With free hotel voucher in hand, I drove north to Sarasota on Thursday with a page full of plans. My first stop was at Little Joe's Italian Beef. Grandpa Joe, Grandma Angie, and Uncle Joe are relatives of my friend from Texas and their family recently opened a little restaurant right on US 41/Tamiami Trail. (Tamiami Trail is the southernmost 264 miles of highway from Tampa to Miami.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamiami_Trail history of the Tamiami Trail
After lunch, phone calls, and photos, I continued north through downtown Sarasota, past the Hotel Indigo and the purple VanWezel Performing Arts Hall, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's successor firm, (where I had such great times last year) and checked into my hotel. After relaxing for a bit, I headed out to Siesta Key and Siesta Beach, voted one of the ten best sunsets in the world. I had been looking forward to seeing this. However, the blue skies clouded over around 6:30PM, and the resulting sunset was less than "spectacular." But any day spent on a beach and any sunset viewed from an ocean beach is a winning combination.
Next I headed to The Cottage, where my steel drum friend, John Patti, was performing. However, my previous phone call to the restaurant had provided me with incorrect information and I found out that John performed from noon to three instead. On my way to the car, I discovered a little Italian restaurant, Cafe Gabbiano, so I went in and had a bowl of soup and a Cesar salad before heading back to the hotel.
