In Sarasota

Sarasota is a wonderful town under 3 conditions: 1) you like to eat in restaurants. 2) you are crazy about shopping at small boutiques for expensive nic-nacks that your heirs will sell for pennies on the dollar. 3) you have a boatload of money. Since we only fulfill item number 1 we are getting bored fast. However, under item 1 we did have a great lunch at a little Thai restaurant today. We feel lucky in that there were 50 other restaurants to choose from in 2 blocks and we picked so well.

It's also a great place for getting your hair done. There is a barber shop and beauty parlor/spa on every block. In fact, on one block there was a beauty shop with a barber shop on each side. There is also a dry cleaners every where you turn. The winner though is coffee with 2 shops per corner and if that is too far to travel there are always a couple in the middle of every block. I have resisted a $5.00 cup of coffee even for the free wireless. I am using the Library internet, which unlike all other Florida towns who give you a free hour, only allows two 15 minute sessions per day. To make it worse the system pops up messages every couple minutes warning you your time is about to expire. You have to click out to get back to what you are frantically trying to finish. Finally, to end this rant - the only grocery store is Whole Foods, a rather expensive place.

We bought bus day passes to go to Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island. Upon our return De Anne, wanting to get full value for the two $3 passes, suggested we take the bus down to Venice (our possible next stop). The buses to the beach and island were mostly empty and the few of us on them were tourist types. The bus to Venice was populated by .... ahem... more general population types. One man was proclaiming his faith to another and it might have been more believeable had he used only one cuss word per sentence instead of 3 or 4. The driver had to wake a drunk and that caused a mentally disturbed man to freak out. Back on the boat we pondered the world we left behind - over the favorite sailor sundowner, with a slice of lime, of course. De Anne noted she had married me so she would not have to ride buses anymore and has now, 28 years later, come full circle. In the interest of full disclosure I married her so I would not have to do laundry anymore. My side of marital bliss is intact.

On a more somber note - our one and only beach towel took flight in a freak wind shift. Two boats dragged anchor during the brief storm and distracted us from securing all items. The towel sleeps with the fishes.