Detour to Tennessee

March 5-7




Our trip from California to Key West was carefully planned.  Not so with the return trip!  In Key West we felt safely cocooned from the crazy weather occurring everywhere north of us.  So we decided to choose our route westward according to the weather reports.  Thanks to Cousin Bert for telling us about the Intelicast app for my iPad!  Should we take I-20 west from Atlanta, or could we visit my sister and family in Tennessee and head west on I-40?  If so, we could continue the northern route or cut down through Dallas to I-10.  Weather was fair so we headed north to Louisville, TN. 


How delightful to spend two nights at the beautiful lake house Bill and Fran built just up the hill from where Fran, Jay and I grew up.  We have many wonderful memories of visits here, and we love making more! And best of all were the visits with Jill and the kids, as well as meals with good friends from Maryville and Knoxville.  Too soon it was time to leave!

Dave playing cribbage with Zak

Bill and Fran, Zak, Jessie, Jill and Cooper

Homeward Bound - Georgia

February 27 - March 5

Georgia has taken me by surprise!  Except for a brief visit in 2011 to friends in St. Marys and a walk around Savannah, Georgia has always been just Atlanta, home of brother Chuck.  But we can now add Georgia State Parks to the must-visit list!  We camped our first night out of Florida at Reed Bingham SP in southern Georgia.

Sunset at Reed Bingham SP

The next day we met Jane, a good friend from high school for lunch in Macon. Sadly we were so busy catching up that I forgot to get a picture!

Nora with Katie and Hunter at campsite

The next two days we camped with cousin Nora and James and son Burton and Whitley at Indian Springs SP closer to Atlanta.  We had quite a campsite with our little Casita and their barely larger R-Pod.  Friday night the six of us went to a Beatles tribute concert by an excellent band called The Return.  It was almost as if we were listening to the real thing!

James, Whitley, Burton, Nora, Jane and Dave

Sunday afternoon we drove to Suwanee, in the northern part of Atlanta, to stay a few days with brother Chuck and Evelyn.  Their beautiful house has been a welcoming and quiet haven for us many times.  Dave and I visited the Jimmy Carter Museum; we would highly recommend that to you. 


 Chuck and Dave had fun bottling root beer.  We swam at Chuck's community pool.  We had wonderful Chinese food.  And we celebrated Chuck's birthday at the Olive Garden.  Cousin Erica and Kenny came over after dinner for a visit and ping-pong game.  Tomorrow we leave Georgia, but we take with us many wonderful memories!

Chuck, Evelyn, Kenny and Erica

Homeward Bound - Still in Florida

February 23-27
    
Saying Good-bye to Key West after settling into the daily routine and enjoying the tropical weather brought a wee tear to the eye.  But now we are pointing our nose toward home.  We enjoyed another too-short visit with brother Jay and Julie near Miami, kayaking again and sipping coffee in the morning looking out at the lake.

Jane with Vicky, Gracie, Bert and Coley

 




We also had a much-appreciated visit with cousin Bert, Vicky and the kids in Coral Gables.  We are so in favor of making the most of short visits.

 




After driving across Alligator Alley and turning north, we reached our "campground" in Bradenton.  I wish I had a picture to show you of this campsite.  It was actually a mobile home park!  Our little Casita was dwarfed by the homes on each side.  But the people we all so friendly.  Two nights seemed a short time to stay there.

     We packed in three visits, all so much fun!  We had dinner with cousin Jon and Ellen at the Seafood Shack.  We laughed, and told family stories, and ate well. 

Dave, Jane, Jon, Ellen

John and Cindy

Next day we were taken to Anna Marie Island for brunch with John and Cindy, parents to our son-in-law, Jason.  What quality time we had with them. 


 Then we spent the rest of the day with long-time friend, Linde, and her husband, Frank.  We got a resident's tour of Sarasota, both walking and driving.  Then we drove over and around several keys before arriving at their delightful home on Longboat Key for dinner and more visiting.  It was hard to leave as we see one another so rarely any more. 

Summer in the Florida Keys - Part Three

This is just a footnote to our experience in Key West, dry camping for 16 days.  We probably will not repeat it, but we loved it.  When we left Key West, we drove back to brother Jay's and Julie's beautiful home near Miami.  I close here with a song that Jay wrote for us - and pictures that I omitted before.

Old sandals replaced by new ones

Pelicans abound

Walking by the Gulf at the campground

Campsite at NAS Sigsbee - very large

KEY WEST by Jay

Silver recovered by Mel Fisher

Three hours south from Cutler Bay

     another world resides

A military memory where sunken ships

     and salvage hides.

Excessive drinkers hide their pain,

     while shoppers make their quest

Through sunshine, storm and falling rain,

     we must be in Key West.

Truman Little White House

 

No longer just a sleepy town,

     these pilgrims come from everywhere.

And sometimes in her water holes

     both men and women’s chests are bare.

These funky, freedom-fighting folk

     still give the finger to the best.

When hurricane predictions come,

     Key Western folk inhale and rest.

 

Cruise lines dock, unload and feed

     as sailing vessels masts unfold

Scooters, bikes, and cars abound

     one thinks her streets are full of gold.

My sister and her husband trekked

     to camp there sixteen days

To revive their humanity

Key West Aquarium

     and bask in wind sun’s rays.

