D
and I recently enjoyed a road trip to Sarasota, with a quick two-day dash down,
and a more leisurely five-day drive back. At a fundraising event in February,
we had won a week at a condo in Sarasota, and we built a nice little trip
around that windfall. It was a very relaxing vacation; unlike our most recent
big trip (2014 choral tour to Paris!), this time we had no commitments, no
schedule except as defined by our week at the condo, and no obligations except
to each other. D grew up in Sarasota (on Siesta Key), and was interested in
having a look. We’ve been to Sarasota a few times over the years, but never for
such an extended period. In the weeks leading up to the trip, we did some
research so we could make the most of our time while there. Cycling is always D’s
first priority, so he called a local bike shop to see about group rides, and he
hit the jackpot – there were group rides every day of the week, mostly in the
very early morning, and most of them of the race-pace type of ride that he
prefers. Of course, I was looking forward to birding in Florida, and hoped to
add a few birds to my nonexistent life list. (I don’t maintain a list, except in
my head, where I do know what I have, and have not, seen.) I’ll save bird
photos for some future posts.
Of
course, the tropical foliage is altogether different from what we have here in
New England, and I was entranced by the sheer variety of colors, textures of
the plants, shrubs, vines, and flowers. Here are a few photos of foliage that
caught my eye. I think all of these are native plants. (We also visited a
botanical garden with exotics; I’ll write about that in a separate post.). The
photos shown here are from Sarasota and the surrounding area, including Myakka
River State Park (FL), as well as from natural areas in South Carolina and
North Carolina where we stopped on our way home.
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