The Traveling Steve's

After a quick weekend trip to Roanoke, we woke up Monday morning up and had breakfast at McCoy’s Restaurant, at the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, where we stayed last night. After breakfast we checked out and headed to Sarasota, Florida, where I’m working this week, and Steve (DOS) has his home.

I rode with DOS from Orlando to the Sarasota  Airport, which took a little over two hours.  I rented a car for the week from National, and while not an SUV, I got a nice fully-loaded red Buick.  I went in to work in the afternoon, and then met DOS later in the evening of dinner.  I’m stayed at the Hyatt Place Hotel this week, while DOS’s house is a short 10 minute’s drive away.

Like most weeks on the road, I was busy in the daytime, but fortunately didn’t have to work late in the evenings.  We had dinners together on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, while Tuesday night I had to drive back to Orlando for a dental appointment early Wednesday morning. We went to a different restaurant each night, all at the nearby and upscale UTC Mall.  The UTC (University Town Center) Mall was quite modern and chic, and had several high quality restaurants there in addition to the shops.

On Monday night we had dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille.  This restaurant (and others) were on the mall equivalent of restaurant row, as they faced the parking lot, were adjacent to each other, and even offered valet parking should you so desire.  Brio was a classy casual restaurant, with nice interiors, and giant palm trees giving it an air of the tropics.  I had a steak, while DOS ordered chicken, which was literally a whole chicken!  When they brought the order, we thought they had made a mistake and ordered it for the two of us to share, but the server said no – that’s how it comes!  HUGE!

My steak by contrast felt tiny compared to the mammoth chicken, but it was very good.

On Tuesday I headed back to Orlando for a quick overnight in anticipation on my dentist appointment in the morning.  I went to my dental appointment (actually a specialist referred by my dentist) for a root canal consultation; never fun.  I must say though that the entire staff and dentist were exceptionally nice and made me feel comfortable, as I’m a bit anxious when going to the dentist for major work.  I can handle my regular cleanings fine, but when they start doing fillings, crowns etc, I freak out a bit as I’m a bit claustrophobic.  They didn’t do the work on Tuesday, but scheduled it for Monday Nov 14, and also told me they can do sedation dentistry, which for me will be good.  DOS said he would drive me there and back as I can’t drive with the sedative they will give me.

After the dental consultation, I headed back to Sarasota, but now before doing my civic duty and VOTING!  Yes, it’s the 2016 Presidential election, and in Florida we have early voting, so I made sure I got my vote cast.

Wednesday was DOS’s birthday, and I took him out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, also at the UTC in Sarasota. They had at least five birthdays at the restaurant that night, and each time I sang along Happy Birthday, but sang ‘Dear Dos’ each time instead of the nearby table’s birthday boy or girl.  DOS told me ahead of time not to have anyone sing or recognize his birthday, so I didn’t want to embarrass him in public with a half a dozen waiters singing in his face.  We had a good dinner here, and didn’t even have any cheesecake!

Thursday we went to my favorite restaurant of the week; Season’s 52, also at the UTC in Sarasota.  We have this restaurant in Orlando, though we’ve never been, and this is one of my new favorite restaurants.  It’s elegant, but upscale casual, and the menu changes regularly with the ‘seasons’.  The menu lists the calorie content per items, and the food is reasonably healthy.  I had the swordfish while DOS had the lamb shanks.  We also shared appetizers: a flat bread pizza, and chicken kabobs – both tasty and light – not too overfilling.

Now it’s Thursday night, and I’m packing up for the weekend away.  Tomorrow DOS and I leaving Sarasota, and will be going to Jekyll Island for the weekend.  I’ve written about Jekyll Island before, and have a link to it at the top of the menu page, but will blog about it some more come this weekend – we love Jekyll!