October 09th, 2017

There are surprises and then there are surprises!

For example, Tim and I had both read about a boat show that was happening in Sarasota this past weekend.  I would like to mention here that we both learned of this from different sources.  We both enjoy Boat Shows in general and this one was in the Sarasota Marina which has a lovely park with nice wide sidewalks that go all around it's perimeter. In fact, there is a sign that indicates, "Fitness Trail" with an arrow pointing at this walkway encouraging folks to circumnavigate.  We enjoy walking there and thought it would be a nice bonus after the Boat Show.

We arrived and were  surprised to immediately find a parking spot.  Normally, at a boat show, that is not the case.  That should have been our first clue.  We walked the short distance to the marina and while there were a lot of boats (it is a working marina after all) and there were lots of people, there was no boat show.  We were surprised again and this time, disappointed.

But undeterred, we skipped to part two of our goal, the literal walk in the park. To get to the park, we merely had to walk past the boats docked along the front and found.....

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the pretty walkway was flooding!  Surprise again!

At first we were mystified.  It was a beautiful day, light breeze, mostly sunny with a few big puffy clouds. What's the deal with all of this water? Did somebody leave the faucet running?

Of course we didn't let a little water deter us.  We aren't going to melt after all.  When we got to the park, it was just more of the same.  Water, water everywhere.  The water was so high that is was bubbled just tad higher than the walkway. It felt as if, at any moment the boats would just slide forward right up onto the sidewalk. And in fact, at least a couple did.  Tim found a bench that wasn't already flooded and behind him I could see the water creeping up.

As we waded through, we wondered what was causing this flooding.  It was especially tough to reconcile on such a gorgeous day.  Was the park and/or the marina sinking?  Was this evidence of global warming? Then it struck us.  Hurricane Nate.  It was all his fault.

How bizarre that a weather event that was happening in New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL was impacting us so strongly!  Think about it. New Orleans is, at minimum, a ten hour car drive away.  And that's with Tim driving, not me so you know there is no lollygagging. Wow!  And this wasn't even one of the big storms.  Yet this flooding was happening where we were.  Storm surge!  Kind of mind boggling.

On our way home, Tim decided to drive along a road we particularly like because it runs right along the water.  Water on one side, beautiful homes on the other.  Think, Pacific Coast Highway.  This particular road goes both north and south, though probably 95% of non-residents only turn south on this road. The south turn takes you for a long beautiful drive that curves and wanders for many miles.  The north part is probably less than 2 miles long and there is no turn around at the end.  It's also a bit narrower and honestly a little less well maintained.  So of course, we turned north.  You might have seen the facebook video I posted of this drive.  But just in case you did not, here is a still shot.

That was another surprise!  Whoa!  The part that looks like beach on the right is actually the front yards of some incredibly gorgeous homes.  The water just deposited a small beach there in the driveway.  We turned around (k-turned in someone's driveway..sorry about that folks) and went home.

Still we couldn't resist checking out our little beaches here on the island.  The yellow flags was waving fiercely at the lifeguard station and undertow alert flags as well. There were only a few people out walking the beach and nobody swimming but  as expected there were a couple of die-hard surfers and para-sailers in the water.

 The jetty was closed because about half of the parking lot was flooded.  It was wild.  But okay.  We were duly impressed and  now fully recognize the importance of paying attention to not just OUR weather but anyone in the gulf region.  Got it!  We will be careful.  Exciting, cannot deny that but we also realize the potential dangers. We will be cautious, we promise.

If you don't mind getting a little wet, there was great splash though.