During our two weeks in Sarasota we were a 10 minute walk from Crescent Beach so we visited multiple evenings. Even when the color wasn't great we were entertained watching the pelicans and terns...
Blog posts from Florida
Florida’s Sun Coast: restaurants
During our two week stay we tried lots of restaurants, ranging from classic breakfasts to a beach cocktail spot, and from in-restaurant to take-away. Breakfast Original Word of Mouth - Quite busy on...
Florida’s Sun Coast: breweries
With two weeks on the west coast of Florida we had multiple opportunities to explore local breweries. First up was Corporate Ladder, our favorite brewery in central Florida - we stopped by three...
Orlando 2023: EPCOT
Sunday was our day at EPCOT. I set an alarm for 6:55am to join the first virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy but didn't get in. We slept a bit longer and while enjoying my fancy cold brew, I...
Orlando 2023: Mills 50
On Saturday we didn't want to stay in the hotel room (or at Disney Springs) the entire day, so we took an Uber to the Mills 50 area to check out the street art. While we did find a few murals to...
Orlando 2023: Disney Springs
Our hotel was an easy 8 minute walk to Disney Springs, so the first night we went exploring. The temps were on the chilly side but most places with outdoor seating had heaters set up. After...
Orlando 2023: intro
I had intended to visit Disneyworld with my sister's family in 2021 but that trip was unfortunately cancelled, leaving me with an unused 2-day ticket. After perusing forums and making several calls...
Manny’s Memorial Weekend
We traveled to Florida (my fourth trip in less than three months) in mid-September for my Dad's Memorial service. I am not going to get into too much detail here but we made it through the...
Week in Florida: Eat + Drink
Other Breweries Good Liquid Brewing - We originally planned to go to the South Manatee location, but at the last minute we noticed their newish location in Sarasota that was a little easier to get...
Week in Florida: Oyster shucking
After returning from our afternoon in St. Pete - my Dad informed me they had purchased 2 dozen oysters from Detwiler's! I had him pour me a glass of champagne and got started shucking. We ate them...
Week in Florida: Daytrip to St. Pete
We started our afternoon in the Edge district with cuban sandwiches at Bodega. We ordered at the outdoor window and grabbed an open table inside. We were so hungry we ate everything before thinking...
We’re vaccinated – let’s go to Florida!
After completing our second vaccinations, our first activity was driving down to Florida to visit family. Since we drove and were staying with Leandra's folks we brought Pasha, who definitely...
a little more about Ireland
Eric reminded me last night that I never created a page for our Ireland trip last November. This is partially because I spent December traveling back and forth to Florida and time just got away from...
Tess McDonald, 1919-2008
As many of you now know, my grandmother (gram) passed away last Friday evening, a mere two weeks after she spent Thanksgiving with the entire immediate family in Florida. I have been back and forth...
Kayaking the Manatee River
On Friday, Leandra braved the crowds and went shopping early, then played golf with her family in the afternoon. Since I'm not partial to shopping or golf, I rented a kayak from Ray's in Bradenton...
Florida sunsets are suberb
We're enjoying Thanksgiving in FL, and last night we went to watch the sunset at Emerson State Park in Palmetto, Florida. Riesling came with us and had a lovely time sniffing everything on the beach...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)