A Tale of Two (and a bit) Beaches – Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd May

The whole idea of spending some time on the west coast, apart from going to see Florian and Bruno, was to have a relaxed time at the beach after the first crazy week around Disney.

The first beach we decided to check out was the local one – Venice Beach.

The house we rented had everything needed for the beach so we took chairs, body boards and a beach umbrella with us. The Beach had its own car park which was free and made access very easy. There was also a cafe, toilets, showers and changing facilities. We set up camp near one of the lifeguard towers.

It wasn’t very busy.

This umbrella seemed to be the ‘in’ beach accessory or perhaps they had been on sale at a local supermarket.

Bethany was very quickly in the water enjoying the warmer water, when compared to Cocoa Beach. Michael soon joined her.

I was joined by the local wildlife.

As it got later in the afternoon the beach got even quieter.

Bethany left her mark.

Around 4pm there was a sudden infestation of black flies and we decided to leave like the vast majority of people still on the beach. We had already decided that we would go back to The Cheesecake Factory near Sarasota for dinner and as that was a half an hours drive it was a good time to leave. We went back to the house, got showered and changed and headed off to University Town Center.

After doing a few bits of shopping – Pandora charm, browse in Tumi and Microsoft – we went to see if we could get a table at The Cheesecake Factory.

The mall was really quiet but when we went into the restaurant we found out exactly where everyone was. It was full and we were told it would be a 10 minute wait for a table. We took a seat in the waiting area and had a look at the chiller cabinet with all the cheesecakes in it. Within 5 minutes our table was ready.

We checked out the cocktail menu first.

For dinner, having seen the size of the main dishes, we all decided to skip the appetizers and go straight for the entrees. I chose a ‘sandwich’ as when looking at the price it appeared to be smaller than the other main courses. I couldn’t believe how big it was when it arrived.

Michael chose a ‘healthy option’ – Cajun Prawns.

And Bethany went for a ‘basic’ burger 🍔

I’m not sure how she managed it, but she did actually get her mouth round it!

After these portions we decided to take the cheesecake home and have it for breakfast the next day. It took a while to decide which ones we wanted as there was a huge selection.

By the time we left it was dark outside.

We drove back to the house carefully so the cheesecakes stayed intact. On the way home we decided we would have the cheesecake for a late breakfast / brunch the next day and then head to a beach and then on to St Armand’s Circus for dinner and sunset 🌅.

Cheesecake brunch is a great start to the day!

After packing our beach stuff we set out to find somewhere to relax.

We drove up to Siesta Beach as it was rated the USA’s number 1 beach. The car park was really busy. We thought we would check it out before deciding if we were going to stay here.

The sand was beautiful, white and extremely fine – it squeaked when you walked on it like cornflour.

It was very flat and also a long walk to the water.

Nearer the water it was very busy.

We decided that due to the long walk to and from all the amenities that we would try to find somewhere else where the water was a bit closer.

On the drive along the beach road we were stopped by an open bridge allowing bigger boats into Sarasota Bay.

We headed towards St Armand’s Key. We also got a better view of the bridge into Sarasota.

The Lido Beach near St Armand’s Circle was much quieter than Siesta Beach and a much shorter walk from the car.

There was an interesting information board about beach segregation in the car park.

We set up our chairs and umbrella and went for a swim. The water was warm and calm and it was lovely to be able to float and relax. We got talking to an older couple who lived locally. They were interested to hear about life in Switzerland and Michael’s job. Eventually I left Michael and Bethany chatting and went back to our chairs to dry off.

I was joined by the local wildlife again.

Around 5:30pm we were attacked by the same flies as on Venice Beach. We quickly made our escape and went to get changed for dinner. Sunset was due to be around 8pm so we had to make sure we had found somewhere to eat and have finished our meal before then.

I asked Michael to make a short diversion so I could get some pictures of Sarasota across the bay.

At St Armand’s Circle there was a statue of John Ringling, the founder of Sarasota.

We found a parking space on the Circle and wandered round to look at all the restaurants. There were lots of different cuisines and we decided to go for American / Tex Mex / Caribbean – Cha Cha Coconuts 🥥

I chose quesadillas, Bethany went for a burger again and Michael had seared tuna.

We had already decided that we would have dessert from the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlour on the opposite side of the Circle.

As we walked round we came across a t-shirt shop selling, amongst others, t-shirts dyed with coffee and red wine with matching messages on them. Michael got a coffee one with “Instant Human Just Add Coffee” on it. My wine dyed said “OMG I’m half a glass from telling you exactly what I think”.

There was so much choice including some brand new flavours. We made our decisions and took a seat on the bench outside to enjoy our ice cream.