Sarasota - 31st October to 3rd November

I finished off last time saying we were getting ready to go into Sarasota to eat. Well, we had the most amazing dinner at Michaels on East. Friday night's special was 'Lobster Fest' which consisted of two Maine lobsters, mussels and clams served with red potatoes and corn on the cob, which we washed down with a rose champagne. Absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we drove into the centre of town where we parked then walked around enjoying the halloween revellers in their costumes and also the live music.
Saturday, we cycled a round trip of 10 miles to a shopping mall to check out the special offers for kiddies clothes. I bought Nya two winter dresses (NOT pink so don't panic Traer!). Lazed around in the afternoon, ate delicious homemade chilli and watched a couple of movies. Went to bed early as I was feeling slightly under the weather.
Sunday morning I was fine again - must have just needed a bit more sleep. As the clocks went back, we had an hour's extra lie in. Went to 8.30 mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, then back home for BLT and coffee along with the Sunday papers. Then it was off to downtown Sarasota for the last performance of the musical Bye Bye Birdie at the Players Theatre, a local community theatre. It was a great, funny performance with more than half the cast being school kids. The lead roles of Rosie (Kaylene McCaw) and Albert (Jim Taylor) were superbly performed.

On the way home from the show we stopped at an Italian restaurant, Carrabas, for supper. We started off by siiting at the large horseshoe bar (Rose thought we might get to talk to someone) but it was too cold as we were directly under the air con. We asked to move and went to sit at a counter facing the kitchen where we could watch the cooking. For our meal we ordered spiedino which were skewers of large prawns and scallops grilled over coals and with a herby lemon butter, mashed garlic potatoes and courgettes. Yet another scrumptious meal this time washed down with chianti.

This morning it was up and off to an hour's water aerobics. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky and the pool water was 87 degrees. What a great setting for exercise. Rose and I stayed at the pool afterwards enjoying the sun, reading and lazily swimming. Early afternoon we went grocery shopping for this evening's meal and bought king crab clusters. We headed for Casey Key around 5 to watch the sunset but first we drove at the 15 mph limit from one end of the key to the other and back so that we could gaze at all the amazing houses. It is a long narrow key with, at most, only one house on one sid of the road or, in certain areas a house on either side. Did I say house? Mansion is the correct word. Anyway, after our drive we went onto the beach and watched a beautiful sunset. Then back home for crab and champagne - what a hard life!