Siesta Key

Our friends and family in Michigan probably don't have much sympathy, but we were glad to get out of the cold for a few days to spend a long weekend in Siesta Key. We flew into Sarasota on Friday afternoon and ended the day with a wonderful dinner at Cafe Gabbiano. Saturday morning was sunny but chilly, so we spent the day checking out Sarasota and St. Armands Circle, shopping, and eating more good food. We did get a little bit of beach time in over the weekend, but it was just cool enough in Florida to keep us from being total beach bums on this trip. Good thing we're going back in March!

Whispering Sands condo:

John at Siesta Key Oyster Bar:

Christmas in Michigan

This year we spent Christmas with Lauren's family in Suttons Bay.  After getting up at 4am and spending a few hours in the Detroit airport on Christmas Eve, we finally arrived and had a wonderful white Christmas in Michigan.

Christmas morning in Suttons Bay:

On Christmas morning, the kids next door came over and asked if they could sled in our front yard.  After watching them have so much fun, we borrowed their sleds and discovered that the front yard is actually a very decent sledding hill.  The weather didn't cooperate with our plans to ski, but the sledding made up for that a little bit.

We ended the trip with an outing to the State Theater in downtown Traverse City to see Slumdog Millionaire.  Although there were no sightings of Michael Moore, we thought the movie was great.