Sarasota2006

Although I have a good amount of vacation time owed to me, the demands of work - including a major software conversion - mean that it is difficult for me to take a long vacation this fall. I have decided to go to Sarasota for a very long Labor Day weekend. I wanted to go somewhere familiar where I can relax. In Sarasota I can dine in nice places I know, shop, and visit galleries. I will certainly visit the new circus building at the Ringling Museum. I expect to take day-trips to Naples and St. Petersburg.

I have flights on US Air. It was the least expensive, and all of the airlines run cramped "regional" jets into Sarasota and often from Providence. Lv PVD 12:11 on August 30 (US 5083) and ar SRQ 5:53 (US 2411) with a change of planes in Charlotte. Lv SRQ 11:50 (US 2278) on September 5 and arrive PVD 4:00 (US 1148).

I am staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, 8720 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243. It's in Bradenton but has a Sarasota address. The phone is 941-552-1100. I have a large room with a semi-separate living room area - 2 TV's!

Cafe Amici, 1371 Main St., Sarasota, FL 34236. 941-951-6896. Not the grandest place in town, but an all-around family favorite for Italian food for years. Order the fish specials, chicken with arugula (Lauren's favorite), and the white anchovy appetizer. For dinner Wednesday I had a very nice grouper with a light tomato sauce and olives.

Selva Grill, 1345 Main St., Sarasota, FL 34236. An elegant, modern, gourmet Peruvian restaurant. In my view it's one of the best places to eat in the city. I had a grand dinner on my birthday and again on Sunday.

C'est la Vie, 1553 Main St., Saraota, FL 34236. 941-306-9575.

The owners and staff are French, but they are better bakers than cooks. Take out the breads and desserts whenever you can. Good French breakfasts and lunch. The outdoor tables on Main St. are nice if it is not too hot. Lunch is mostly salads and the only true French crepes in the city. Not open for dinner. I go there for breakfast or lunch whenever I can. I adore a proper baguette and great jam for breakfast on the sidewalk before it gets hot.

Ringling Museum, Sarasota. The Ringling Mansion (restored at considerable expense not too many years ago), the art museum, which is the state art museum of Florida, and a new Circus Museum.

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida was founded by Margaret Acheson Stuart (1896-1980) and reflects her vision of providing outstanding examples of world art in an inviting, elegant setting. The Museum opened to the public in 1965. The purpose of the Museum is to increase and diffuse knowledge and appreciation of art, to collect and preserve objects of artistic interest and merit, to protect works of art, to provide facilities for research, and to offer instruction and opportunities for aesthetic enjoyment of art. The Museum is dedicated to serving all people by pursuing excellence in art from antiquity to the present through collection, exhibitions, and education for its diverse audiences.

Located on a 66-acre estate on Sarasota Bay, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was established in 1927 as the legacy of John Ringling (1866-1936) and his wife, Mable (1875 to 1929). Recognized as the official State Art Museum of Florida, the Museum of Art offers 21 galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities, Asian Art, American paintings, and contemporary art. The estate features the spectacular Cà d'Zan ("House of John"), a waterfront mansion that was restored in 2002. The Circus Museum displays costumes, wagons, performance equipment, and other artifacts chronicling the history of the Circus. The estate also features Mable Ringling’s Rose Garden, completed in 1913, and beautifully landscaped grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.

I arrived safe and sound but only after extensive delays that had nothing to do with the tropical storm in Florida. There was little or no rain in Sarasota. The passengers sat cooped up in a cramped US Air mini-jet in Charlotte for well over 2 hours. Everything shut down because of a series of thunderstorms. I boarded the airplane around 4:00 pm and went directly to a restaurant on arrival in Sarasota. My dinner arrived promptly at 9:00 pm. Over the course of 4 hours the airline had graciously fed us one bag of salty pretzels each.

Thursday evening I had a caprese salad with a large beefsteak tomato followed by the day's special of linguini with scallops pancetta, fresh basil, and a light tomato sauce. They bring you great minced black olives for your bread.

Arroz con Pato - a gourmet version of the traditional dish of Chiclayo in Northern Peru - delicious cilantro and beer infused risotto with duck breast, green peas, red peppers and salsa criolla

Naples seems to be quite well off, and the best shops and restaurants are on a few blocks of 5th Ave just west of US 41. Beware that almost all of the good restaurants serve dinner only.

Bamboo Cafe. In spite of the name, it's a proper French restaurant a little south of 5th Ave near the town marina owned by a trained French chef. I had lunch at "le Comptoir", which is mostly their take-out operation but which has a few tables inside and a few more outside. I had a great coq au vin with rice. .

I had a very good dinner here on Labor Day. The meal was a tomato and arugula salad with blue cheese followed by pan-seared sea scallops with a mushroom and red wine risotto. It's fairly pricely by local standards, and I am not sure that either the portions or the good but indifferent service were worth the price. Note that the decor is intentionally dark, so I had to ask for a flashlight to read the menu! Odd since their clientele seems to be "boomers".

The complex is in the midst of considerable expansion. Within the last year a much-need Visitor Center (enter the complex near the Asolo theatre now) and a circus "learning center" have opened. The latter features in particular a massive scale model of the entire circus as it operated in the first decades of the 20th century. But don't miss to "old" Circus Museum. There are two pending additions to the Art Museum. One is to house a large collection of Asian art that was recently donated. They are in the process of redoing many of the galleries and hanging additional works that either were in storage or that have been donated in recent years. To some degree the intent is to make it seem more like a tradtional European museum with paintings everywhere that the RInglings would have known.