The Ramada Sarasota is definitely an interesting hotel. We went to bed last night with jets flying right over us. Apparently, we’re pretty close to the Sarasota Airport.

This is our view right outside of our room. It is one of the few nice things that we’re holding onto at the Ramada.

Justine’s been to Siesta Key before and is pumped to show me around the town. But, she really is excited about showing me the beach.

We’re packed and ready to go to the beach. Our plan is to go get something to eat in Siesta Key Village first. We ordered breakfast at the Village Cafe. It is certainly an unassuming place. But, we enjoyed the service and the food very much. Justine had a feta, ham and spinach omelette and I had a breakfast burrito with grits.

Well, we scarfed down our food knowing that we were about to get to the #1 beach in the USA. Here’s our short little walk onto the beach.

We parked ourselves decently close to the water and hung out for a couple hours, only going into the water to cool off. The one exciting part was when I heard a photographer talking to the lifeguard. In the conversation, I heard someone say, “It’s a manatee or possibly two.” We got up and looked around and finally saw this huge manatee in the water bumbling up the shoreline.

After soaking up the sun, we headed back over to Siesta Key Village to get something to eat and add a post to the blog. We grabbed some sweet potato fries and hung out at Lelu’s Cafe. When we were done, we headed over to a surf shop behind the cafe called CalifFlorida.

We met a guy working there named Blake, who is from Downer’s Grove! Justine asked what brought him down to Siesta Key and his immediate response was “I hate the cold.” Well, that struck a chord with Justine and we kept talking with him for another twenty minutes.

After looking around the surf shop, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We decided to go to the Lobster Pot in Siesta Key. I’ve heard from Judy, Megan, Vanessa and especially Justine, how good their crab cakes taste. Some have ventured to say, “the best crab cakes ever.” Look. I believe that crab cakes can be good in other places like Florida or Maine. But, just like whoopie pies are best in Lancaster, PA or deep dish pizza is best in Chicago, IL, Maryland crab cakes will always be the best in Maryland! So…we ordered the crab cakes as an appetizer and the lobster bisque for dinner. It was all very good. A definite seafood recommendation from the Tolys.

Now, here comes the good part. After dinner, Justine had the great idea of playing miniature golf (putt-putt for you Marylanders). To get everyone up to speed, I have never beaten Justine in mini golf. It was our first date when she got three holes-in-one (I needed to beat her by two strokes on the 18th hole, when she lined up her shot and sank it on her first stroke!). We’ve played 5-6 times since then and I always walk away a loser, while she walks away with a big smile on her face and at least one hole-in-one on the scoresheet. So, it didn’t surprise me that she wanted to play again.

We drove over to a place near our hotel that looked really nice called Smuggler’s Cove. As we walked in, we found out that not only can we play putt-putt, but we can feed alligators and view a rare albino alligator!

The game was neck and neck for the first 7 holes. Then, once I took the lead, I never let go. It was a game of pure fundamentals, as I stuck to manageable shots (nothing crazy here, folks).

At the 18th hole, I managed to keep my composure and win the night.

We headed over the the gator pond and went “fishing.”

And…here’s the main attraction: Pearl the Albino Alligator. There are only 40 in captivity in the world and one of them is a a small mini golf course in Florida.