Hey everyone, it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything for bakerstreet. This past year has been a lot of just figuring out what I’m going to do with my life after graduating college this past June. I worked for a few months in Chicago before deciding to make the big move to Sarasota, Fl. Primarily, I decided to move here to be closer to my parents, sister, and nephew, but also I needed to get away from the cold. Although I do really miss wearing fall styles, I still indulge in PSLs and bought a few pumpkins for the house. Let it be known that I will NOT miss winter. If I ever need my fill, I’ll head to Colo. To ski or something.
So I came to Florida on October 6th, so I’ve been here exactly 2 weeks—wow! I came down here without a job so while I’ve been here that’s been my number one priority. My mother drove down with me from Chicago and it took us almost exactly 24 hours to make it. My parents live in Englewood, FL which is near Venice, an hour south of Sarasota, and two hours south of Tampa. I’ve been focusing my job search on Sarasota because it is gorgeous there and there are more young people than in Englewood—which is a smaller town but is becoming more popular for older folks.
My parents moved to Englewood when I was a sophomore in college. I am the youngest of 4 kids so when I went to college, they started coming to Florida for the winters. In 2013 they found a place they really liked in Englewood and moved in. Ever since we’ve had a great place to come for spring breaks and Christmas, and of course to visit Disney! My mom and I are huge Disney fans. The first time I ever went was when I was 7 and for a long time that was the only time I had ever been. In my senior year of high school we vacationed in Sanibel Island—which is about 2 hours south of Englewood—and my whole family stayed in a timeshare and then lived on a sailboat for a week during Christmas. After a week, my sister, brother, and dad went back to Illinois, and my mom and I continued on to Orlando. We were determined to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter because it had just opened the summer before. Needless to say, it was fabulous. We even saw Tom Felton there and it snowed (in Orlando!!!) Since then we’ve been back at least 3 times and once to the newer addition, but we’ve also made it to various Disney parks.
Epcot is my favorite park. I’ve been there a lot and since I’ve been to many of the countries in real life it’s extra exciting to see how they are depicted by Disney. When my mom and I came down this past week we decided we wanted to try something new, so we went to Animal Kingdom—a park that I have never been to but my mom had. We went on a safari ride where we saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, hippos, and a lot of other awesome animals. Authentically we rode in a big safari truck and the driver would point out various animals and tell us facts about each and where they come from. We learned that African Elephants’ ears are in the shape of Africa and that is how you can tell them apart from Asian elephants.
After the safari, which we waited in line for over an hour and the whole excursion probably took two, we were starving. Disney doesn’t always have the best food. I think it depends if you go to a super nice restaurant or just the typical amusement park dig. We ended up getting something quick and ate off the child’s menu because we were going to a character dinner for dinner (lol!). I forgot to mention that we got to Animal Kingdom fairly late. We usually are there when the parks open so we have to leave Englewood at 6am, but we left at 8 and made a few stops so we didn’t get there until 11. That means the after the safari and lunch, we had only been on one ride and the park was closing at 6 that night.
After lunch we decided to go on the ride that gets you soaked, and it was pretty freakin’ hot that day, so it worked out well. Then we went on the mountain ride that has all the facts about the yeti and my mom asked if all the stuff in the “museum” was real, which made me laugh a lot. I know people believe in the yeti or yetis, but I don’t think the majority of the information was based on real experience.
After the yeti-mountain ride, we had time for one more thing. We had to be in the dinosaur part of the park so we kind of had to hoof it, because it was 415 and our dinner was at 5. It was a ride that “took you into the future of time-travel” and we had to go back in time and get a dinosaur while avoiding the asteroid that destroyed all of the dinosaurs. It was kind of lame, but I still love Disney. We made it to our dinner reservation with time to spare so we sat at the bar and got mojitos in tiki cups.
At the character dinner my mom made me get a picture with each one because they came around to each table, so I made her too. At the end of the day, we had a great time. I love hanging with my momma.
To talk about my Florida “adventure” more as a whole, it’s kind of a cool place. I’ve heard that Florida is a lot of old people and unsatisfactory characters, but in reality everyone here is from a different place and more or less chooses to be here. I haven’t had a ton of time to explore Sarasota but I have a little bit and from what I’ve seen I think that it’s a cool town with a lot of culture. Plus they have a Whole Foods.
I don’t have solid plan and don’t know what my future in Florida holds—whether it’s pursuing further education or just finding a job and working on my career. But I’m excited to find out and see more that the state has to offer.
X,Sarah
Runaway Blond 