A Day of Exploration

We heard about a neighborhood in Sarasota County, about 20 minutes from the beach, and 30-ish minutes from Sarasota to the North and Port Charlotte to the South. Apparently, this area was being built up as a yuppie suburb until the recession killed the housing market. With such a large inventory of new homes, it's possible to purchase a beautiful new home there with a good sized property and even- gasp!- a pool. Realtor.com had some great listings. We had to look at this magical place.
So, yesterday morning we packed the cooler and beach bag and headed south on I-75. Around North Bradenton we got off and took the main road (Tamiami Trail) south, so we could get a better look at the areas we were passing through. We always love going to Sarasota, St. Armand's, and Lido Beach, but we haven't gone much farther south. It was interesting.

Venice was cute, in an old, kitchy, not-too-commercial beach town kind of way. The beaches were quite nice. The towns between Venice and North Port were....interesting. Again, we missed some stuff since we were on the main drag, but it was nothing fabulous.

North Port, the magic land, was not so magical. We weren't surprised. We're well aware that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But we just couldn't believe that the streets were cracked and lacked curbs and sidewalks. The residential streets lacked a certain charm... it wasn't particularly cozy. Some streets just make you feel comfortable and welcome, and this just didn't do it for us. Nothing looked well planned (or well manicured, for that matter).

There was about one decent looking shopping plaza, and one main road (Toledo) looked nice. Maybe we need to give it another chance? Plan better?

Grossed out, we sped out of there.

Needing the beach, we were planning on heading to Lido, but stopped in Siesta Key instead.

Ahhhh... what a good choice! Not that we don't like Lido and St. Armand's.... we just wanted low key (aka not fighting for a parking spot with the Bentleys). Plus, I haven't been to Siesta Key since 1989, and John has never been.

Sugar sand, warm and clear turquoise water, and peace. This is what the move down south was all about.

To top off a perfect day, a large rainbow appeared in the rain clouds on our way home. A sure sign of good things to come.