Back from a whirlwind trip to the Venice FL area. We were *really* lucky that our nonstop flight from Tampa to San Diego went as scheduled – the status board at Tampa showed dozens of delayed and cancelled flights, but ours was intact. Dec 27th was a busy and tough air travel day, and I suspect today (the 28th) will be much worse. All those cancellations will cascade into the next day, plus continued weather issues in the northeast – glad we’re on terra firma today.

On the 26th we visitied a really interesting place – Siesta Key and Siesta Beach. Just north of Venice, it’s a massive beach covered in the most unique sand I’ve ever seen. Pure white, the smallest, finest grains you can imagine. It’s like powder – some call it sugar-sand. The beach also held more people than I’ve ever seen on a beach – it’s apparently *very* popular.

We didn’t try the water – at 68 degrees, too cold for me. But the beach was special. Turns out the beach sand is pure quartz, washed ashore after being eroded off Appalachian mountains millions of years ago. The quartz sand traveled down rivers, into the ocean and somehow ended up on the west side of Florida. From Wikipedia:

Siesta Beach (sometimes known as Siesta Key Beach) is a beach located on Siesta Key in the U.S. state of Florida.

Unlike beaches elsewhere that are made up mostly of pulverized coral, Siesta Beach’s sand is 99% quartz, most of which comes from the Appalachian Mountains.^[1] Over time the feldspar and mica have been removed from the rock, leaving almost pure quartz. Even on the hottest days, the sand is so reflective that it feels cool underfoot. According to Harvard University geologists, it’s estimated that the sand on Siesta Beach and Crescent Beach on Siesta Key is millions of years old, having its origin in the Appalachians and flowing down the rivers from the mountains until it eventually was deposited on the shores of Siesta Key.^[2]

The southern portion of Siesta Beach is alternatively called Crescent Beach, which extends to the seawall and Point of Rocks, an area with coral and active marine life.

Siesta Beach is not only long, but also expansively wide, especially around the Siesta Key Beach Pavilion section. The beach is so wide the city installed walking mats to help beachgoers get to the shore, where they can then walk on firmer wet sand.

So the beach is basically a quartz mountain moved from KY-TN-VA-NC via rivers over time. Go figure.

We stuck around for a nice sunset there and then trundled off for pizza at a downtown bar in Sarasota.

All in, another nice day in Florida. I was surprised that I liked the area so much – the beaches are hard to beat, and the golf courses aren’t bad either. The weather was perfect during our short stay there, and we enjoyed visiting our friends, so mission accomplished.