Siesta Key, Florida – Day Two

Activities: Toasted Mango for Breakfast, Crescent Beach by Bike, Turtle Beach, Siesta Key Beach Drum Circle, Pizza n Brew for Dinner
Date: February 19th, 2023 (Jill’s Birthday)

The first thing we did once we got out of bed was head straight to the beach. The tide was lower than when we were there the day before and we saw tons more shells picking up a few as souvenirs. Since we didn’t have our grocery order yet, we walked to The Toasted Mango for breakfast. I had a made to order omelet with sausage, onion, peppers, and mushrooms. Jill ordered the Sarasota omelet: spinach, tomato, turkey, cheese, and avocado. We had a nice view of a small pond out of our window and watched many birds flying around that we don’t typically see back in Iowa. One of my favorite things about traveling is the novelty of seeing new plants and wildlife.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Ride and Paddle to rent some bikes for the week. We knew there was much to see within riding distance and thought it would be a much better way to experience the island than renting a car, especially since car rentals were super expensive. We went with a couple of beach cruisers so we could take them on the beach and, in fact, that’s the first place we took them while we waited for our Instacart delivery. Our ride was cut a little short due to the fact that we had to be back for Knut (our Instacart deliverer) to deliver our goods. Once we had our groceries, we made ham and cheddar sandwiches with cucumbers and dill dip on the side.

Our next adventure was to check out Turtle Beach. The bike ride was short and we had heard it was a good spot to find shark teeth, something my son would love as a souvenir. To our surprise, the sand was quite a bit different than Crescent Beach. It was more coarse and darker. We basked in the sun and waded in the water before taking a walk along the beach. I sifted through countless handfuls of sand and shells but didn’t see a single shark tooth. We did see a small tortoise upon leaving the beach, however. It was munching grass near the playground and moved quite a bit quicker than I had imagined a tortoise would.

We took the ride back to our condo stopping first at the liquor store to pick up some coconut rum, pineapple juice and some key lime waters. We called this drink the Siesta Tortoise. We mixed a couple of drinks up an walked back down to Crescent Beach with some beach chairs. Jill sat and read her book while I explored the beach a bit more.

One of the tips that our neighbors gave Jill the night before was that there was a big drum circle that happens every Sunday on Siesta Key Beach. We thought that sounded interesting so we jumped on our bikes and headed north. We stopped at the bathrooms before the beach and we had a view of all the sand volleyball courts. I sat and watched a group of guys play 2-on-2 volleyball with their feet, soccer style, for quite a while. I was amazed at their athleticism.

Once we got to the beach, it was pretty obvious where the drum circle was. You could actually see it before you could hear it. There was a massive gathering of people all grooving and enjoying the beat. I was blown away at the age of most of the audience. Most of the people dancing and watching we older than us. Significantly older. It was great to see them all moving and enjoying themselves. The only bad part was that the sunset was covered up by clouds so there wasn’t a colorful explosion of orange like we had seen the night before.

We sat and watched and listened for a bit before hunger hit us. We jumped on our bikes and head back south looking for a place to have dinner. We landed on Pizza n Brew. They were pretty busy, but we found a seat at the bar. It was good thing we were hungry because the pizzas only come in one size, 18 inches. We ordered a PNB Supreme and sipped on a few drinks while we waited for our pizza. The pizza was delicious but we still only managed to eat half of it. When we were getting ready to ask for a box and our check, the bar tender asked us how hungry we were. I replied, “Oh no, we are going to need a box.” It turned out he was asking that because he had messed up our order and gave someone else’s pizza to us and ours was now coming out of the oven. He was giving us a whole extra pie for free! We took him up on his generous offer and started strategizing how we were going to get all of that pizza home on our bikes. We decided balancing it on the handlebars and basket while walking the bike was the best option and made our way home to stash it in our fridge.

We were feeling pretty good and didn’t want the night to end, so we grabbed our beach chairs once more and headed down to the beach for some stargazing. We saw several shooting stars as we chatted over the sounds of the waves until we got sleepy and headed off to bed.