Road Trip North 2025, Day 2: Siesta and Longboat Keys - Beach Day!

 

Last night we got the best sleep we'd had in days, so I guess I don't sleep as well with the rocking motion of the ocean as I'd thought. This morning we were very refreshed, but we did stop to get good coffee. The place had a lavender latte, but I just had a small plain latte... and then I got a small lavender latte for the road. We drove to Siesta Beach on Siesta Key, and on the way we passed this cute sign for a dog grooming service:

The beach is free and has a large, free parking lot that was already full. We parked at a nearby Episcopal Church that asked for a $20 donation. Here are some photos of it.

The beach was very crowded, so we didn't change into our swimsuits but just waded. Here we are!

Here are more photos of the beach, including some kids' sand castles.

Check out the gecko!

As we were walking back to the car, we saw a pond with some gallinules on it.

I thought how crazy it would have been if I had never seen the ones at Horicon Marsh after all those years of hearing them, and then I'd seen them for the first time in Florida. I love their candy corn beaks.

Back at the church I noticed people were putting their donation money for parking into the box with envelopes instead of into the mail slot as requested, so I took the money from the box and put it into the mail slot. Later it occurred to me that they might have had a security camera that saw me take the money from the box, but if it wasn't at an angle that they then saw me put it in the slot, they would have thought I had stolen it. So if I get arrested in Florida, you'll know why, unless it was for peeing under a palm tree - I'll get to that.

We drove to Longboat Key, and it was after two so we tried to find an open restaurant; we saw one attached to a hotel, but they were closed on Mondays. However, they told us the Lazy Lobster was just down the road. Good thing we put it into the GPS on Travalon's phone, even though there is really only one main road on the island, because the signage is not good so we never would have found the place without GPS or talking to the hotel people. We had a lovely lunch in the back garden.

I could only eat half of mine, but our waiter was so helpful that he filled our cooler with ice so I could take the rest with me. We even got dessert to go too. Travalon had said he sure hoped their logo was a lobster in a hammock - check it out.

We went to a beach just down the road which was much less crowded than Siesta Beach.

We saw lots of gulls, terns, skimmers, and cute little sandpipers.

There are no facilities at this beach, but two lovely ladies informed us that the restaurant across the street was a converted gas station and the bathrooms were around the back, so we didn't have to feel awkward about using them without eating there. I loved this palm tree in front of the restaurant with bougainvillea growing around it.

There is mass transit there called Breeze, which seems to mostly consist of adorable turquoise trolley buses, though we did see a regular bus. I was never able to get a picture of the trolleys, but there was a stop in front of the restaurant.

There was a stop in front of Siesta Beach too, if we'd only known where to park and catch it. Oops, I forgot to post this photo of a pine tree Travalon took at Siesta Beach.

My phone refuses to identify the type of pine, but it's the one they base those cell phone towers on when they try to make them look like trees. They are common in Florida, but the one in Kenosha caught my attention because they don't have that kind of pine in Wisconsin. My phone won't ID these super cute palm trees either.

However, it will ID the photo I made Travalon take when we got stuck in a traffic jam right after leaving the beach. It's a silver Bismarck palm.

We also saw this dog greeting people stuck in the traffic jam, but it was gone before we got a chance to say hi to it.

The traffic jam was the worst I'd ever experienced, even though I was stuck on the Long Island Expressway during rush hour. ("Rush" hour - you're going three miles an hour.) But we didn't mind as much when we got in sight of beautiful Coquina Beach. We saw pelicans, cormorants, and even a dolphin, but that was too quick for Travalon to get a photo.

Then the sun began to set.

We had been in it more than an hour with no sign of it letting up, and I really had to pee. We saw a park on the right side of the road with a sign to bathrooms, so Travalon pulled into it... and the road to the bathrooms was blocked off. However, there was a spot where nobody could see me, so I took care of business under a cabbage palm. Then some kind soul let Travalon back into the line of cars inching along, and eventually we got to a downtown area that was beautifully decorated for Christmas, but just then the traffic began to move again, so sorry, no photos. Then we got to the highway and saw more Christmas decorations, like we had from the highway on the way south, but of course there is no way to take photos from the highway. Speaking of Christmas, here are the earrings I've been wearing this whole trip.

And here is my bedside table with the jewelry I have been wearing most days, my Magnificat, and Niko. Oh, and my reading glasses because I am getting old.

Also, here are the pieces of artwork we created that were at weird angles and I couldn't turn on my phone. This is the 3-D Christmas card I made.

Travalon made a Christmas card from Pounce's mother to Pounce, his stuffed Florida panther.

He says he is writing the story of how Pounce came to live with us for me to post on this blog, so look for that sometime after we get back home. 

This is a little lantern that I learned to make years ago, and the art teacher had never seen this before.

This is my landscape with sunset.

And I already posted this, but it was sideways, so here it is in the proper configuration.

Tonight we got to the hotel early, and I actually did Night Prayer for the first time since we left home. I had my leftover lobster mac and cheese and the slice of coconut cream pie we got at lunch today, while Travalon ran to Mickey D's and then had the slice of coffee toffee chocolate cake he got at lunch today. A story from dinner last night, at the crab house overlooking the lit-up tiki boats: the guy near us was ignoring his girlfriend who looked way too cute for a loser like him, and he kept calling people and talking loudly about the deals he was making, as if he wanted us to overhear him and be impressed. But he was no yuppie, he was a redneck with a deep Southern accent. Travalon and I kept glancing at the tiki boats, and then the guy said loudly to his girlfriend how annoyed he was that we were looking at him, we should mind our own f--king business, although he was nothing to look at, and he sure seemed to want us to know his business. She said, "They're looking at the boats!" and I thought, "You don't have to put up with this, Honey!" but who knows what makes women go for sleazeballs like that? He could have had a few less tattoos and still had way too many, and I'll bet he chews tobacco. Yeesh! He ordered a whole deep-fried fish and then seemed a bit taken aback when it arrived with eyeballs and all still intact. The bartender asked what he had named it, which I thought was hilarious, and he answered, "Dory," which is a beloved character from the children's movie Finding Nemo, and I thought that was sociopathic. Hopefully I never run into this "gentleman" again.

Famous Hat