God it's been a lovely day! Everything's been going my way. I took up croquet today and I'm on fire...

After the past week and a half, I've really been questioning why I left Florida three years ago. Not to say that I would move back, but never say never I suppose. A lot of people that I know, including my parents sometimes, think that I will essentially end up starting a career in Florida because that's where the jobs are. I'm not sure if that is true, but the more I thought about this week...the better the idea sounded. But don't go jumping to conclusions! This is just me talking out loud! I also have stated that I fell in love with Tennessee, so I think I have just as good a chance of moving out there as I do going back to Florida...

Because let's face it. Wareham sucks. There is nothing there for me anymore. Time to move on....

ANYWHO.

I've been back to Key West twice since I moved away in 2006 but those visits seemed somewhat empty for whatever reasons. Maybe because I was with my parents, maybe because I was staying on Stock Island and not in actual KW, maybe because I was sick for one of the visits, maybe because I embarrassed myself at a Super Bowl party with an open bar...really, who knows. But this trip.....oh, it truly felt great to be back. And of course, like I wrote in the last entry, my visit started off with a bang - Duval Street style. I ended up staying Monday through Sunday, with five of those nights being at my friend Jack's house (thanks Jack!) and one night with Mark and Gina on Stock Island. And after the first night, there was no other nights like that (Thank god.) My liver isn't up to Key West standards anymore...and I'm actually quite thankful for that.  Don't get me wrong, I can still party with the best of them....just not every night!

Lots of fun was had while I was visiting. I spent many hours at Jack Flat's eating all the food I so terribly miss sometimes. I even had a couple meals at Caroline's and a frozen drink from Fogarty's. Oh, I miss the perks of working for that company...but if someone were to ask, I would work back at Jack Flat's in a heartbeat. I really do love that place. I had so much fun when I was there. We also spent some time at the Lazy Gecko where Jack introduced me to his friends Brian and Jan. (Hey guys!). I even got Jack to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, The Cafe. It's a vegan/vegetarian place and it is fabulous. Everything is fresh, flavorful and healthy! I went back to Red Fish, Blue Fish once but never ventured there again. Meh, I don't really care.

The second full day that I was there, Jack and I went to lunch at Chico's on Stock Island and ended up doing an off-island bar crawl. We went to Hogfish, Geiger Key and Hurricane Hole. It was fun! It was nice to get away from the tourists, even though technically, that's what I was this week...

After we did that, Jack had finagled tickets for a sunset cruise aboard Sebago but no one signed up for it. So....instead they bumped us to an even better deal! We got to sail aboard the Schooner Appledore, which offers more then just a keg of beer and is a gorgeous wooden sailboat built in the late 70's. She's even sailed around the world! The sunset wasn't the best, as it had been somewhat crummy all day, but still it was fun....even if their sangria did taste like gingerbread. Hmmm...

Another fun thing that happened was that I FINALLY WENT PARA-SAILING!!! I've kind of wanted to do this since college and after conquering my rollercoaster fears last weekend in Orlando, I figured this would be a piece of cake. Once again, Jack hooked us up thanks to his hotel job and Thursday afternoon we were able to do some flying! I would be a liar if I didn't say that I was slightly nervous. OK, I was a little more then slightly. Especially after seeing the first people take off. It looked like it just whipped you into the sky! But in actuality, it was pretty tame. Of course, if you're afraid of heights then I wouldn't recommend doing it, but I have no problem in that department. Being 300 feet above Key West was amazing! You could see straight over to the other side of the island, see the two cruise ships that were in port and even down beyond to Stock Island. I didn't scream. I didn't swear. I didn't lose feeling in my arms. I didn't fall into the ocean. And yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat!!!!

Hmmm...what else happened in Key West...oh! There were big powerboat races going on this week. Not big as in mega-yachts, but big as in hardcore. They were crazy cigarette boats and one of them (Miss Geico) could go over 200 miles an hour! Though I didn't get to see any racing, they did have a little parade down Duval Friday night and then the street was closed for a couple hours so people could check them out. Really neat! There's always something going on Cayo Hueso!

After spending five fun days in Key West, I went and spent some time with family friends Mark and Gina on Stock Island, which is the next island up. When I lived in Key West, this was the first place I lived at for four months...on their couch. It was relaxing to just really not do much. They took me out sailing on their sailboat the Claybasket, made me a delicious home-cooked meal and let me show off all my pictures so far as a slideshow. 

As much as I kind of didn't want to leave Key West, I was getting antsy to get back in the driver's seat and be by myself for a while. I had a lot of fun and I hope that next time I visit it won't be an almost two year gap in between. My next stop was Naples where I spent two nights with family friends (and Massachusetts neighbors) Eric and Linda. It was such a lovely day out that I would have been a fool if I didn't take advantage of it so I stopped along Route 1 a couple times to snap some pictures and visit the Bahia Honda State Park where there are some amazing beaches and the old historic railroad bridge. I pondered the thought of going out to Pigeon Key, the island in the middle of the Seven Mile Bridge, but decided that I wouldn't have time. So here are some cool shots from the Bahia Honda area.

Also, along the way, I decided to play extreme tourist and shell out some money for an Everglades ride. I was driving Route 41, or the Tamiami Trail, through the "River of Grass" and the Indian Reservations so I stopped off at Gator Town. The ticket for the airboat ride also included a gator wrestling show...which was interesting and made me slightly squeamish when the guy went to tackle this prehistoric creature! People are nuts. But I did touch an alligator. So that was cool. The airboat ride was fun, but I enjoyed the Cooperstown ride we did a couple years ago...that one was much more thorough and educational.

Yesterday was a full out day of relaxation. I sat by the pool, got some color (oh my god!), went swimming and even finished my book and started a new one. Thanks Eric and Linda for letting me stay with you guys! And then today, I power drove for 10 hours straight only stopping twice and covered almost 600 miles of ground and most of that were backroads. I drove the Florida Panhandle and now I'm sitting comfy in a Days Inn in Panama City. Let me tell you something about my impression of the beginning of the panhandle. It is...interesting. It's the poor man's St. Petersburg, or Treasure Island...old washed up tourist towns. But this was REDNECK and with lots of falling apart buildings. But that is what makes the trip so much fun - seeing all the different parts of the country. Tomorrow I will head for New Orleans and I already have a hotel booked! I am SO excited to get back to Bourbon Street...even though it won't be much fun without Room 208 (HEY-O!) this time.

Once again, this was longer then I expected. But once I get going, I can't stop writing. I really hope people are reading this. Between putting all the pictures on Facebook and writing this blog, it's really been time-consuming. I know I don't have to go through the trouble of doing all of this, but it's fun to be writing again. I just want other people to be able to experience what I'm doing. Leave a comment if you like what you read!