December 2024

The first days of December found me walking at Ufer Park.

I don’t always see herons at the park, so when I do, I feel like I’ve won the lotto.

Being able to enjoy warm(ish) weather and sunshine in December is such a gift.

💙

One of our favorite Sarasota restaurants is Classico, it’s located on the corner of Palm and Main St. We have a favorite table, but it was way too cold to dine outside…even with heaters.

I ordered my favorite Classico meal…grilled oysters and charcuterie

♥️

Way too much food for me, so I shared with Timmy…

Then he enjoyed a very large pork chop.

After dinner, we walked around downtown …getting into the Christmas spirit.

💚🎄💚

First week of December and some homes were fully decorated.

Walking Siesta…began to feel bittersweet.

It’s hard to describe the weirdness of these early December walks.

Sunshine, warm(ish) temps… looks beautiful but the gulf is still murky and just not healthy.

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The yellow flag indicates red tide and the chalk board indicates a water temp of 67*

As beautiful as it looks… I don’t even dip one toe in. #sofrustrating

I do worry when I see tourists braving the cold water…just the other evening there was another news story about vibrio vulnificus (flesh eating bacteria) and the two confirmed cases in Sarasota.

So yes, enjoying my walks but also feeling unsettled.

Nothing unsettling about dinner at Drift Kitchen, it’s located in the Lido Beach Resort

Yummy margaritas.

We timed dinner to coincide with sunset

This seafood dish was terrific

I’m pretty sure we ordered dessert, but since there’s no photos…it might not have happened.

After dinner we walked around St. Armand’s and were sad to note the lack of activity.

It’s not really surprising…two months later and many businesses are still not recovered from the hurricanes ..very few store fronts decorated for the season.

Tree selfie…we just can’t help ourselves 😊

My last walk on Siesta found me at Patriots Pier…

I looked for my heron friends, but only found these seabirds. Seems appropriate.

🩵💙🩵

This is the last photo of our Sarasota condo. I snapped it on December 12, just before we left for New York.

…and our very last selfie from our slice of Sarasota paradise. Taken as we walked out the front door.

So, yes, we’ve sold the condo. There wasn’t any one reason why we sold…although those two hurricanes within a ten day span, accelerated our decision. When we bought in February 2019, Sarasota and Siesta Key were so very different than they are now. It used to take me 13 minutes to drive from our home to the beach…now it’s never less than 20 minutes…and sometimes it’s more than 30. One of the things that we loved about Siesta Key was the laid back, “old Florida” vibe… the absence of high rise hotels. After a (five) years long battle…the developers prevailed, county commissioners caved (in the face of vociferous local opposition) and ground will soon be broken for an 85 foot, 210 room hotel in Siesta village…the first of many. Many. I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before Siesta Key looks like Miami. We can no longer decide on the spur of the moment to head downtown for dinner. During “season” …most of our favorite restaurants have to be reserved at least a week in advance. Friends refuse to dine downtown on the weekend. Traffic was always a bother during snowbird season, it’s steadily gotten worse, and with all the new development (the commissioners just approved another 5000 unit development east of Lakewood Ranch) it can only get worse. These commissioners are paving over paradise, allowing raw sewage discharge into the gulf and flat out destroying the reason why we purchased our second home here.
So we decided to quit while we’re ahead. We loved every minute of life in our little slice of paradise, but no longer wish to live in a community where every single one of the county commissioners who have sold out Paradise were re-elected. Yup. Every single one of them. We had so much fun renovating the condo, but have no regrets about moving on.

Here’s Timmy locking up for the last time.

One last look.
We are now on a quest to find a new winter paradise. All suggestions are welcome.

Next up? Christmas in New York, then we’re off on another adventure.
Thanks for checking in♥️