December 28, 2014  –   64 – 80°F Sunny, calm and a bit humid.  Water temp – 67°F.

It seems like every city I have ever visited has a “Main Street”.  Sarasota is no different. Main street radiates from the waterfront and like a spoke in a wheel outward toward the rest of the city.   From the small park across the street, a city sign declares one of the Sarasota founding fathers were Scottish:

I wonder why the Vikings don’t get more credit for founding villages around the coastal areas.  sshh… maybe that is a secret.  Although the sign doesn’t say who the other “American settlers” were who welcomed the remaining Scots into their homes.  I just love ancient historical mysteries, don’t you?

Along Main Street you will find all sorts of shops and restaurants.  Tree lined sidewalks.  A mixture of restaurants, art dealers, finance/banks, and general retail – old and new.

Posh Hotel – except it looked empty and rundown. Posh because there is a sign saying so in the window.

As Good As it Gets – proprietor of Caviar, Swiss Chocolates, and foie gras

One of the stores is the lovely Friends Jewelry store that helped me with one of my ear rings a few weeks ago.  There are vacationers, residents, boaters, and men in 3 piece suits sharing the sidewalks together.  Everyone in their own little world.

As you walk along Main Street you come to a “Round-a-Bout” at the intersection of Pineapple Avenue and Main street.  Driving a ’round-about’ can be confusing.  How do you take a left when there isn’t one.  You have to go around to the right until you find the street you really want.  If you miss your exit, you have to go around again!  What exactly is so bad about a 4-way stop? Walking a ’round-about’ is just as challenging.  Can you cut across the circle and not get run over?  You don’t just look left and right before crossing the street.  It is left, right, forward, behind and left again.  Walk quickly…left, right, forward, behind….make it to the next street.  Whew!!  Then again… until you find the right spoke of the round about you need.

If you head toward Starbucks, you will find the Whole Foods block.  Turn right and head over to Whole Foods.  There are speakers under the store canopies with light jazz music making the shopper more in the mood to dawdle, look, and spend money.  The only thing that is missing in this eye/ear candy is scent.  No flowering scented plants this time of year to complete the emotional memory.  Honeysuckle would be nice.

Many of the eating establishments also have sidewalk tables.  I am always amazed to see people trying to eat their lunch or dinner while strangers pass them by gawking at what they have chosen to eat.  From my casual observations, it is mostly wine and salad for the ladies and beer and meat for the fellows.  You can tell when one restaurant frontage from another by the sidewalk table decor change.  Each restaurant has their own distinctive look and texture.  Yes, the awnings also give you a sense of change but I usually am looking down so I don’t stumble on the cobblestone walkways.  I don’t want to fall into diners with knives and forks handy.

Black tops for Italian. Brown farther down the street is Mexican. Makes sense?!

I have to admit that if you were from a northern climate and you hadn’t been in sunny fresh air maybe a sidewalk dinner would be terrific.  I don’t want to discourage any of you folks from doing that but next to these tables are cars, exhaust from traffic, and folks breathing over your neck (like me) trying to guess what is left on your plate.  Does it entice me to sit a spell and eat there as well?  Few insects actually.  That is good to know.  I have always wondered about flies buzzing the plate.  That is not a concern here.

As you can see in this picture, Sarasota is making all sorts of progress.  I counted 5 cranes at one point.  Most likely raising the building heights to block the view of the small building behind them and to add waterfront condos.  Those waterfront condos are not inexpensive.  Remember those cars I saw before?

Skyline from Island Park

Again, as a passerby around all this Progress, how close to the buildings do you walk?  Do you hug the building construction fence to escape any fallen debris theorizing that a brick would fall away from the building and not straight down?  OR do you walk next to the street edge farther away from the construction with hopes that nothing will fall that far away from the building?  We saw a couple where the man walked close to the fence and the woman walked by the street.  I figure they were trying to even their chances.

At the intersection of Main Street and Starbucks is the Selby Public Library.  The library was fascinating, actually.  Lots of space, airy, and quiet.  Lots of space for future book inventory.   It was very very quiet with mainly adults and very few children.  I don’t think anyone was whispering, even.  No talking.  Ssshhh.  It has a foreign language sections which I haven’t seen before.

Of course, my mind goes immediately to… Germans don’t read fiction?  What is that all about?  I perused the “friends of the library” books for sale.  Alas, no more books on the boat unless I get rid of one.  One for one trade.  That’s the rule, for now.

Just outside of the library, I had a wonderful chat with my Mother on the phone one day sitting next to this young man and his dog.  Best seat in town!

I did have a couple of people look at me wondering about my conversation.  Maybe I was talking too loud.  I made it quite obvious I was talking into a handheld cell phone showing the phone in my hand.  I am not a weirdo, after all!  I am somewhat normal.  Not like the many people we have seen around town talking to themselves.  We don’t see any cell phone, ear wig, or anything stuck in their ear to indicate a two-way conversation was in progree.  Just constant jabbering.  Listening to their own music of sorts.  Is this a local phenomena?