it's a small town in florida, just past starke, and before citra on state road 315.

the back highways of florida are filled with roadside fruit stands. even just off the major interstates, you can find fruit stands at major gas stations like shell or exxon. i'm looking forward to the summer, so i can find me some yummy, juicy, home grown tomatoes.

so after a rocky start yesterday (the boy was irritated by me being irritated and tried to ignore me the best he could cause momma has some road rage, for sure), meaning it took me friggin' 45 minutes to figure out how to get out of the town we live in, we finally were headed in the right direction (with at least one more mis-step along the way).

traffic was insane. i was hoping two days after christmas it wouldn't be so bad, but i do live in a state with a bunch of jewish folks (please, cut me some slack, my brother-in-law/sister and their family are jewish and easily see the humor, in fact, making fun of themselves)

sarasota is like any beach town, people riding bicycles everywhere, crazy traffic, and flat landscape lined with palmettos. great, really.

they had rented a condo (townhouse) across the street from the beach, but a short walk (after negotiating a long line of traffic on both sides of the street, yet people were nice enough to stop and let us pass) the beach was one of the loveliest i've seen. the blue of the ocean, the whitest sand you can imagine...really awesome and it makes me a bit happier that i decided to move here (plus, i saw some great places along the way that i would like to start my "americana travel logs")

unfortunately, even tho they were on the sunset side of the coast, i didn't get photos of that(sniff)as we were heading off to a fine mexican (yeah, i get the "coincidence" but they haven't had good mexican food since they lived in california) restaurant (which really was pretty good, if i do say so myself) at the time of sunset.

we did, the next day (today), head over to the beach and went "shelling." even z-man, who is so pale i fear he may actually be a vampire, went with us, and it was a great bonding experience for one and all.

and most of all, z, who has not so discreetely, been clamoring to know his "family," had a wonderful time. we spent the whole ride home, massive-near-missed-wrecks and all, talking.

and even more than that, he's agreed to do many more things with me (which is a chore, usually, to pull him away from his computer)

it was much easier (and faster) finding our way back. my brother-in-law wanted us to stay another night, telling me "family" is the most important thing to him, but i really felt it was time to come home. hopefully, z and i will be able to go to ny to visit them on the shores of lake ontario.

i miss my oldest sister, we are so much alike. and more than that, i showed z that no matter where you are "from" that location doesn't "define" you. you define you. and he was more than happy to discover that not everyone in his family is "country." my sister is much like me, very private(and because of this, she never mentioned it, yet her proud husband did), but she gave me a "signed" copy of her book (look, over there <---, at the link) and i, being the non-fiction whore i am, am so looking forward to reading it.

as soon as i get my photoshop installed on my new computer, i will post photos in flickr. anyone who wants to see, need only email me and ask me what my "id" is. for some maybe not so obvious reasons, i don't want to do it publically.

so ya'll, i'm a happy camper tonight! and z and i are already planning so many more trips for the future (daytona week, here we come!)

;-)