This year we vacationed on Siesta Key in southwestern Florida, the official #1 beach in America. It was absolutely fabulous. With white sugar fine sand, beautiful clear water, great restaurants, and lots of shopping I could go on and on about how wonderful the whole Sarasota area is. My great-grandparents and my grandparents retired here and, with any luck, maybe we will too. For fun, I made a collage of my grandpa with my mom and Ryan with Tessa posing on the very same beach at the same ages. How fun!
Tessa is all set to wade into the warm gulf waters. She ditched the tube almost immediately because the surf is calm and she could swim without being knocked over by waves. In fact, it was so calm and clear that Tessa started calling the Gulf the "beach pool." Awesome.
We spent hours and hours on the beach each day. When Tessa wasn't swimming, she would build sand castles. The sand was so fine it would pack into really great forms, which fascinated the engineer in the family. Tessa and her daddy would build towers and designate who would live in them. I think Mickey and Donald were trying to recapture this castle from Pete. Donald was banging on the "door" demanding to be let inside. The princesses would use the "steps" because, of course, our sand castle forms have grand entryway steps. She used her piggy bank money to buy a princess sand castle kit. So, later in the week we had a carriage that could "park" by the castle. Her imagination is a wonderful thing.
When she shops with me, Tessa loves to try on hats (and shoes and jewelry too) but won't actually wear one for more than a minute. I knew we were going to be in the sun a lot and really wanted her to have a hat, so I offered her one of mine. I think it's adorable on her but she only wore it for a minute and so I lost the battle. But we did manage to make it a whole week with none of us getting a sunburn. It makes me sound a old but I'll say it anyways, spray sunscreen is the best invention.
Our anniversary was on the Tuesday while we were on vacation. We wanted to do something special so we rented a boat. We cruised the inter-coastal waterways looking for dolphins and found several. Two swam directly under our boat, so close I could almost touch them. Then we took the boat over to Lido Key and beached it. Tessa went for a swim while I looked for seashells.
There is a shady park right next to Lido Beach so we played there on the swing set. They also had the coolest toy, it's a bucket seat that sits on an angle. Once you get momentum, your body weight swings you around in circles until you are totally dizzy. Tessa thought it was super fun.
Then we navigated the canals and drooled over the amazing homes. Bird Key is an especially pretty man made island full of mansions and manicured lawns. I love all the Spanish architecture and tropical plants. Tessa's favorite part of boating was going fast and bouncing over the
wakes. She took a pretty good bonk to the head on one bounce but
quickly recovered. Even before the bump though, she wasn't quite her usual perky self. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me her ears hurt. After returning our boat, we made a detour to the walk-in emergency clinic, not for the goose egg on her forehead, but to get her ears checked. Poor thing, she did have an ear infection and she hadn't even complained. In less than an hour we had a prescription for antibiotics and were ready for more vacation fun. Time for a special anniversary dinner with this man that I love.
Lido Key, the island just north of Siesta Key, has a fabulous shopping and dining area call St. Armand's Circle. We had reservations for the three of us at Florida's oldest restaurant, Columbia House. The weather was beautiful so we asked to sit outside. Our meal was delish. We shared an appetizer of shrimp and crab meat baked with artichokes and Romano cheese and served with Cuban bread. Then I had skewers of huge grilled shrimp and a steak with chimichurri sauce that was to die for. Ryan had shrimp stuffed with crab meat and cooked in a lemon butter sauce. This was seriously good food. Tessa was sad there was no ice cream for dessert but our waiter suggested chocolate cake, and, when he brought the gigantic slice to the table, she was in heaven. Then he brought her extra strawberries and she had a new best friend. We lingered over dinner and people watched. After dinner we shopped our way around the circle. Tessa was hilarious wanting to go to another store, and then another, and then another. We bought a few things and then headed back to the condo. Happy 13th Anniversary!
John and Mable Ringling, as in Ringling Brothers Circus, built a winter home in Sarasota back in the 1920s. The gorgeous house is named Ca d'Zan and is open for tours. There is also an impressive art museum next door and a circus museum. We spent quite a bit of time checking out the circus memorabilia. Ryan was intrigued by the complete miniature set of a town hosting the circus. We spent not as much time admiring the art, Tessa was hot and tired and bored. But I did get to see the sculpture garden with its bronze casting of Michelangelo's David. I am surprised that this one looks so much bigger to me than the original I saw in Florence, perspective is a funny thing.
We rested for a few minutes on the waterfront patio of the main house. The stained glass windows are stunning in the bright Florida sun.
Did I mention that we spent lots of time on the beach? This is the most relaxing vacation that we have had since Tessa was born. I read two whole books and Ryan read one too. We could lounge in our chairs while she played in the shallow water or in the sand. Tessa made friends with other kids on the beach and she played a lot with one boy in particular. My child is a natural born flirt, Nyles (what a name!) was totally infatuated with her. We chatted with his parents and entertained ourselves watching them play together.
Tessa and I are not morning people so I don't know why I always try to have an early morning photo shoot. Ryan tried really hard to snap pics of his two grumpy girls but these were the only cute ones. Next year, to make everyone's life easier, it will be an evening photo shoot.
I got it in my head that I wanted to rent bikes and ride on the beach. So, one day after happy hour in the Village, Ryan humored me. Tessa isn't riding well enough yet to keep up with how fast I thought we were going to ride so, we got a pull behind "princess carriage" for her. Even though I hadn't been on a real bike in years, I spin twice a week and consider myself to be in pretty good shape so I graciously offered to pull Tessa. Remember, this is after we had been to happy hour. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot before I crashed into a storefront window. In my defense, I didn't realize the bike had kid brakes, the kind you pedal backward to stop. So, as I was approaching the intersection and trying to stop for traffic, I couldn't find the handbrake and crashing seemed like my only option. Luckily, I was the only one hurt. I sported some nice bruises for the rest of the week. Despite the bumpy start, I was determined to ride on that beautiful beach.
No surprise, Ryan has much more knowledge of rolling resistance than I do and I quickly figured out why he had been less than enthused about riding on the sand. It was SO HARD!!! My delusions of riding around the whole island were shot in the first hundred yards. Riding in the packed sand at the edge of the surf was easier but the princess kept yelling at me to not get her carriage wet. It was too hot to put her plastic cover down so she was getting hosed every time we went through a wave. About halfway to the hotel I called it quits and collapsed in a beach chair. After recovering, we switched bikes and rode on to our hotel. Ryan is so much stronger than I am and he did way better with the carriage. I was told to slow down by a lifeguard because, on a bike by myself, I was flying. We eventually made it back to the hotel. The next day we rode on the sidewalks back to the village and I towed Tessa. On concrete in the cool of morning it was the most peaceful and pleasant ride. We will rent bikes again but I don't think we'll take them back out on the sand.
Our condo had two pools and even though we spent most of our time on the beach we did swim in the pool a little bit. Tessa is such a good swimmer. She would swim the entire width of the pool all by herself. If we tried to offer a hand, she waved us off or would swim around us. I am so impressed.
Eventually the time came for us to head home. It was hard to leave after such a fantastic vacation but we will definitely be going back.
