And so our quick beach trip comes to an end. Mom and I will be back in the car driving up to Tampa this morning, leaving Longboat Key to my brother and his family for the rest of the week.
I drove down to Sarasota yesterday to meet my friends Jay and Nancy for lunch. Sarasota is my old stomping ground -- I was a reporter for the local newspaper for seven years until 2000, and Jay and Nancy were coworkers. It was great to see them, and the city, again. I last saw Jay two years ago. He's the one who took me to my only Broadway opening -- where I got to watch Celeste Holm eat a Hershey bar, although that was obviously not the focus of the show -- back in 2008.
Sarasota has changed a lot since I lived there -- it's much more vertical now, with many more high-rises in and around downtown. What would John D. MacDonald say? (MacDonald used to live there and repeatedly emphasized the folly of coastal development in his novels.)
I also went to visit my old condo, which was probably my favorite of all my various houses and apartments. It had a skylight and a glass wall facing a wooded creek, and at 1,100 square feet it was easily the biggest apartment I'd ever had. I installed pale Berber carpeting, and I owned it, and I loved it -- and in the end I only got to live there a year before the opportunity arose for a job in New York. Oh well. Je ne regrette rien. I loved New York, too!
Last night we all went to dinner at the Seafood Shack in Cortez. I don't know who invented placemats that can be colored with crayons, but thank god. They keep kids occupied and they keep parents sane.
(Top photo: A house in Sarasota, yesterday.)
We visited Sarasota this past winter and I, too, was surprised by the high rises even though I didn't have a past vision to compare them to.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved that area. So much charm. It's so awesome that you were a reporter there.
ReplyDeleteI like coloring on placemats too!
ReplyDeleteNever been to Florida except for a trip to Orlando to see a big job installed we did there and then several days at Disney world and Epcot.
ReplyDeleteI d be happy seeing celest holme having a dump
ReplyDeleteLet alone eating chocolate
That woman was a godess
I love the image of you as an intrepid reporter. I bet you were great.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about the placemats reminded me of last year when I was on a coach tour and staying at a hotel in Prague. The place mat said that it could be used as a paper airplane and gave folding instructions. It wasn't long before every one in the restaurant (all adults) was throwing them everywhere. We all had so much fun being a child again. For the sanity of waiters it is probably better to stick with the crayons!
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