And then one day we too joined them

     there with butterflies galore

Then ate delicious seafood,

Hemmingway's house in Key West

     taking photos round her distant shore. 

Butterfly Museum

Summer in the Florida Keys - Part Two

Friday, February 7 - 23
    

Our very generous campsite

     We arrived at our southernmost destination two weeks ago:  NASKW (Naval Air Station Key West) Sigsbee Beach Annex.  We are “dry camping” which means we have no electricity.  But with our battery and propane we have everything except air conditioning and the microwave oven.  The first week was too hot and humid for us central coast Californians.  But there are always cool restaurants for lunch, the cool camping office for wifi, and on weekends, a bracingly cool pool at another NASKW annex.  After a heavy two-day wind and rain, the temperatures cooled off to the

Dave's Life Is Good t-shirt

high 70’s and the breeze picked up so we are more comfortable and enjoying life more.  Or maybe we are just acclimating!  Unfortunately we had to take down our tent canopy when a gust broke a piece of it.  But we have enjoyed it's shade and wind protection for many days!

Best meal: filet, southern beans, red potatoes, salad

    

     This place is full of surprises.  One is that the keys are coral rock, so there is very little sand.  Another is that the pace of life is very, very slow.  People drive slowly - often from necessity because of the congested, narrow streets.  People are very helpful and friendly – tourism is the main industry today.  The history of Key West is fascinating – we have accumulated bits of pieces by frequenting the many museums. Although our campsite is at the edge of the Gulf and we have been to beaches both gulfside and oceanside, we don’t swim. (too cold, Man o’ War jellyfish, rocky bottom, etc.)  There are beautiful roosters crowing all over the island - originally brought here by Cuban cock-fighters, they are protected here and flourish.  We have enjoyed worshipping for two Sundays at the beautiful St. Paul's Episcopal Church.  As modern as it appears on the outside, there are beautiful, old-world style stained glass windowsn..We have been introduced to Pickle Ball - does anyone know of a place to play this in Monterey???

      We were told that it is a different culture down here.  Some of that culture probably revolves around Duval Street, Mallory Square, and the many restaurants and bars.  But bar-hoppers we are not!  However, since we spend a lot of our time at the campground, we have discovered the “winter camper culture.”  Most of the folk at our campground have come here year after year, not just for two  weeks like us, but for three to five months.  So many folk have made friends down here that they reunite with year after year.  While we have met really nice folk, we probably will not come back to Key West.  There are too many other places to visit in our US!

Jay and Julie visited for a fun day!

Summer in the Florida Keys - Part One

Monday, February 3 - 6 (near Key West)
      Jane has loved being with her sister for the past week.  On Monday morning we left Jay's house in Miami and caravaned down Hwy 1 through / over most of the drivable keys to a KOA Campground on Sugarloaf Key.  It is a very crowded, expensive location, but there are a nice large pool, clean facilities, and electricity (aka air conditioning in the Casita)!

Pop-up, canopy, and Casita together.

    











     The four of us have had a busy time touring the area.  We drove into Key West on Wednesday to walk around and eat lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville.  Then we spent some time sitting at the beach at Zachary Taylor State Park. The sun is way too hot for us Califoria folk and the humidity is murder, but the breezes are wonderful.  The temperature ranges between 83 (day) and 78 (night).

Jane found a large metal white heron or egret in a store and had to have it!

     Yesterday we drove to the beautiful Bohia Honda State Park that has beaches on both the Atlantic and Gulf sides.  Oblivious to the many Men-of-War floating in the water, we plunged into the deliciously icy water!  Heaven!  But once we spied the multitude of blue jellies on the beach we could not enter the water again.

     This morning we bid farewell to Bill and Fran.  We then headed to Key West where we will spend the remainder of our vacation.  We are checked into the NAS Key West, Sigsbee Annex, overflow camping area for 16 days.  We now have to "dry camp" now - i.e., no electric outlets for recharging computers or phones, no microwave, no air conditioning!  So check back later to see how we are faring.  We can always head north early if our bodies can't take the heat. 

Spring in Florida

Friday, January 31 to February 1 (near Tampa, FL)
     We met up with Jane's sister, Fran, and brother-in-law, Bill, at their son's house in Trinity.  Our nephew and wife, Mike and Stephanie, have a beautiful family of six.  We had fun playing cribbage with Liam in the Casita; playing I-pad games with Finn; watching Scout ride her trike; and

Jett, Scout, Liam, Finn

witnessing how creative wee Jett can be in stealing french fries at dinner.  Saturday, we took a refreshing hike through the Brooker Creek Preserve. It's hard for us to get enough exercise on a trip like this, so we were grateful to Steph for the suggestion. 

  
Sunday, February 2 (near Miami, FL)
     We followed Fran and Bill down Hwy 75 to Cutler Bay, home of our brother, Jay, and sister-in-law, Julie.  There we experienced the perfect temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.  Anticipating the heat of the Keys and remembering the cold of the Panhandle, we truly appreciated just letting the warmish air flow over our bodies as we sat on their patio, sipping wine and talking.

Bill, Fran, Dave, Jane, Jay, Julie

Dave, Jay and I paddled around the lake in Jay's and Julie's kayaks.  Later we ate Julie's delicious pulled chicken sandwiches as we cheered in vain for the Broncos to win the Super Bowl.
     Tomorrow we drive to the Keys!