Longboat Key Club

Perfect little community and wonderful environment. Private beaches, beautiful and lush landscape, and some of the most extravagantly constructed homes in the world. Golf and tennis, boating, gulf to bay living. Longboat Key has it all, and the club culture simply adds a cherry (and whipped cream) on top.

I grew up here, and though it was rather life living on a deserted island at times, it gave me such a distinct advantage over all the other children (in peace, education, and mindfulness). My own now have the same advantage, which has only been positive for all.

Watching my family now on the beach, playing in the surf and hunting seashells, sand dollars, and seaweed the same way I did when I was a kid is entirely too amusing. Seeing the coastline change? Or the climate of the day (from misty mornings to blistering sun and back into balmy nights)? The waters and their ecosystems? It’s so good. Treasure hunting is a perfect afternoon past time (though I suspect the island residents already have found most of the better doubloons).

Reflectively speaking, I can’t even explain what a lovely atmosphere exists on this island if you are lucky enough to spend your time here. I can only say how fortunate I am to be a part of it. There are very few places in the world to be that are as nice as LBK.

Just remember to pace yourself for any commute. The bridges and traffic can really cause delays in your day. Personally, I would rather pull in somewhere and wait for evening before I leave the island… or stroll Saint Armands Circle before heading to the mainland, any day.

Story? John Ringling used to own the island, and both sides of my family have been vacationing here since the early 1900s. My father’s side of the family (and my father) were personal friends. Across the bay is the Ca D’Zan, John and Mable’s winter residence… which is now a popular tourist destination. If you look closely from the water or in just the right light from the island, however, you can see Charlie’s mansion next door.

When my dad was a kid, he ran away from home and spent about three months there in Charlie’s mansion living with with him, behind those lovely walls of glass. Sailing the bay, fishing and exploring the local sand bars and island beaches along what are now the intercoastal waterways… all in all, my dad became quite the salt water mariner during that short Sarasota time (back when Longboat Key could only be accessed by boat). That is, until he got wanderlust again, lied about his age, and ran off to join the Navy.

Longboat has a way of doing that to you, giving you a passion for the island life, a tropical breeze, and the simplicity of a life on the water. I suppose that is why he passed the same loves on to me; I love the sun, someplace warm, anything that is steeped with adventure. Throw in my love of anything having to do with people who love the sea, and you are right there out to sea with me. Either that, or one might say it makes you seem a little “dingy”.

Note: Those who laugh last, always, never get the joke.

The best reminder to be taken away from Longboat Key does not stem from the grandeur of the place… it is not found clamouring for the opulence. The knowledge actually arrived for me as an epiphany long ago. It is best illustrated contextually in harmony with something Benjamin Franklin once said, “Joy is not in things, it is in us.” As such, the Platonic ideal embodied in this perfect thought form leads me to my biggest point about living a life on Longboat Key.

It only takes one sunset from an island view to remind you how precious life is, and that the times spent together in a life made up of seashells, lightning storms, and clowning together on sandy beaches are more meaningful than anything else most humanity will ever have the opportunity to know. Life is a circus, just like the Ringling Brothers said. Lions and tigers and bears can abound. For that reason, the memories and quiet times, I will always love Longboat Key. It is a perfect retreat… and that’s my story.

Home, sweet home is how I deal with it.

;-)