Sunset Royale Breeze

Tropical Wood Carvings

Every year after spring break Siesta Fiesta takes over the village of Siesta Key for a weekend of fun, art, crafts and sidewalk foods. This year Siesta Fiesta was “stridin” with the new look of Siesta Key all around the vendors booths. This is the 31st annual Siesta Fiesta and is the same date as the original Siesta Fiesta. The weather is perfect for this fun weekend and locals, visitors and downtown shop owners are all smiling…. Continue Reading

Airfare Watchdog

What took so long? Why did we not know about this earlier? This is really great stuff. Here we are in the middle of air travel mumbo jumbo and up pops an incredible source of flying information that is so, so good. I need to go back to the genesis of this information. Jan, long time Ford Motor “go to office person” and high school friend of my wife Nann, sends an email with some tips on purchasing airline flights and a casual … Continue Reading

Your boss is driving you crazy. The weather has been awful. Your partner needs relief and a change of scenery. The stress level is going through the ceiling and you just need to get away from it all. You need a break, ideally a tropical island with warm off shore breezes, white powder sugar sand, sun tan lotion, a good book and NO stress. You might want to add a few no’s to the list. Perhaps no phones, no computers, no newspaper, no … Continue Reading

Sandcastle from July 2004

The Siesta Key sand, as mentioned in previous posts, is ideal for making into forms and characters. Since Nann and I moved to Siesta Key and have been able to view the beach everyday and walk it regularly (not regularly enough) and we often see where someone has taken the time to form this incredible sand into a sandcastle, figure or character. Some of these are very simple and … Continue Reading

First time visitors to Siesta Key Public Beach on Crescent Beach on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida are in disbelief when they first step on our powder sugar white sand beach. If it happens to be in July or August and they are barefoot the amazement is reflected in their face and the questionable look that is radiated back to everyone around them. How can this beach be so white, so soft and yet firm and so cool? It’s not magic, but it … Continue Reading

Anytime an artist can capture your interest and touch you so deeply with their talent that you become mesmerized in their work, you know you have found something rare and wonderful. Recently this happened with me when I stumbled, literally, across the Ukrainian Psyho Studio and this work they produced for a Madagascar travel agency while I was exploring the social site of StumbledUpon. The slogan of the agency was “Madagascar – a piece of the world”, so Psyho literally cut the planet into pieces, each symbolizing a different kind of vacation. That’s how the “pie … Continue Reading

Known as a bohemian community and regular Florida destination for artists of the 50′s and 60′s Siesta Key has now lost much of it’s early mystique. When you read the meaning of bohemian you will find;

“The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the nontraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians and actors in major European cities. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti establishment political or social viewpoints, which were often expressed through non-marital sexual relations, frugality,

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Every now and then Nann and I look out our front windows and see the Sarasota County Sheriff’s  Mounted Division’s sheriff patrol riding along the beach. How neat to see these graceful animals work their way through groups of people and along the shore line of Siesta Key Public Beach. You can’t help but feel like it’s you on the horse and the invigoration of this momentary thought brings a smile to your face and a rigid straightening of your back, but suddenly you are back to reality, still smiling though realizing you’re not riding horseback along the beach. Incredible … Continue Reading

When you go the Sunset Royale website you will notice we have added a new page under About Siesta Key called Sarasota Culture. When Nann and I first explored Sarasota almost 20 years ago, we noticed this community was different from other Florida communities we had visited. Certainly the beach on Siesta Key was spectacular and the community was friendly and diverse. We noticed the art galleries, similar to what we had seen in West Palm, Tampa, Miami and Naples. Museums such as the Ringling were a nice find usually only found in larger

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Blog 101, a way of creating a dialog with those with a common interest. Sounds pretty simple, but time will tell whether the Breeze has legs or should I say velocity. From time to time we will send out information on our condo, Sunset Royale, the beach, the area or perhaps irrelevant trivia that has some level of interest for you or at least to us. The Breeze will be also be a good place to update yourself on how we are doing with storms, tourist activity or family updates. Maybe there is something lacking or in need of updating … Continue Reading