Thrift Shop Adventures, tierneytravels

Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in early January in the post 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, I mentioned I might do a 2023 Recap of my travel in 2023. Since we are now halfway through February I decided to skip that 2023 recap, but I will share a trip I went on in early December 2023 with my sister that I didn’t post about in 2023.

So my awesome sister, who knew that December is always a challenging time for me (12/13/23 was the 5th anniversary of my late husband’s passing), came up with the idea that we should go on a “Sisters’ Trip”/do something fun in December to distract me.

She randomly selected Englewood, Florida because it is near the coast, had nice Airbnbs (she loves to stay in Airbnbs) and seemed to have a low touristy/laid back vibe. My sister loves to visit places are on not highly touristy but have a cozy vibe.

We stayed at a cottage above a garage at a house near the beach and was called “The Tree House”. The charming elderly proprietor lived on site and had decorated it in a quaint vintage “shabby chic” style with Asian influence:

The house’s garden was amazing and had a little pool as well as lots of scenic seating and wandering about areas:

And there was a garden kitty to pet:

We were able to walk everywhere including the charming downtown and only used our rental car a couple of times. One of those times was when we went on a thrift shopping excursion one day (my sister LOVES thrifting and introduced me to it years ago).

Here I am with a fantastic Marimekko purse I found for $5 at one of the thrift shops:

We visited a giant resale and flea market type of shop where we browsed for hours it seemed and ended up getting ourselves each a teddy bear as a souvenir of our fabulous time together:

It appeared to be a family run shop and we made the teenage boy running the cash register laugh when we were checking out our bear purchase, by making the bears talk to each other and him. It was fun to be so lighthearted and silly with my sister!

This sign at the shop made us laugh:

Ha!

We ate lots of seafood, as I live in a “landlocked” state and whenever I am near fresh fish, then fresh fish and I are together!

We also went to the beach and had a lovely afternoon wandering about the coastal area:

Because it was not a high touristy area we got to hang out with “the locals” and spent each morning at an awesome coffee shop walking distance from our cottage. We hung out one morning with an elderly gentleman (Englewood appears to be a large retirement community) who was from Colorado and his very friendly dog who seemed to know every other local that came into the coffee shop. We had fun chatting with people while eating our breakfast in the living room like seating area at the front of the shop:

You can see in the first photo that the dog is getting his regular “pup cup” of whipped cream.

It seemed like a wonderful and friendly place (with a super laid back vibe) plus the temperature was wonderful in early December – 60s to 70s F (16 – 21 C) – but I was attacked by a zillion mosquitos (they seem to love me) and I do not think I could live in Florida unless I walked around with a mosquito net on – ha!

I’ll close my little travelogue with a magnet that was on the refrigerator of the cottage we stayed in that made me smile!

Unknown's avatar

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

18 thoughts on “Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida”

  3. wonderful, thanks for taking us along on your holiday. what a perfect location of what looks like a perfect get-away. Well done sister, finding such an interesting place. Talking teddy bears – well imagine that!

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I love Englewood! My parents always stayed there whenever they visited decades ago and once they moved to Florida, I always had them take me there. Why you ask (pretend you did), because Englewood beach is one of the few beaches that fossilized sharks teeth (black teeth) can be found. We would walk the beach and collect all we could, I still have them. Score on the gorgeous purse too, it looks brand new! I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since you lost your late husband, I still remember when you posted about it.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. What a nice sister! Looks like a very cozy place and I’m glad you girls had a good time. I only went to FL once to Disney when my son was four. Although it’s not high on my bucket list, your blog post made me think about it. I travel to Brazil once a year, maybe stop for a few days on my way in/out.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.