Santa Time in Sarasota - Dec 21-27, 2014

I recognized from the beginning of my planning that being on the road by myself for the holidays - Thanksgiving and Christmas - would be a very lonely experience. So, I built into my schedule that I’d be with my sister’s family in Omaha for Thanksgiving, and with my cousin, her husband, my aunt and my uncle in Sarasota Florida for Christmas. On both occasions, the plan worked out. This post recounts my stay in Sarasota during Christmas week. In an effort to bring posts closer to real time, this entry consists primarily of photos with a few captions thrown in.

A significant inducement for me to choose life on the road was the fact that I’d be able to visit friends and family conveniently and relatively inexpensively. Foremost in these considerations were my Aunt Betty and my Uncle Bob who were both into their nineties. Every visit I could manage with them would be a treasure.

Here’s our Christmas family group:

That’s my cousin Stephanie and her husband Richard on the right. Bob and Betty moved from Omaha to Sarasota to be close to them earlier in 2014. Bob, in spite of using a walker, wanted to climb up into my RV to check it out:

I didn’t take pictures of our Christmas gathering per se, but suffice it to say we had a great time together except… the day after I arrived, Betty had a fall in her bedroom which caused her some continuing pain. That would grow to have great significance over the next month, which I’ll deal with in later post, but for now, she was able to join in all our activities.

Something I found odd yet impressive about Stephanie and Richard’s neighborhood is that Sandhills Cranes can often be seen calmly grazing on front lawns:

 I felt a particular attachment to the cranes because they are most often associated with the Sandhills region of Nebraska, the state I grew up in. I never dreamed I would see them in Florida.

I did take photos of my visit to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. I started with a delicious lunch of seared tuna at the restaurant in the visitors’ center:

Here’s the ornate theater in the museum:

 And a sampling of the art you can find in this extensive and fine museum:

There is a beautiful rose garden on the grounds:

A major attraction on the grounds is the house that John and Mable Ringling built and lived in:

A tour of the upstairs bedrooms is an extra charge, which I decided to bypass. However, I did take a photo of their photos of the upstairs:

The family graves are just a short distance from the house:

A prominent feature of the grounds are groves of Banyan trees:

There’s a separate museum dedicated to circus life:

The museum houses the most elaborate diorama, by far, I’ve ever seen, depicting an operating circus:

Not part of the diorama, but equally stunning is a set of circus miniatures carved by one man:

Other items from the museum:

When my RV and travels were still in the early planning stages, a friend of mine who lives in the Florida Keys invited me to visit sometime. I was overjoyed to learn that he’d welcome me for New Years. That will be the subject of my next post.