We are in Venice Beach tonight at a hotel that is not on the beach. We will explore the town and beaches a wee bit in the morning before heading overland to Daytona to spend an evening with Greg’s cousins Carol and John.
We left our most adorable waterfront, family run hotel in Clearwater early this smorning in a misty light rain.We drove through Indian Rocks, Bradenton Beach, St. Petes where we had breakfast in a cute little place. After our meal we drove across a huge causeway to Long Boat Key where my Aunt Rose and Uncle Carl owned a place for many years.My Aunt was a very classy lady and as we drove through her little piece of paradise I could just picture her on the golf course and living in one of the many stunning high-rises or town houses. I never visited her there so don’t know how or where she lived.
From Long Boat Key we drove into Sarasota and stopped at Publix to buy some sandwich food. We had a picnic by the expansive, white beach. We then went into the town which is like Disneyland for the very rich, very WASP, very old. The cute little shops were mobbed and filled with expensive baubles. I call what we saw today….”sport shopping.” Lots of that going on there. We saw many badly done facelifts as well…..and many, many post 80 year olds. Sarasota in NOT for us.
We were told to go to Siesta Key next because as our hotelier told us in Clearwater, it is the last of the Florida Fishing villages. Although it was more laid back than Sarasota, we didn’t see any fishing boats, fishermen or fish for that matter.
Florida is densely populated, every square inch has a condo, a motel, a restaurant or retail. There are a few exceptions. I think we’re very close to Sanibel which is supposed to be different, but which we don’t have time to explore this time.
That being said, so far, I think we concur that Clearwater is our favourite Florida destination. I think perhaps when we’re older we could come to that town and rent a place for a month for some quiet relax time. Now we know.
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