John and I are in Sarasota for the weekend. In fact, we've been here since Thursday and will be here till Monday, so I guess that's an extended weekend for anyone taking notes. Because I drive to/from Sarasota every day for training, spending anywhere from 3 to 3 1/2 hours in the car each day, we decided a weekend down here wouldn't be such a bad idea. John works from home on Fridays, so he drove down here Thursday after work and worked from Starbucks yesterday while I was in training. Monday morning, he will depart for work, and I will stay in Sarasota to begin week #3 of training. So far, this weekend has been wonderful, and I'm so excited we have another full day to do anything we want to do, no agenda, no one else to sync our plans with, just doing whatever we feel like doing. Thursday night, we ate dinner at the Columbia Restaurant, and wow, was it delicious! John had some type of chicken dish, and I had some type of pulled beef dish. We're both suckers for bread pudding, so we couldn't pass up dessert. Little did we know it would be the size of another meal. It was absolutely amazing!
For dinner last night, we decided to try Yoder's, an Amish restaurant. We've seen it on the Food Network and heard from friends that it's a must when visiting Sarasota. It did not disappoint! We had fried shrimp, fried chicken, corn fritters, potato cakes, fried okra, and mashed potatoes with the most delicious gravy we've ever had, made from the chicken drippings. Yoder's is is famous for their pies, so we certainly weren't going to leave without forming our own opinion of them. John ordered heated blueberry pie with ice cream, and I ordered their most famous pie, the peanut butter pie. I'm not kidding when I say that the pieces must be approximately 1/4 of the pie. They were huge and oh so scrumptious! One of the best things about Yoder's is that it's located in an Amish community. Strange, I know. Seriously, though, there are lots of Amish people around there, riding bikes, women wearing their long dresses and men with long beards. The entire experience is pretty awesome. Our plan was to go back to Yoder's today either for breakfast or lunch, but after all we've eaten in the past couple of days we decided against it.
We slept in this morning, which was pretty fabulous. We didn't leave the hotel room till after 12pm. I started reading the book "Room" Wednesday night and really enjoyed finishing it in our much-needed down time in the hotel room. John has been enjoying his finance and analytics books and magazines, and we've enjoyed watching bits and pieces of movies (Beautiful Mind, Mamma Mia, and a few others) on tv. This really has been a great weekend. It was super foggy when we woke up this morning, and we knew we were in for some nasty weather. That didn't stop us from having a great day. We planned to eat lunch at First Watch, one of my all-time favorites, but we spotted a Mexican restaurant in downtown Sarasota that we decided to try instead. Once again, we were not disappointed. I had a beef burrito, and John had pulled beef tacos; both dishes were wonderful. After lunch, we walked around downtown and explored a few of the shops. I bought a Pat Conroy book for $2.68 at a used bookstore, and I'm pretty excited about having a "new" book to read. We explored Whole Foods. We've both been in one before, but it's been at least a couple of years. We were fascinated, and we're thinking about giving healthier eating/organic eating a try. Whether we stick to it or not, we really had a great time roaming the store, looking at all the fresh meat and seafood, the pretty, bright vegetables, the salad and hot bar, and so much more. I know it sounds silly, but it really was fun. Although we were expecting rain, we weren't super thrilled to find it raining when we left Whole Foods. Truthfully, it didn't stop us from enjoying the rest of our day. We spent some time in Starbucks, waiting for the rain to subside. It let up a little, so we walked a little more and then headed to the car. Thanks to John's beloved Droid, we discovered that there are quite a few used book stores in the area, so we headed over to Siesta Key to the Used Book Heaven. They had some Jodi Picoult books that got me excited, but the prices weren't anything to get excited about. The rain was a little obnoxious, so we didn't spend much time exploring Siesta Key. We headed to Borders and spent about an hour. John fell in love with the Harvard Business Review, which is what I found him reading after I'd finished my browsing. I ended up getting "The Color Purple" for $2.99, as I have never read it and "A Man Named Dave" for $3.99. I'm very excited about new books to read. We spent a little time at the mall after Borders, and John patiently waited with his new magazine while I got a manicure and pedicure. I have such a sweet husband! We are now back in our hotel room on Lido Beach and enjoying a very relaxing night.
Unfortunately, we're supposed to have bad weather tomorrow, so I doubt we'll get to the beach. We were pretty excited about walking on the beach this weekend, and so far, we haven't even walked out to see the water. At any rate, I am just happy to be here with John. I'll take stormy weather as long as I get another wonderful, relaxing, uninterrupted day with my husband. I'm thanking God right now for all the blessings in my life.
