Something to Declare

Stef and Stan in Sarasota

Friday, February 12, 2026 (Final Post of This Trip)

Yesterday morning, we took a walk on Siesta Beach. Very foggy and surreal:

The choice for yesterday’s activity came down to the Ringling Museum of Art and the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Because the fog burned off and the weather was spectacular (sunny in the low 70s,) the Gardens won.

Another reason for selecting the gardens was the installation that had been set up only four days ago: Alexander Calder: The Nature of Movement. Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is credited with being the inventor of the mobile as a modern art form. We’ve all seen his stuff, e.g.:

The Selby Gardens website notes:

Calder’s work is a great source of interest to the team at Selby Gardens. His fascination with energy and motion, coupled with his exploration of suspension and equilibrium, provides creative inspiration for the dynamic display of … plants.

Essentially the Selby Gardens has melded Calder-style mobile sculpture with botanical works created by nature, viz.:

Calder was reputed to have really loved the color red.

Pay attention to the photo immediately above, showing a pond with artificial floating red leaves that I dubbed, “Calder Lillies.”

Of course, Selby Gardens displays other examples of botanical beauty, viz.:

There are also huge Banyan trees……

…and a waterfall…

…and other combinations of botanical and non-botanical beauty:

This evening we have tickets for a concert performed by the Sarasota Orchestra. Founded in 1949, it is Florida’s oldest continuing operating orchestra.

The concert is titled, “Variations on America.” It features works by American composers like George Gershwin and Charles Ives, to be performed in Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall:

Van Wezel is an iconic seashell-shaped venue, opened in 1970. It was designed by William Wesley Peters of the Taliesin Associates, and who was a protégé of our favorite architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The design of the building was inspired by seashells found in the Sea of Japan, with the purple color selected by Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (the architect’s widow). It was initially dubbed The “Purple Cow,” or “Purple People Seater.” (Heh.)

And tomorrow (Saturday) we leave the Gulf Coast to return to (much colder) New York City.

The next round of “Something to Declare” will describe our Esprit Travel culinary tour of Japan, coming up in May. As you might imagine, there will be lots of food porn. Stay tuned.