Ryan and I had a great opportunity to head down to Sarasota, FL for 4 full days last week. His boss owns a home down there and offered it to us for a vacation. Ryan left work a touch early on Friday, we grabbed some (huge) burritos from Neat-o Burrito and headed to the Baltimore airport. We arrived in Florida around 10pm, and got to Sarasota around 11.
Dr. Friedman's home is beautiful. We went straight to bed and woke up to the sun shining. It was a little cooler of a day, so we put sweatshirts on and headed to Simon's Coffee House for breakfast. I'd read some good reviews on TripAdvisor, and they were right. Ryan really liked their strong coffee and his omelette, while I gulped down a big glass of Florida OJ and enjoyed a yogurt parfait.
Next we headed to Myakka State Park. We walked the nature trail, walked over a canopy bridge, and finally found ourselves by the airboat dock. Across the little bay we saw about 3 alligators laying in the sun! It was Ryan's first time seeing a gator in the wild, I was so glad that we saw them!
We we ready for lunch by the time we left the park. I searched on TA again and it brought is to a little grove shop that also served sandwiches. We didn't feel like eating there once we saw that it wasn't an actual restaurant, but we did buy 4 oranges and a grapefruit. The oranges were so good!
Getting increasingly hungry, we decided on Gecko's Grill (a sports bar). It was pretty crowded so we sat at the bar, and we weren't expecting much. However, we both enjoyed the fish tacos, and we were so full that we etched ended up getting a box. We stopped at Whole Foods and bought a plantain and some key lime pie. We had left overs for dinner with fried "patacones" and key lime pie for dessert.
The next morning we ate breakfast in. Dr. Friedman had been there at the house the week before and told us to finish the eggs that they left in the fridge. We made banana pancakes with the eggs and had the grapefruit from the grove shop.
We headed off to Bradenton to find the Surferbus - we had reserved a kayak to explore Robinson's Preserve. They guy handed us a map, two life jackets and shoved us off into our kayak. In a few minutes we were going right under the mangroves and seeing all kinds of herons, egrets, ibis, pelicans and osprey. It was a calm scenic paddle down to the end of the preserve where we hopped out an used the bathroom before coming back to the bus.
We had kayaked for a few hours and we were ready to eat. It was Sunday, and unfortunately, online, it said that "Jose's Real Cuban Food" was closed. We called anyway and found them open! We headed over and sat at the bar (again!) and each had a delicious "cubano," or Cuban Sandwich with black bean soup (Ryan) and garbanzo bean soup (me). We paired them with yuccas fritas and it was one of the best meals of our trip! The service was also really friendly.
We walked on Bradenton Beach for a while afterwards and drove through St. Armand's Circle on the way home. Ryan spotted a Ritz Carlton shuttle which reminded me that I needed, I mean, er, wanted, cookies from the Ritz. We followed the bus, grabbed our cookies from the over-the-top friendly staff and headed home to cook our fish (we also got some cod at Whole Foods.)
We cooked dinner and watched the Westminster Dog Show with key lime pie for dessert :)
Monday morning we ate breakfast in again before heading out to the Venice area. We stopped at the Venice Audubon building and borrowed some binoculars from a naturalist to look out at the rookery. There were a bunch of nesting egrets, herons, and anghinas. It was neat to see so many birds congregated in one area. Next we drove down toward Venice and stopped at Caspersen Beach. A bunch of people were using sifters big and small in search of shark teeth, which the beach is known for. Just buy spending some time and having Ryan scoop piles of shells onto some rocks we found 5 shark teeth! It was pretty fun.
We drove around a little and ended up back up near Sarasota and hung around there for a while. We drove down Long Boat Key and walked on Lido Beach for a bit. We swung by St. Armand's Circle again to pick up some paella to take home. We also picked up another little key lime pie from Whole Foods. Hey - we're on vacation!
Tuesday morning we took a walk around Celery Fields, a little wetland area and bird watching spot right near Dr. Friedman's house. There was naturalist at one of the look outs telling folks about the birds. We went back to Simon's for breakfast. We had a blueberry scone which was delicious, and "porridge" which was pretty much oatmeal. We also got a huge peanut butter chocolate chip cookie for the road and I ate 75% of it. Ryan enjoyed his 25%. What can I say. I just can't be trusted with a cookie in my hands and he should know that by now. No regrets! Party on!
After breakfast we headed to Mixon Fruit Farm and unfortunately missed the tour by about 10 minutes. We wandered the gift shop a bit, got to see the industrial juicer juice 5 oranges a second, and bought a bag of temple oranges. These oranges were the sweetest, juiciest oranges we'd ever eaten - the best!! We hung around Bradenton a little more.
We decided we loved Jose's Real Cuban Food so much that we went back again for lunch. Ryan tried the "lechon asado" and really liked it, and I got another cuban sandwich, it was so good! The staff remembered us and we sat at the bar again. We left fat and happy, patting ourselves on the back for taking a walk that morning.
We headed next to "Save our Seabirds," a sanctuary in Bradenton. We saw injured birds of all kinds, some being rehabilitated for future release and others that will live there permanently. It was pretty neat to see all the birds. It started raining just as we were leaving and we headed back toward Sarasota. The way back once again took us though St. Armand's Circle, and this time we stopped to get a little souvenir. We bought a metal painted gecko to hang on our bathroom wall. We named him Gilbert - he's cute!
It ended up pretty rainy, and we went back to the house to pack up and hang out. We had left over paella for dinner with some salads, the rest of our pie, and tried to stay cozy while it stormed outside.
We drove back up to Tampa the next morning to catch our flight back to Baltimore. We dropped off our car, flew back, picked up our car from long term parking, and then got some lunch at a Greek restaurant in Baltimore. We also stopped at Ikea on the way home and got a small lamp and some baskets to put on the shelving in the baby's room.
We loved our Florida vacation and we can't wait to go back!
