Birthday on the Road

We got up at the same early time as usual and had coffee.  Then we went down to work out in the exercise room in the hotel in Ft. Myers.  I don’t really feel any older, but I’m 64 today.  I have so much to appreciate and be thankful for.  It’s great to celebrate another year.

I can’t recall the last time I was away from home on my birthday, so this feels exotic and special.  We drove up from Ft. Myers to Sarasota after breakfast.  Dennis and I like to drive the back roads when we are not in a hurry, so we stuck with highway 41 instead of I-75.  We drove through lots of towns along the way:  Cape Coral, Venice, Osprey.  It is interesting to see the towns and what is happening to them.  There were many stretches of road that had seen better days.  I told Dennis that the buildings and deserted strip malls look sunburned and tired.  It seems like the population and money have left them behind.  The wealthy communities all look sparkling and green and lush, but the not-so-wealthy communities just look old and sad.  The other thing that occurs to me time and time again is how homogenized our lives are getting.  All of the malls have the same stores.  All of the restaurants are chains.  We are eating the same food and buying the same clothes and losing our regionality.  It makes me want to learn to cook older regional specialties and to look for unique and different clothes and eschew the sameness. 

Once we arrived in Siesta Key, we realized exactly how spring break affects Florida – traffic is awful and the place is crawling with people!  However, this condo has the most awesome view of the ocean!  Gary and Nancy stayed here earlier this month and invited us to stay a few more days before we head back north.  The condo overlooks a beautiful white sand beach on the ocean.  You can see this fabulous view from every window in the condo!  We have already toasted with champagne and will be walking out to dinner later.  This is a very nice vacation.

We went to dinner at Clayton's Siesta Grille.  It was awesome!  The food was both delicious and beautiful.  The best part was that we could walk there and back.  We had a ferocious thunder storm at night and the power blinked off several times, but everything cleared up by 11:00 a.m.  Here are some pictures.

 Beach details of weather on Sunday.  An awesome day!

 These pictures are of a couple doing a big sand sculpture - they took many hours to do this and it was amazing!

This is proof that Dennis is really on vacation with me - and obviously having a great time!