It wasn't a long trip, but a much needed one, none the less. We left Friday afternoon, after Eric actually went into the office for a bit and had a few meeting - all the more reason he needed this weekend getaway!
It was an easy trip, and after a slight detour along the way, we made it through Sarasota and to St. Armand's Circle! This became a quick favorite of ours when we first found this area of FL a few years ago. With all the restaurants and shops, you can easily kill a few hours with good food and great people watching! By the time we got there, though, it was nearly 9pm, so for our Friday evening, it would just serve as a place for some drinks and light noshing before going to the hotel.
We decided to check out the Shore Diner, which opened about a year ago. It's above a little boutique surf shop that I came to love (called Shore) and from reading about it, sounded like it'd be our kind of place. And it definitely was. Very modern and sleek, yet simple in design. Had a bit of a South Beach vibe to it, without it being too trendy. And our first impression of the food and drink? Awesome! We got these Maine Lobster Roll Sliders and a Cool Quinoa Salad with cranberries and pistachios in it - it was SO good! All of it! The cocktails fit well with the scene, as well. We were really glad we chose this as our stop on the way to the hotel!Finally, on to the hotel. It was still the same Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort as it was when we first fount it. But at the same time, we could see why they wanted to do a little renovation to it. As the weekend progressed, we learned that while the building with the guest rooms was staying (though they would be renovated), everything else would be demolished and replaced with a couple of new buildings, including new reception/check-in building, about 85 additional rooms in another building, and a new wing of 'special event space' for all the weddings they have. So our little hotel would be losing some of its 'boutique' like qualities. Sure glad we decided to go now!
Saturday we woke up and fell right into the low key routine that this area of FL causes you to do. We wandered downstairs for breakfast and ran into our old friend, the egret. I don't know if anyone's really named him, but he's been hanging around the hotel for years - he was there the first time we ever went to the hotel! It's kind of sad... where's he going to go when the hotel is under construction??Anyway, after breakfast, I hit the beach for a couple of hours while Eric took care of some things on the computer. I don't typically like him working when we have these rare weekend outings, but in this case, it worked since it gave me some time on the beach without him getting bored (he's is very anti-beach!). But then we headed out to lunch, back down on St. Armand's Circle. We hit a different place, though, call Terrace on the Circle - it had a Mediterranean flare to it. We had Kibbeh and Babaganoush to try something different - it was really good and quite a nice change! It also worked well as a nice, light lunch. Afterwards, we went back to the Shore Diner for a couple of drinks. We were there long enough that we ordered their truffle fries, which were addictive! But then we ended up going downstairs and doing a little shopping. I think Eric was the one that really made out, though - I think he likes the place as much as I do.
After we were finally done on the circle, we went for a little drive north of the hotel, just to take in the scenery. We really didn't go too far, though... the weather, while still nicer than Indiana, was getting overcast and windy. The waves were even picking up on the beach, which is unusual for this area of the coast! So we went back to the hotel and hung out on our deck, enjoys the breeze we had (we were on the side of the building that the wind wasn't hitting) and the warm weather, just reading a paper Eric picked up and surfing on the iPad.
We went to dinner a little after 8pm. While it's later than I like to eat, it suited the weekend's schedule. We went back to a place we found during one of our previous trips, called Venezia. It's an Italian place with really good pizza. Really good!
We split their prosciutto, which had arugula and good mozzarella on it. Yum! But that was it - we called it a night after dinner. It was a good way to end a relaxing day.Sunday, even though we were heading back to Indiana later, was spent with some more relaxing at the hotel. I even watched the sunrise! (yeah - you read that right... sunRISE, not sunset!) We had a light breakfast at the hotel because we were planning on doing brunch at the Shore Diner - we heard it was yummy! After breakfast, though, we took a walk on the beach then just relaxed before packing up to leave the hotel. One last look at the hotel as we knew it.
And we headed back to St. Armand's Circle, one more time!The brunch as Shore Diner was worth it! I had these scrumptious buttermilk pancakes with blueberries and lemon curd and Eric had a pulled pork skillet scramble, essentially (the eggs were over-easy, though, not scrambled). We were really glad we decided to stop by one more time. It was a great way to leave the island.
One the was to the airport, we detoured with a quick stop to Ikea. Just because. We still even managed to get to the airport early. I kind of like flying out late afternoon/early evening - there so much less stress! And just like that, our little weekend getaway was over. But it was just about as perfect as you can have for a relatively last minute trip.
1 comment:
You are spoiled!!!
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