If you are wanting to visit Siesta Key Beach, there are 12 public access locations along their 35 miles of beach. We went to the location at 948 Beach Road access point because it had public restrooms and the largest amount of parking spaces.
The good thing about being early risers is that we were able to secure a parking spot easily here. I say this because we arrived at the lot shortly before 10:00 a.m. and by the time we were leaving around 12:45 p.m., cars (and people) were not only stalking the lot but also essentially begging for a potential parking space that might be available as they caught you leaving the beach area. One poor woman told me she and her family had been circling the parking lot for an hour and decided to get out on foot and start asking people if they could have their soon to be vacated parking spot. It was a bit nutty! I did overhear a local saying to her guest that it is usually not this bad but Spring Break makes it this overcrowded for a few weeks.
To that point, the line for the women’s restroom lasted at least 20-30 minutes (and that was early in the day). It was very surprising how small the facilities were for a public beach access point with at least 900 parking spaces. Apparently, birds are just like us, they have to wait in line too!
Now for the fun part! Siesta Key Beach is highly rated and often in the top 10 of best beaches in the world. It has gorgeous sugary white soft sand and it is incredibly expansive. I honestly think it was more than a quarter mile walk from our beach chairs to the parking lot – I had never seen so much room at a beach. It could accommodate multiple volleyball sands courts, people playing frisbee, lacrosse, and other sports as well as having room for all the sun-worshippers as you can see in this photo.
I would have loved to have gone to at least 1 or 2 other public access locations on Siesta Key because according to their website (https://www.scgov.net/Home), each location has its own unique feel. Something to put on my wish list for next time.
After leaving the beach, we drove to a new development area called Lakewood Ranch (https://lakewoodranch.com/our-homes) in Sarasota. It is a very interesting development that has a myriad of communities comprised of apartments, senior living, townhomes, houses, estates, shopping, restaurants, etc. Each community has its own feel.
We really liked the concept and the area but there was not enough time to see all that it offered. We needed to head back to our hotel to get ready for our reservations Downtown. It certainly made our list though for further thought and exploration.
Downtown Sarasota
As I gushed in my previous post, I really like the vibe of Sarasota. Part of its charm is its occasional cheekiness.
We came across two signs Downtown on our walk to and from our restaurant that evening. The first one that tickled our funny bone is the clever gets-your-attention name of this hot dog joint in the photo on the right.
If you cannot read their tagline on the awning, it reads, “Hotdogs with style.” The place looked really yummy and if we had not already had plans for dinner and the concert, we would have enjoyed trying this place.
The other signage that had piqued our curiosity and truly made us ponder was an event board at a tavern offering Porno Bingo on Tuesdays. I cannot report back on what that truly entailed since we were leaving town Tuesday morning (I swear we really did leave Sarasota the next day)! I just thought I’d pass along the information and let it sit with your own imagination. You have to love the creative cheekiness!
Now, back to our reservations. We were spending the evening at LQ – Latin Quarters Restaurant. They do not have a website but according to their Facebook page, they describe themselves as, “Hot Latin and Puerto Rican food.”
Our main reason for trying this restaurant is so that we can see this 17-piece Jazz that band has been together for 16 years. I do not remember the exact age range of the band members but I think it encompassed late 40’s to the 70’s.
As you can see from the look of pure joy on Jerry’s face, he was very happy to be experiencing the big band sound live! He thoroughly enjoyed this talented band and was in awe that they can be heard at LQ every Monday evening and another local restaurant every Friday. The only price to hear this noteworthy live music was the price of your food and bar bill. Having such great entertainment while eating and chilling on a Monday evening felt decadent. This would be a really nice way to unwind every week for sure.
Even though we were there because the entertainment captured our attention, the food itself was terrific and well worth the experience. We shared a meal that was truly delicious and completely new to us – Steak Mofongo. It contained mashed plantains with steak, onion, garlic and olive oil in that giant wooden bowl with 2 different sides of rice.
Despite us sharing, we still could not eat all of it. It was both a generous portion and incredibly good.
Our meal and concert were both terrific and praiseworthy. We did have two negative experiences there unfortunately. One concerning a hiccup in our reservations regarding our booth that we had selected not being given to us (we had pre-selected in person the day before). And our waiter, who seemed to be beloved by the regulars there, gave us quite the cold shoulder and an off-putting attitude at times. Neither of these two things “ruined” our outing that we had been looking forward to but it did solidify if we ever go there again, we would make sure not to have that same waiter.
Our walk back to the car had Sarasota’s nightlife on full display. It is hard to capture all the lights and sounds you could see everywhere you walked.
Once back to the Mustang, it was top down and time to soak in the moon and starlight for the short 6 mile drive back to our hotel.
Day 5 has us moving on to St. Petersburg…See you then!
Thoughtful Travels 