From time to time we focus on a community and its assets. Sarasota, FL is one of our favorites,so far, but, hey, we’ve only been boatpeople for two weeks! We opted for the Marina Jack mooring field which included free visits by the pump-out vessel and many amenities at the on-shore marina... shower/restroom and coin laundry facilities, dinghy dockage, trash and recycling service, ship store, fuel dock and potable water, Wi-Fi Access and Mail service. The staff was very pleasant and helpful, too.
By crossing one street, we walked from the Bay Front Marina Plaza to stunning downtown Sarasota shops and cafe/restaurant areas. A display of larger-than-life sculptures lines the bay front area. “Unconditional Surrender”, the sailor sweeping the nurse off her feet as he reacts to news that WWII has ended, is one of our favorites. At the south end of the sculpture display the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Complex resides. It houses an impressive collection of orchids, bromeliads and epiphytes and clumping bamboo. Nearby Whole Foods offered the replenishments we needed for our larder. Across the way was the Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) depot. The Museum of the Ringling Bros. Circus was just two miles north of town, so we traveled by bus (paying our senior citizen reduced price of $.60... exact change, please). We arrived at 10am and emerged from the Ringling compound at 4pm totally enthralled with John and Mabel Ringling’s life and times and their extensive part in the history of Sarasota! The $20/person entrance fee caused us to suck in our collective breaths at the moment, but we found the experience, including Mabel’s palatial home and gardens and John’s baroque artists collection featured in the Museum of Art on the property, to be worth every penny.
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