Christmas Parade

Just west of Sarasota, on Lido Key (a Key is an island just off the coast) sits a shopping area called St. Armands Circle. There is a giant traffic circle and around the perimeter sits about 200 shops and cafes. Very high end; we didn't buy much. Its a lovely place to walk around and is well decorated for Christmas.

There aren't many trees here shedding their leaves so when we found this one we were impressed. Leaves weren't falling, it was the flower petals falling so the ground was covered with soft aromatic petals. Paradise!

After spending most of the day wandering around not spending money, we met with some new friends from our park for the evening. We are sitting in a Tiki hut beside the marina in Sarasota. Here we had a few refreshments and something to eat before wandering over to see the Christmas parade.

Once darkness fell, the parade started. Now, you must remember where we are. Sleighs cutting through a soft blanket of snow just doesn't fit the climate so they do parades a bit differently. Over 30 boats of all sizes decorated for the season paraded past large crowds standing on the banks and sitting on boats in the marina.

Although it was a Christmas parade, some boats (yachts) had a theme as well. This was the Elvis boat with Elvis waving from the upper deck with Santa as his music blasted over the water. There was lots of clapping, cheering and singing as this one went by.

This beauty was about 50 feet long and I would say the best decorated. It has thrusters instead of regular propellers so it stopped and spun completely around in one spot as everyone cheered. Quite a display.

This little boat seemed to have the most fun. Lots of singing, waving and shouts let us know that the Christmas spirit was alive and well on this vessel. How much Christmas spirit was hard to tell, but it made them quite jolly. It was a lovely warm evening and walking back to the car past all the yachts amongst all the merrymakers made for the warmest and most unique Christmas parade we've ever been to.