Siesta Key beach, silky as cornflour

Siesta Key beach – half a mile of the finest, silkiest, most powdery sand ever

“Siesta Key #1 beach in USA,” boast the signs.

“Is it really?” I ask wonderingly.

“Who knows?”

The subject is deferred as no one can come up with a definitive answer.

And then Siesta Key beach swims into view, which is odd considering it is landmass and not a water body. But it swims, gentle reader, into the consciousness, gliding ever so gently, all white and blue, and turquoise and deep blue beyond.

Step onto the beach and I suddenly realize that advertising can really be true. This is the best beach in the US, possibly anywhere, because it has the world’s finest, whitest sand, silky as cornflour (or cornstarch, in the US). The sand feels blessedly cool to the touch, even after a burning hot day.

It is supposed to be the finest, whitest, silkiest beach in the world. Just that broad, half-mile stretch.

“It’s something to do with the tides,” residents tell me vaguely, “Turtle Beach, on the other side of the same Key, has coarse sand.” (For the uninitiated, Key is Florida-speak for island).

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
– Jack Kerouac