Celebrating Our 49th

To celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary, Arne and I drove to Siesta Key, just south of Sarasota, on the Gulf side of Florida. Siesta Key claims to have the #1 beach in the USA. I didn't think it was better than others I've seen but maybe it's the fine, white sand which makes it #1. While the weather wasn't great, thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, we were able to walk on the beach Wednesday evening, as well as Thursday and Friday mornings.

On Thursday, we went to the Ringling Museums where we spent almost six hours. We spent a couple hours in the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum. It is a beautiful legacy which John left to the state of Florida after Mable died and they had no children. The 66 acre grounds consists of their art museum, two circus museums, Mable's rose garden and Ca' d'Zan, House of John, the mansion they completed just three years before Mable died at age 54. John Ringling was born in McGregor, Iowa but grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I thoroughly enjoyed the history of the circus and John Ringling, the second youngest of six brothers. Only thing to ruin the day was a downpour around 3 PM which lasted for a couple hours.

On Friday, we stopped at an art store and then the Ringling College of Art bookstore, where Arne looked for art supplies and I ended up buying 9 books off the 75% off shelf. We then took a driving tour of Lido Key and Longboat Key, two more islands off the coast of Sarasota. We had our anniversary dinner at the Chart House on Longboat Key with a view of Sarasota Bay. I had fresh swordfish which was delicious.

We checked out of our resort before 10 Saturday morning and were home around 12:15 with no rain. Today, we have had rain ALL DAY! Right now there are tornado warnings not far from us. We are ready to head to our closet if necessary.