oh, and gulf Florida ocean water is cold in February.  If you want to swim and lay out a lot, I think April, spring break, is better for that.

This is an example of what I ate all week instead of bakery goods and ice cream - proteins and fats!  This was a really tasty omelette I had at the Toasted Mango in Sarasota - highly recommend this cute and creative place for breakfasts.  

The condo we rented on Lido Beach.  This is the view off our balcony.  It was a tidy, small, complex in a really wonderful area. 

Many of the beaches around here have this drop off between where you lay out and the part you walk on and enter the water.  The sand is as soft and powdery as flour.  

We walked to then end of this rocky pier in Venice.

Very friendly birds there in Venice.

Some flora near the beach

The five pictures above are at Siesta Key Beach.  This is named the #1 beach in Florida and some say the US.  Pictures can't do it justice with no sunshine and heavy fog hazing the air and horizon.   Standing in the water you couldn't see more than a few yards in front of you.   The beach itself is football fields huge and flat with sand that is incredibly soft and 99% quartz.  There is room for  thousands of people.  We tried to take a walk on it but we couldn't tell what we were heading for in either direction.

One night we ate dinner at popular hole in the wall Nancy's BBQ in downtown Sarasota.  It looks like it used to be a gas station before it became Nancy's.  Piles of meat!  So good!  I had a pile of tender brisket and veggies and Dan had ribs and pulled port with all the traditional sides.  

In the four pictures above, I took pictures of these little water ways that separate the streets like water fingers between them.    People have canal like inlets in their back yards and then for many, ocean in their front yards along the keys.  I finally know what a key is.  

I loved all the accessible birds on the beaches.

This is a Mennonite couple fishing - I note this because we saw dozens of groups of Mennonite persons all over this area and I wondered about that.   

We explored the Marie Selby Botanical gardens in Sarasota and it is this beautiful place that borders the Sarasota Bay with lovely views everywhere and fabulous plants and flowers.  Even in the gloom it was gorgeous.  

An artist plein air painting.

One day we went to the delightful Mote Aquarium where we saw many fantastic tanks full of lovely ocean creatures and watched the shark feedings too (I don't know where those pictures went).  I spent some time trying to convince my husband that we need a large salt water aquarium in our family room - bippity!

Aren't water lilies adorable?

This flower at the Botanical garden, in the orchid family, smelled as beautiful as it looks.

We had sunshine for a brief time on Long Boat Key so we stopped here and took a good long walk.  That hour walk was our longest stretch of sunshine the whole week. 

We ate platefuls of lobster (from Maine) and mussels and scallops here at a very New Englandy restaurant called the Lobster Pot in Siesta Key.  

 In the pictures above, we went to the Ringling Museum; a very fun place where you see and learn all about the story of the Ringling Brothers Circus and its history in the area.  We also toured John and Mable Ringling's mansion and estate and art museum.  John had his own identical copy of the David made in bronze in Naples Italy for his Florida garden.  Below, we spent a few hours at Mayakka State Park and took a river tour to look at wild life and then on our own had some close encounters with alligators.  A first for me, seeing them in the wild.

Can you see the dark things on the shore?  Gators.

Here's one we saw as we crossed a bridge on a walk.  Here he/she is below too. 

Our last evening we stood and watched a woman sitting and feeding sea gulls with neat black faces and she kept calling out "Bernice" to the long legged bird to come get her share, which she did; it was so cute.

My sweetie and fellow adventurer.  One endearing thing about him is he is super organized.    Every time we plan a trip,  he creates a folder and makes copies of all our reservations, records, itinerary and plans placed in order.  He is this way about every thing - super organized and I love it!  

And we bought our requisite Tee Shirts.  The End