Sarasota, St Armand's Key and Historic High Springs Florida - Pt. 1
Every year our three eldest children go off to summer camp for a week. This year however, only one of them went. So when it came time to pick up David (6 1/2 hours away from home) we decided to make it a weekend getaway as a little treat for the 3 kids who had stayed home. This was great as it allowed us to explore some special places in Florida that we had not been to yet!! We had planned on leaving early on Friday, driving about 3 hours to Sarasota, spending the day exploring the town, and the beach and then heading on to the Gainesville area (another 3 1/2 hour drive), where we would spend the night. Saturday we would visit David at Camp Kulaqua where there would be church service and the baptism of some of the campers (it's a Church affiliated camp). Time permitting, we would then visit the Historic little town of High Springs, FL just 15 minutes away from camp. Sunday we would pick David up at camp, and then head on over to Rainbow Springs, a GORGEOUS state park with crystal clear turquoise waters, manatees, tubing, kayaking and hiking trails! But it was not meant to be. All that week the WHOLE East Coast (from NY on down to FL) was under heavy rain, winds, and tornado warnings. On Thursday our home was pelted with hail, extremely high winds and thunderstorms. That night we decided not to head out the following morning. Friday we awoke to more of the same. And worse, it was covering the whole state of Florida so there was no escaping it. We decided to wait and see if Saturday would be any better, but we were pretty sure we would not be heading up. So sure in fact, that I didn't even pack!!
Whenever we go down this stretch, we don't count barns or out-of-state tags, we count alligators!! Well, we were about 30 minutes and 12 alligators into our journey when we saw a woman by the side of the road. We stopped to see if she needed help and found out that her tire had blown up and she didn't have a spare!!! She had just moved to Fort Lauderdale two days earlier and had removed the spare to fit more things in the trunk. However, she was still working in Naples. She had been unable to reach anyone on the phone, and the two police cars she'd seen had passed by and had failed to stop and help her!!
While there are fences on Alligator Alley, it is NOT a safe place for a person to be alone. Much less a woman!! Well, she asked where we were heading and if we could please drop her off at the first exit into Naples. She was a Home Health Nurse and had an elderly patient waiting for her. We decided to give her a lift, and my husband said, tell me where you need to be and I will take you there. So we ended up driving her to her job. Since this was her first time going to work from the Alley, she didn't really know the way, so we got lost, but we finally made it! When we got to her job she told us that while she had been on the side of the road she had been praying for God to send her a good Samaritan, because she needed to get off the road. She also needed someone soon because she had told her boss she would be at work by 10am (we stopped at 8:15am). She gave her word she would be there even though she had no idea how she was going to get there! Well, we dropped her off at her job at 9:57am!! Now that's faith!! While this set us back about 1 hour, and made it so that we missed the "window" to visit David at camp on Saturday, I can't tell you how great it felt to help someone in need, and the kids didn't mind the setback!
Since we knew we weren't going to make it in to David's camp on time (still 5 hours away), we decided to head to Sarasota and spend a few hours exploring the town. Sarasota is adorable!! If you are ever up near Tampa, it is a must stop!! If we had more time we would have spent more time exploring the city, but since our time was limited we headed on over to Armand's Key, a barrier island of Sarasota, just over the bridge!
For part 2, on Sarasota's Lido Beach and Armand's Key, read below!!
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