Sun and Sand

Siesta Key, Florida

After a couple of full days driving, we find ourselves in sunny Florida.

Now that we have finally found the warm weather, we are having some trouble acclimatizing. Each time we leave the room we automatically assume it will be cooler outside only to find that it is quite warm (and a bit humid). This usually hits us after we have walked a long distance from the hotel and have to face the long walk back.

Siesta Key is just off the coast in Sarasota, just south of Tampa. Based on the people crowding the nearest breakfast eatery, the average age of the residents must be over 70. I never thought I would feel like such a kid at this point in my life. Fortunately, when we do visit the Siesta Key Village itself, there are a few youngster like ourselves there, usually with their entire families, spending their vacation in condos on the beach.

Lots of cars honking their horns at every opportunity - if you hesitate a moment when the light changes or slow down to make a turn, they are very impatient. Probably due to the fact that cars are always slowing down to make turns in random directions and, due to the average age of the drivers, are most likely asleep at the lights as well. Just something we have observed.

Couple this with the fact that there are lots of motorcycles (no helmets here), mopeds, bicycles and pedestrians vying for road space, everyone is yakking on cell phones in their cars, and Stop signs are treated more or less as Yields, this could be a very scary place to spend much time on the streets.

Still, it is quite pretty and, best of all, there are lots of boats. Of course, they are not sailboats and they have some pretty different ways of finding moorage for them here.

The passage between the mainland and the keys is the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and all of the islands are connected via draw-bridges. Only observed them being used once so far as most of the boats are short enough not to need them.

We have been pretty lazy here and fully intend to continue in this vain for the foreseeable future. Now, we are just looking for the best deal we can find on some luxury accommodation where we can do just that - location really does not matter much to us.