The pandemic wasn’t completely over, but we were able to travel again in 2021. We did a trip to the Everglades around our anniversary, one to New England in June, and then an Alaskan cruise in August. Because of that, we never did a beach weekend until October. We started by going to a resort outside of Tampa, but then moved into Sarasota and spent time at Siesta Key visiting with Terri and Betsy from TMI. Even the Paynes came to visit us on the last day to spend some time in the area.

Sarasota Weekend: 10/14/2021—10/17/2021

In Land O’ Lakes, we went to Caliente Resort. The grounds were beautiful and they had several different pools, the main pool having a waterfall that was beautiful day and night. The resort hosted a Pink Party for breast cancer awareness, so we wore our pink.

We took a nice walk around the resort the next morning and spent more time at the pool before we finally checked out and moved on to our hotel in Sarasota. The Westin had a beautiful rooftop pool and bar area where we had a nice view of the city and the Gulf. We kept the pink theme going when we went out to dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant across the street. The place used to be a house, and we had our dinner in an empty parlor. We returned to the rooftop that was alive with people at the bar. We enjoyed the people watching and the night views of Sarasota.

Sat

We left the hotel and crossed over to Lido Key, where we checked out the beach. The beaches in this part of Florida are remarkable. The sand is so soft and fine and does not retain any heat. The beaches are also very wide and there were cute little dunes at Lido Key Beach. From there, we went to Siesta Key, where Betsy has a house and Terri was there visiting. We parked ourselves out on the beach in front of their home and told stories. We stayed out there from about 1:30 until sunset at 7:00. We then had a nice dinner on Betsy’s balcony as the sky turned to night.

Sun

After a great breakfast at the Westin the next morning, the Payne family came to our hotel. Myles was more than eager to help us check out so that he could go to Siesta Key and check out the beach. Betsy had some toys for her grandkids, so we all went down and played in the sand for a little while. We then left and went to lunch before heading to the Big Cat Habitat. There, Myles saw a lemur pass in front of him, but unfortunately he got tired of the emcee for the show and left before the big cats came out. Still, we saw some of the tigers, lions, ligers, tigons, bears, and even tortoises and a turkey. It was a fun, sunny, and rather hot weekend in the Tampa/Sarasota area, but we enjoyed it very much.