Waking up on the first full day at any new location is fun. Knowing that you can explore and work out what is nearby is an incredible part of the adventure. While it was a very long day yesterday, not helped by jet lag and excitement. It was so nice to get some sleep to recover from a massive day of travel and being in the warmer climate of Florida.

We decide to head out for lunch after we have had some rest and head to a place called the Hub. It’s a cool and casual vibe with 2 musicians tinkering away on their acoustic guitars, while a busy lunchtime crowd fills the seats outside. We opt to sit outside as we both love to people watch and we also both love live music.

We are served by a very chirpy Erica who is a bubbly effervescent blonde, who you can tell is trying to work out our accents. It is funny because some people over here think the British and Aussie accent are essentially the same which of course they are not. She has some very cool tattoos and offers us drinks to start and carries on sidling her way through her tables. We soon realise we are right near a bunch of football players who had won their championship trophy which had pride of place in the middle of their very long table.
The musicians are cool of which one spotted me singing along to many of their tunes, and giving me a knowing nod and a smile. We had a fun time just chilling out and enjoying the music and the people watching. The Hub is situated on Siesta Key’s main intersection, so there are all kinds of people and cars going by. Fortunately share a love of cars and people, so this provides entertainment for us both. In particular an old school American muscle car which was amazing.
After lunch we went for a short walk to book at a lovely restaurant named Summer House, which we’d planned to go to in a couple of nights time only walking away realising that we had double booked and had to change it to the following night. We had told them we were there to celebrate my birthday which wasn’t entirely untrue, as because of our distance had not been together back in August when the actual date fell.
We thought we’d move on to another bar to fill some time as we had planned to go to the famous Siesta Key Drum Circle at sunset. The bar is called the Old Salty Dog and we sat outside and watched the locals come in and out while they enjoy the NFL on the tvs around. Matthew had popped back to the bar to order a second drink and witnessed a well meaning man trying to help a waitress with the door as her hands were full with food trays. While she passed through gratefully, he didn’t see another lady making her way through and the door closed on her. Let’s hope the kind deed doesn’t get canceled out by the other.
We’d now passed sufficient time and thought we’d pop home quickly before it was time to set off. Picked up some ciders and headed to the Main Street to work out how we’d travel down towards the beach where the drum circle was to start. It was amazing to hear such mixed reviews about the weekly event, with some opting to take a ‘there’s a lot of freaks’ frame of mind, to a ‘it’s just a bit of a tourist attraction’. We jumped into a shuttle bus which essentially is free, but you just have to tip the driver. It was an open air trolley bus, and when we finally got the driver to stop talking we finally were aboard the bus.

We arrived and were not disappointed. With mesmerising sound of the drum beat, with the sunset as the backdrop, it was absolutely incredible.

There were all walks of life involved. Families, performers, teenagers….you name it, they were there! People were taken over by the music, and I found it hard to stay still. A local brought a basket around with flowers for the people to put in their hair, and also another asking if I’d Ike to try my had at blowing into the seashell which she had made look so simple. Seems its not, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get any sound out of it, other than a raspberry.

We watched in awe of the hula hoopers, and wondered how to get the footage of the drum circle being filmed from a drone above us but eventually decided to head out back into Siesta Key when a couple of storm clouds were looming.
It did not take us long to walk back, opting for a nice stroll along the main road to find ourselves a spot to eat at The Cottage. We had great wait staff who quickly took and delivered our delicious tempura prawns and Korean Short rib.

Declining the offer for dessert, we set off home for a more quieter evening, and ready for what tomorrow will bring. I can’t wait