Sunday Drive

My friend, Jeff, told me before my trip that I should take time to see Siesta Key if I could. Conveniently, it’s located off the coast of Sarasota, whose distance form St. Petersburg I wanted to gauge, so today, Dan, Alex, and I drove the 60 or 75 minutes to the beach at Siesta Key.

I don’t normally like to drive, but because I stupidly and impulsively bought the gas package on my rental car, I thought I should try to use some of the gas I’d paid for. I think my Nissan Versa Leaf and I did a pretty good job getting us down the coast and back.

The beach at Siesta Key was lovely, as Jeff said, though the sand was pretty compacted, and it was quite busy. The colorful umbrellas and beachware dividing the white sand from the blue sky like a lone artistic thread in a beach blanket a was charming.

Being good tourists, we hunted around for a while trying to find the best place to park, but after passing the entrance to the public parking lots twice, we decided to stop for lunch and afterward surrender to the zeitgeist. This is all just to say that I took the picture below before I took the picture above.

This is Clayton’s Siesta Grille—a really nice, inexpensive little joint with fun decor and good food. It’s funny, but we ate at a place in San Diego called Clayton’s, too, and I like this place as much as the place in San Diego (though this one is more of a bar/pub and that one is more of a greasy spoon). I had chocolate chip pancakes and hot cocoa. Yes, it was 95 degrees outside, but they had the air cranked.

Dan isn’t much of a beach bunny, so after lunch, we dumped him under a shade tree with a group of Mexican women, and Alex and I walked the beach for about 30 minutes. I don’t think I’ve every actually walked in gulf water before; it was surprisingly warm. I think I could even swim in it at some point. It was nice to feel the sand between my toes again and to hear the surf. I must have been a sailor in a previous life. Why else would I be so enamoured of the sea?

We saw lots of seagulls and a few Egyptian-looking birds like the two below.

We decided to take the scenic route home, and along the way, we drove through a community that I really liked—Bradenton Beach. Next time I’m down, I’ll have to spend some real time there. It’s much less developed and touristy than Siesta Key.

We’re eating in tonight, and then I’m heading home tomorrow bright and early—well, dark and early. I have to get up at around 5. I think I have some good information and am confident that I can find a rental for next winter. At the advice of Tom and James, I’m going to contact a realtor, too, to see what kind of short-term rentals he has available. They feel pretty sure that I can get a place within my price range without a lot of trouble. If that doesn’t prove to be the case, back to Airbnb.

So another short trip comes to a close. The value of walking a beach, however, makes even a day trip worth the ride.

PS—I didn’t realize that the images I’m including are not being resized, so you may not be able to see them in their entirety. Too see the full images, click on them. I’ll have to resize them when I get back to my computer.