---

As Steve West mentioned, he and Brenda recently visited Sarasota for a week of fun. In advance, we rented an AirBNB (cat allergies prevented staying at my place) and kicked around some ideas for what to do, but we were concerned about unpredictable fatigue and other medical complications and knew that we had to take it one day at a time.

The trip had a bumpy start, with Kelly taken by ambulance to the ER the night before (she recovered quickly) and a difficult Southwest flight and Uber pickup for the Wests, but that all quickly felt like it was behind us as soon as the fun began. There were some naps and times that we were forced to slow down, but we stayed much more active than any of us expected in advance.

Steve knew that I collected board games and asked me to bring a sampling of favorites to the AirBNB, so I obliged. The hits were Azul, Roll for It, Timeline, Tsuro, and a game that I've barely played but apparently should give more chances, 5 Second Rule. To a less enthusiastic extent, we also enjoyed Machi Koro, Ticket to Ride, and Trivial Pursuit. Steve really wanted to play The Godfather: Corleone's Empire as a big fan of the movie, but we never found the time; perhaps on another trip.

I often spend Sunday afternoons at my local game store playing with friends, so when that day came, we decided to head there for Brenda & Steve to join in the usual fun. Azul quickly came right back out on the table, and Splendor and Flip 7 proved popular too. Unfortunately, the store was in the process of changing owners and being reorganized, and I was disappointed to discover loud music and children playing loud video games close to the game tables, in what had previously been a quiet space with just a classic-rock FM radio station playing at low volume in the background, so the fun was diminished a bit.



One of the Wests' oldest and dearest friends, who coincidentally knew Brenda and Steve independently of each other prior to them even meeting, happened to live nearby in Venice. We arranged for her to visit us for a dinner out at a local Italian restaurant. Although a traffic jam cost us some time together, the conversation was great and the meal good, too. This trip happened at the start of Kelly's busy season at work, so she wasn't able to join us for much of the week-long visit, but dinners like this were a welcome opportunity to join us and catch up. I'm going to stay vague about the friends' name and the conversation topics for sake of privacy, but it was still nice to see her.



To my surprise, Steve asked to visit a local mini-golf course, a more taxing physical activity than I expected. This particular pirate-themed course involved stairs up and down, but it also had a pen with baby alligators to feed with miniature fishing rods, so going was a no-brainer. We cooked in the sun (90 minutes and I was burnt) but had a good time on the course and seeing the gators.



Beyond the upscale foodie-hipster cloister of downtown restaurants, one of Sarasota's best eateries (usually first or second in USA Today's annual best-buffet-in-the-country poll) is an Amish breakfast buffet, so of course we had to get up early one morning to visit it. Besides the standard American breakfast dishes that you'd expect, it offers a blend of Amish dishes like fried mush with Southern flavors like tomato gravy. The three of us are on a spectrum of adventurous-eater to picky-eater and yet all really enjoyed the food, and Steve told me it reminded him of their honeymoon in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Afterwards we went upstairs to the home goods store (the "Mom stuff" store as Kelly calls it) for some souvenir shopping.



Other restaurant highlights: Returning to the hidden-gem Linger Lodge that Steve still remembered fondly from 17 years earlier, a German restaurant's best schnitzel and spaetzle, and a Spanish restaurant's beautiful mosaics. On the walk to the latter, Steve couldn't resist asking Brenda to pose for a photo in a particular storefront that made me want to play Rock Block. We were too tired on the first night of the trip to go anywhere, so we got some Chinese delivery via DoorDash and kept the leftovers, which made the fridge smell more and more like a Chinese restaurant with each passing day.



The conversation, of course! I've only met Brenda once or twice before this, so it was great to talk to her at length and hear about the things dear to her heart, from her family to her church to her childhood memories to her political causes. And Steve is a good conversationalist, as anyone can guess from meeting him at GooCon or just reading this site. We talked a lot about Funeratic's past and future (Steve's recall of long-ago Funeratic members far exceeds mine), and our philosophies of life and law and comedy, and how we both struggle with the limitations that our medical conditions place upon us. Steve is more fidgety that I remember and kept his hands busy with origami and doodling and card tricks while we talked, so I got to keep some small hand-made gifts at the end of the trip for which I'm grateful. I never once felt at a loss for things to say or misunderstood. I had forgotten that Steve went to school for audiology and started his career in that field, and he was able to suggest medication that has since really helped Kelly with some audio-processing problems.

When the visit was over (and the return to Maryland was a far smoother trip I'm told), the "borrowing" of so many spoons to get through the week really caught up to me, and I needed several days in bed to get my strength back, but it was worth the trouble. I'm grateful to have reconnected with old friends and had so much fun together.

---

Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »