I promised you some photos and commentary from my trip to Sarasota, and here it is. Finally.

The whole point of my visit, aside from spending time with my lovely, darling friend Sarah, was to start talking wedding with her and her gorgeous fiance, Jess. We checked out the venue, talked logistics, brainstormed and ate free fancy wedding caterer food. We also had some beers and hung out by the pool, but those activities weren’t necessarily wedding related; I really just needed to do it because it was snowing at home.

First stop: Manatee Village Historical Park

This place is so damn cool. It’s a whole little village of historic buildings. We have something like this near Rochester, Genesee Country Village & Museum, but it’s freaking huge and the buildings aren’t necessarily related to Rochester history.

General Store

Conductor Gentry

I think she’s losing

Ha, reefer

The “cranker” house

It poured. Forever. We got soaked.

Schoolhouse!

3 Keys Brewing

This is a cool place too; the food is bomb, the beer is cold and had it not been monsooning we could have hung on the awesome deck or played some outdoor games.

Motorworks Brewing

I visited Sarah a couple years ago and fell in love with this place. We were here while it was (still) pouring so we couldn’t go out to their amazing deck/outdoor area, but we didn’t mind hanging out drinking at the bar. It was my first full day and we were both on vacation so we were relaxing.

They also have cocktails!

Pool, palm trees, paradise

So… a bunch of random photos. The dog is Daphne Olivia, aka Daffers, aka Daffodil, aka Dill. I love her.

Daiquiris and nosy puppy

I love the statues around St. Armands Circle in Sarasota

She’s too damn cute, I love her

I took a bunch of other random photos but they’re not terribly entertaining.

I miss the sunshine. Daphne is already counting down the days until Auntie Teresa’s next visit.