Travelogue: Summer Road Trip to Sarasota, Florida
Delights and Detours Along the Way
A week ago today, my partner MaxZine and I jumped into a rental car and traveled south to Sarasota, Florida, to visit MaxZine’s mom for her 91st birthday. We had an adventure with lots of driving, yummy food, and a few surprises here and there.
The day we left, we sat through traffic resulting from an accident heading south on I-24 through Tennessee, and the slow-down continued through downtown Atlanta. The skyline was lovely to behold as we inched along.
During our first full day in Florida, we ventured up to St. Petersburg to walk in their trans march during Pride weekend. (MaxZine wore a shirt I made that was well-received by the crowds.) We were among thousands of marchers and spectators alike celebrating the joys of being queer. It felt wonderful to be among our people.
Back in Sarasota, we visited the tail end of the George Harrison exhibit at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens while enjoying many gorgeous blooms.
One of our go-to places in Sarasota is the Ringling Museum. We visited their Asian Art Museum (the green-tiled building in the photo below) which had lots of gorgeous textiles, sculptures, and paintings.
Of course, the grounds of the entire Ringling estate alone are worth the price of admission. Here is the gorgeous Ca’ d’Zan mansion.
They have sprawling Banyan trees everywhere.
Hidden along the way are statues swallowed up by trees.
We also enjoyed their summer circus show that featured a goofy clown, a world-class juggler, a famous trapeze artist, a fabulous quick-change artist, and the incredible all-female acrobatic hand balance act from Ethiopia called Trio Black Diamond. Our front-row seats did not disappoint.
On the return trip, we enjoyed a delicious lunch with a friend at Bole Ethiopian Restaurant in south Atlanta before visiting the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for the first time. MaxZine and I have been to several botanical gardens for free (thanks to the reciprocal membership program we gain access to through our Cheekwood Gardens membership in Nashville), and this one was impressive both for its overall design and its mind-boggling biodiversity. I saw several plants I had never seen before, and their current exhibit Alice’s Wonderland is an ingenious and bold spectacle full of large living sculptures and topiaries. My face was officially melted.
To top it all off, they even had a small and very charming Japanese garden.
As we drove back through the Tennessee-Georgia border, we took a quick 12-minute detour up to Lookout Mountain just south of Chattanooga. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the panoramic view was spectacular.
Since we were so close to Chattanooga, we decided to pick up our favorite shiitake mushroom pizza for dinner. While we waited for our to-go order, we took a quick stroll across a few city blocks. They have a wonderful walking bridge that is currently closed for repairs, but I still managed to get a good photo of it.
Needless to say, Chattanooga is a wonderful spot for a road trip detour that’s right off the freeway. We plan on returning as soon as we can.
We made it back to our home in the woods of Middle Tennessee in the early evening and enjoyed a glorious sunset as we entered our county.
Of course, we could have jumped onto a plane and gotten to Sarasota in a couple of hours, but we would have missed all of the rich culture strewn along the southern highways of America.
I am happy to be back home, but on the road, we got to see all kinds of life in real time.
My eyes, melted face, and hopeful spirit were all made better for it.
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