Top 10 List

In my search of things to do in our new town, I compiled a Top 10 Reasons for people to come visit us in Sarasota. :) First this post started out as a joke, but seriously, there are some pretty cool reasons to check out the West Coast of Florida. See for yourself...

1. We have awesome state parks within and hour or so of us (Myakka River, Cayo Costa, Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, Fakahatchee Strand, Peace River Canoe Trail, and Oscar Sherer), great county parks (Fort DeSoto and the newly opened Robinson Preserve to name a few), and wildlife refuges (Ding Darling, Corkscrew Swamp). And those are just the ones that I've checked out so far...



2. The beaches here put the Caribbean to shame (no really, we did a very "scientific" survey on our honeymoon, and West Coast FL beaches are the best!). White sugar sand, shells for miles, and crystal clear turquoise waters. We actually win national awards for our beaches here.



3. If you're the theme park type, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are an hour away, and DisneyWorld/Epcot/Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, and SeaWorld are 2.5 hours away.



4. If animals or gardens are more your thing, Mote Marine Aquarium, Sarasota Jungle Gardens, and Selby Botanical Gardens are all within 10 minutes of us, while the Florida Aquarium and the Lowry Park Zoo are about 1 hr away.
   


5. Looking to learn something? The South Florida Museum/Parker Aquarium/Bishop Planetarium, Ringling Museum of Art/Circus Museum are within 15 minutes, and the Museum of Fine Art and the Museum of Science and Industry (and IMAX theatre) are within an hour.



6. We go to the beach on Christmas and eat cookies while the sun sets (enough said for those of you living in the cooler parts of the country!).



7. Did I mention we have fabulous beaches? Oh, and yes, the fishing is also fantastic.



8. We love having house guests.



9. We have some great restaurants here. Seafood, Thai, Sushi, greasy burgers on the beach, home made donuts, Florida rum bar, you name it.



10. Ok, I am reaching for number 10 since this is a thinly veiled reminder that we miss everyone and hope they come visit... we've been to and love many of the places on the list, but there are many we have yet to explore - so come check them out with us and as a bonus you'll get to hang out with us and have a free place to stay. : )

Little Red Riding Hood

This week marked my first week of riding my bike to work. It's about a 2 mile ride to my office (~12 min) from our house and it's a great one. It's nice to save gas, get some much needed exercise, and do something good for the planet. It's also a rather relaxing way to start and end the day. I ride through neighborhoods filled with birds singing and so far the temp in the morning has been quite nice.

To find the right bike took some time, but I finally found the right one. (Wade however is still on a quest for his new bike... his taste is a bit expensive so we'll have to save up a bit for that one in addition to the gift certificate he got) Mine is a Raleigh too, but with a nice feminine (and light) frame. The bike is super comfortable and great for tooling around town. Below is a picture of the new wheels, and note the ultra cool red ladybug bike bell on the handlebars (haha). :) The chainguard is a lifesaver too - no more grease on my pants!

I also had collapsible baskets put on the back and a removable one on the front. Perfect for bringing groceries home - which we already did this week. And after a serious assessment of what I needed to take to work everyday I got everything down to my one little Timbuk2 bag that fits on the back so I don't have to wear a backpack.

Ok, enough of my biking nerdiness. Just wanted to fill everyone in on my new mode of transportation!

Settling In

Well, we've been here three weeks now and they've been busy ones. We got everything in the house put away and all the decorations put up just in time for a cookout/housewarming party last week. Some EDF colleagues from our DC, NC, and TX offices came into town so we had everyone over after a day of meetings to relax on the back deck. The weather was perfect and everyone had a good time. It was fun to have people over and to get to know some new people at work. I also got my hair cut that day - the shortest it's been - nothing drastic, but it was a change for me. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't quite do the new 'do justice since we were scurrying around trying to get the house ready for company, but you get the idea. (You can also get a peek at our kitchen behind me)

Over the past few weeks I have discovered that my co-worker, Michelle, is also a gardening buff, so she's been my partner at local plant sales (the gardening season is just getting underway here). I've picked up a lime and lemon tree and some native plants that will attract and feed birds and butterflies. We've already seen about a dozen birds and butterflies that we didn't get at our house in Miami and that I've never even seen before, so we're really enjoying the yard and I wanted to make sure the wildlife keeps coming back.

We've also discovered that our army of squirrels was chasing the birds off our feeders so we got serious and sought some "professional" help at the local Wild Bird Center. When we told the guy where we lived he laughed and immediately understood why were were frustrated - because of all the huge old live oaks and pine trees we likely have HUNDREDS of squirrels on just our little street alone. Pretty insane (see Wade's previous post on our squirrel troubles). So, we armed ourselves with some squirrel-proofing devices for our existing feeders and a "Squirrel Buster" feeder and waited. Now, for the dogs, this has been depressing because they LOVE chasing the squirrels off the feeders, but after the squirrels emptied two feeders in less than 24 hours it stopped being funny. (So not funny in fact, we seriously contemplated buying a "squirrel-shocking" or squirrel-flipping bird feeder just to get retribution...desperate times call for desperate measures) So far our investment seems to be working. The birds are enjoying the new feeders and the squirrels are downright frustrated, which makes us laugh with glee. Here's a tip we picked up: don't buy bird food with corn or those little red seeds (also made from corn) - the birds don't eat them and the squirrels go wild for it.

We joined the local YMCA last week (it's really nice and is only a half mile from our house) and have started swimming laps. I'm going to start yoga with my two co-workers too. Everything is so close here that we can bike to most places we need. I'm going to start biking to work (stay tuned for that adventure) and we're both making an effort to drive less.

And here's one last parting shot of how well we're settling in... They've lived together for 2 years, but the orange twins have never been seen snuggling before, until now. :) We had to get photographic evidence. That's Marley on the left looking embarrassed and Hilo on the right looking dreamy-eyed (haha).