Christmas in Florida

Just got back from a glorious week or so in Florida, visiting Matt's parents. The weather was incredible---for the most part, we had 80-degree days, lots of sun, very few clouds. I was wearing flip flops the whole time and never needed to wear the jeans I brought down with me. It was a whole bunch of relaxing, eating yummy food, shopping, and watching many episodes of Lost. (we are totally addicted to it now, by the way...almost done with Season 2 now) One highlight while we were there was visiting the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. Yup--as in the Ringling Brothers. In addition to starting a famous circus with his brother, John Ringling was wealthy and had a beautiful mansion in Florida. His wife, Mable, was passionate for the arts and put together a fine collection of art pieces, which are all now part of the Ringling Museum of Art. There are multiple buildings on the grounds--and the first that we visited was the Tibbals Learning Center, which included a massive miniature model of the Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1919-1938 based on pictures and anecdotes.

We then visited the museum of art which is housed in a building with nice landscaping. There were Caravaggios, Reubens and Los Caprichos from Goya.


Our last stop was the mansion of John & Mable Ringling which is located right on the water with gorgeous views of the Gulf water.

Another highlight was simply enjoying the weather. We hit the beaches twice, once to Englewood Beach and the second to the gorgeous Siesta Beach, which had the nicest sand. I learned while I was there that the "sand" is actually quartz, which comes from the Appalachian Mountains, down into the Gulf and finally depositing itself onto the 8-mile stretch of the beaches of the Siesta Key. The result if a flour-like sand which always remains cool.

Englewood Beach

Siesta Beach

The quartz sand