Sea Life, Beach Towns & Sunsets

Day 17: The newly crafted window bug screens came in handy while sleeping next to a small palm tree grove at Walmart.  In the morning, I looked out the window and saw little lizards skirmishing and running around with their newly won prey in their mouths.  They could have climbed in the car with us! Oh, absolutely not!

The next adventure on our mission list from Bob was to hit Lido Beach, the Mote aquarium and the little shopping space. We made our way over there while I tended to my large blister on my foot from the beach run we went on. To make walking more tolerable, I sliced and squeezed, disinfected and bandaged the space. No flat tires for me today! Obviously, running properly is important.

The Mote Aquarium was first on the list and we toured around learning about the reefs, local sea creatures, research Mote is doing to help preserve the reefs and species within it and we were able to watch a shark feeding. 

They fed the sharks in a conditioned manner by using targets on metal poles.  The trainers rewarded them with food when they touched their noses to the target.  I thought they were going to throw massive chunks of meat into the pool for a fish frenzy.

We saw manatees (absolutely massive sea cows!), alligators, otters and large turtles in the mammal exhibit.  My favorite exhibits were between the manatees and the little baby jellyfish.   Chad’s favorite part was that the admission fee actually goes to the research and operation costs of rescuing the sea life in the local areas.

“I’m not a fan of tourist traps!" said Chad.

Now around 1 p.m., we walked the little shipping circle of Lido to look for a café.  We received a text from a friend that morning asking if we were alive because there wasn’t a blog post to read.  We settled in the Green Zebra Café and proceeded to become caffeinatedly creative.

Chad also caught up with his Uncle Steve and they chatted for a while until the line dropped.  Happy squirrel-speed-talking Chad talked a mile a minute to me now that Steve wasn’t there to transfer the energy to. 

Sighing heavily, Chad said “it might be the coffee, Katie. But I really like Steve...”

And then it turned into Chad channeling his energy into hunting pictures for a collage to express his inner feelings. 😉 haha. Just leave me alone, Chad!

Drat, we wore tennis shoes. Oh well. We walked down to the beach entrance, looked in and walked back to the car. The beach looked lovely and the water roared away with the crashing waves. It was mid-day, so my arms were feeling fried and I also didn’t want to be out in the sun too long anyway.

After spending the day using our coffee to push us through, we were more than ready to dive into all we could east sushi in Sarasota. We tried so many different types of dishes and sushi rolls! I liked this restaurant because they made the portion sizes smaller, which allowed us to try items we normally wouldn’t.

After dinner, we walked to the car and my stomach gurgled. It continued to gurgle, and we dashed to the nearest clean restroom at a Culver’s. Alright, so no all-I-can-eat-sushi for me the rest of the trip. Let’s not have a blowout.

Chad and I parked in their downtown village and walked the main strip towards the beach. Chad derailed the course towards a little mini donut stand (I think these were the little guys he was talking about while he researched the Amish pies) and we sampled their mini donut sundae and a little bag of cinnamon sugar minis. I guess Chad really likes mini donuts!

I had a couple, but stayed reserved because of the previous gurgling experience. Chad wrapped them up before we hit the end of downtown strip. It was a cute, quiet tourism atmosphere with people everywhere. It was not the least bit rowdy and it was controlled chaos with small children running around everywhere.

Voted “Top 10 Best Beaches in the United States”, Siesta Key Beach is comprised of fine white-quartz crystal and has a beautifully serene atmosphere. There are even drumming circles held on the beach! Bummer we didn’t run into any. We finally were able to walk on the beach without the fear of getting burned! It was so fine, the sand melted between our toes. The sun was setting and we loved everything about the space!

My calves were extremely tight and sore from the beach run the other day, so walking was a little rough without shoes. My blister was a little annoying, but I was more concerned about the arch tendons locking up while we walked. This is what happens when I’ve been in a car too long and one little physical activity pushes my unprepared muscles passed their limit lol. More activities, please!

After walking for a bit, Chad’s stomach also started to gurgle. Uh oh….we are no where near public restroom and all you can see is sand dunes covered with people everywhere. There was no where to ‘go’. Walking a little more briskly, we made our way towards the other end of the beach where Chad said he could make out a life guard’s tower. If a lifeguard had to sit there all day, there would have to be a place for them to go. Perfect.

We tried to trek faster, but the dry sand was piled and my calves were protesting. Do you know Charlie Horse? He rode the beach with me all the way to the life guard tower. Vengeance round two: gurgles started coming from my stomach too.

Chad, face disgruntled, looked alarmed and said, “those aren’t bathrooms, those are just shelters…this isn’t good.”

We started to scuttle shuttle our feet faster towards the many people resting on the beach watching the sun disappear.  I thought I was walking in front of someone’s photo of the sunset, and I moved out of the way.  A thick Irish accent came from the dad saying I wasn’t in the way and that the family was looking at pictures instead.

Friends. I can make friends to solve our dilemma. “Excuse me, have you been here long? Do you know where there are restrooms?”

The Irish gentleman, straight off the plane from Ireland, spoke in such a thick accent that Chad and I stopped to listen to him, transfixed. It’s a beautiful dialect. Anyway, we finished scuttle-shuffling to the public restrooms FINALLY and were then stopped by a hippie requesting signatures for legalizing weed in Florida.

Chad, about to burst his seams, grimaced a smile, stated “sorry, restrooms!” and we bolted.

Recovered from our extremely romantic walk on the beach during the sunset, we made our way back to the car. I chatted with Mom while we walked to hear about the crazy weather Minnesota is having and to chat about her experiences in Sarasota when she came to visit her grandparents. Chad and I ended up having laugh attacks and it was a jolly good time.

Now, the tricky part is finding a space to rest. There are not any Cracker Barrels nearby, but there was a Costco. We have camped there before on this trip and gave that one a try. It was wicked hot, the bug screens were deployed with the back windows completely down and the air was still. Woof, it was hard to fall asleep.

I guess this Costco is attached to a mall-like setup and at about 1 a.m. a security guard came up to the driver’s window shining a flash light.  He kindly asked us to leave the parking lot since it’s privately owned and pointed out where we could go.  At least he was nice about it.  I mean when you’re job is to drive around a mall all night long, we provided some actionable item for him to jazz up his night! 

But, we were super drowsy and only had 15 miles left in the tank to tootle around for a new sleeping space.  (In the morning, we would have filled up with gas at Costco!) The local gas station a few miles away was also closed.  We painstakingly limped down a street and hunted for a new location.

After trying the local grocery store and Target (they were also apart of a mall so security would still be an issue), we ended up at Lowe’s.  Now wide awake, kinda crabby, hot, and extremely tired, we re-situated for rest. It’s 2 a.m. Ick. 

On the positive, we were able to find a spot and still have enough gas to get us to the station in the morning. We snagged a new sleeping space and the mosquitos humming outside the screened window couldn’t attack us. Let’s try sleeping again, shall we?