Well yesterday was eventful – after sleeping in and having a lazy breakfast in the condo of toast and jam – Todd and I hit the ocean.  We swam for about 3 hours and took a walk on the beach.  The water in the morning is definitely cooler than the afternoons, probably because the sun hasn’t warmed it up yet.  That being said, it was like 2 degrees cooler than comfortable bath water, so its not like the temperature kept us away.

AOne thing about the water here, the surf is a bit bigger than it was in Treasure Island/Clearwater last year.  It’s not unbearable, just not as calm as it was there.  I just think the wind blows a bit more here.

For lunch we headed to the northern tip of the island to a great little place called the Waterfr0nt Restaurant.  Its right across the street from the City Pier and the food was phenomenal!  I had a grilled grouper sandwich on a fresh roll that was the best Id ever had.  Todd had pork carnitas, and you could tell everything was super fresh and made right when you ordered.  Well the carnitas were slow cooked, but you could tell from the meat it was made on-site and not brought in in a box.

After lunch we went in search of shopping. On the island you’re limited to tourist kitsch, so we headed south to Sarasota.  Driving with the top down on the convertible was comfortable and sunny (just a tiny bit of sunburn) and the road through Longboat Key was beautiful.  Huge houses that make you dream of winning the lotto or blackmailing Bill Gates.

Our misfortune was the Sarasota Powerboat races, downtown Sarasota was PACKED!  We walked around a bit and strolled through the Wyland gallery.  I love his marine life paintings, but none of them would go in my house…well that and a lithograph is over $900 – pretty to look at, not to buy.

I dug out the GPS and found a mall a few miles away, an indoor mall!  We strolled around until they closed at 5:30 and it was nice to be in out of the heat.  The mall had great high end stores like Macys, Coach, William & Sonoma.  Todd bought me the awesomest Coach bag – looks like this one:

Super cute - I’m a lucky girl.  We had dinner in the condo last night, then walked on the beach past sunset and swam in the pool here at the condo fora bit.  We talked about plans for the week.  Looks like kayaking through the mangrove tunnels (dolphins & manatee on that one), parasailing, and Epcot one day.

We’re having dinner with my friend Larry at Island Real Estate tonight (I told you about them yesterday) and a tour of the island.  That will be fun!  Not sure where we’re eating, I’ll keep you posted.  I think the battery on my camera is finally charged so I can begin trying to figure out how to get pics from it to the computer without the cord, because I forgot the damn thing!

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