Usalola’s Weblog

Making our way up the west coast of Florida, we drove through the Everglades and took one of those water-skimming boat tours. Did I happen to mention there are ALLIGATORS galore in this state?!!  and did we see the mother ( and papa) of all alligators. Check it out – “Mama” weighs about 200pds, and “Papa” about 300.

Do we really need a sign to remind people?

"Mama" - yes, I was this close

"Papa"

Continuing on our way, we drove by literally hundreds of ‘gators in the swamp water along the road. Amazing!    We stayed in Sanibel Island for a couple of nights -right near the beach and the town with all the Christmas decorations up. After 20 yrs of living on the west coast, it’s still a little odd to see decorations and people walking around in shorts and flip-flops. We enjoyed our time there riding the paved bike trails around the island and going out for  fresh fish. The big downside (for me) was getting eaten alive by the no-see-ums. Biting #$%&*@ -bugs that, surprise, you can’t see, but caused me  a tremendous amount of pain. One stop to the urgent care, and lots of anti-itch cream later, I was back on track.

We headed up to Orlando, where I dropped Glenn at the airport and had a week to venture around town. As usual, I hunted down a winery (I know, I should have known better..) – Lakeridge winery, and open-mindedly tried 2 of 8 wines of unknown-varietal before my palate shut down and said “no more”. Well, I tried..

Another afternoon, I bought a ticket for a holiday ice-sculpture show. For some reason, I’ve always dug ice sculptures, and I thought if they’re charging 20$, it must be something- and it was!! For the past 8years, this hotel has been bringing in 30 professional sculptors from China for this show. They carve through 2 million pounds of ice and keep the rooms at 9 degrees, so hence my massive parka ( no, I didn’t just have it in the RV).

It's all colored ice!

Check out the size of ice-Santa!

The rest of my week I spent hangin’ out with the kitties at, what has become one my favorite state parks, Lake Louisa SP outside of Orlando. Small and  serene, perfect for the kids to chill while I read a book…

I picked Glenn up at the airport, and for the next few days we traveled along the Gulf and out of Florida, and started to feel that holiday spirit in the RV…

Gulf of Mexico- Seaside, Florida

We (surprisingly to us) really enjoyed our time in Georgia-lots of fall foliage and pralines! and can honestly say we’re not looking forward to Florida. Let me tell you my reasons why:

1) alot of bad (ok, I’ll say it, senior) drivers in big cars and big RV’s  2) many childhood vacations in Florida fighting for space with my sis’ in the stationwagon on the Chicago-Florida DRIVE – leaves me with a queezy feeling on the whole state, 3) Alligators – EVERYWHERE, and 4) it’s flat,flat,flat-not a hill to be seen anywhere.

  Anyhoo, we’re jumpin’ in. We need to stay where it’s  going to be relatively warm for the next month, and this is it. Down the east coast and then up the west coast.

We’ve really enjoyed so many of the state parks throughout this trip, and Florida has a ton of them, so the first few nights working our way down the coast, we stayed at: Fort Clinch State park, Anastasia State park, and  Tomoka s.p.  Lest you think that Florida is only about beaches, shame on you. We stopped in Saint Augustine, and went to the Castillo Saint Marcos fort, begun in 1672 and still amazingly preserved.

Our next stop was the John F. Kennedy Space Center, and Cape Canaveral. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t  jumping up and down to go here, but I’m sooo glad we did. it is a package deal – $40 gets you into the various museums, short shows about the space station (very cool in 3-D) and the first manned shuttle launch in the “war room” (the BEST and it looks exactly as it did) and a tram ride to Cape Canaveral where the shuttles take off and land. This is definitely not just for kids.

Cape Canaveral launching pad

The "war" room

 Did I mention ALLIGATORS?

The first of many..

 I saw this guy as we were driving by, and went back to take a picture. We were so amazed looking at him that we forgot to close the RV door and Simon came running out! I freaked, and he continued to run until I grabbed him by the scruff and practically threw him in and shut the door. Whew!

We made our way past Daytona(plenty of memories there – go band!) and headed  down to the land of the rich and famous – West Palm Beach. It is really beautiful with its   galleries, shops and restaurants and narrow, palm-tree lined streets of stark white Tuscan-style mansions. We meandered through the streets making our way down to Boca Raton (“Boca”) where we jumped on the bike trail that seems to run the length of the coast. Thinking we’d check out the buff -bods on the 2 1/2 mile long boardwalk at Hollywood beach and catch a ray or two ourselves, we were slightly shocked by quite the opposite. I had no idea the senior citizens of mostly quebecois origin had their own beach in Florida!!!  Mon dieu!  There was french speaking, singing and dancing going on everywhere around us.

Oh La La!

As Hollywood beach didn’t work out for us, we went where we KNEW we could catch a glimpse of the hip and hot – Miami Beach. And it lived up to its reputation – lots of sidewalk cafes, hip shops and art deco hotels galore. I also got in a little beach time, and the water was great!

classic south beach deco

I was kind of bummed we weren’t staying here for Thanksgiving, but was also excited to check out our pad for the next 2 days – the classic Biltmore hotel in Coral Gables. This hotel is amazing, not only is it truly grand, but it is also home to the largest swimming pool in the Continental US – we definitely took advantage of it.

check it out

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at their stately Palme d’Or restaurant, and gave thanks for so much – family, friends (like you!), health and last, but not least how blessed we are to be on this amazing journey.

Oh, and did I mention ALLIGATORS?

Every campsite near the water (which is all of them) we’ve stayed at I’ve asked if there are alligators and the reply is either 1)” I haven’t seen one around… lately,” or 2 ) “yeah, but just the small ones, you know, about 6 feet.” – HELLOOOOOOO

Our next stop was the Keys. Again, I hadn’t been here since I was a kid and was looking forward to it.Our first stop was Long Key State Park. This place is AMAZING- right on the water and very relaxing (well, not so much for us as our next door neighbors were not-stop chatty kathy’s). It is definitely at the top of our stays on this trip so far. A must stay if you’re going to the keys.

Look at that view!

Glenn setting us up

We made our way to Key West, crossing over many bridges, and the 7-mile bridge in particular was beautiful.

7-mile bridge

Key West was much more touristy than I remember (12 yrs old was quite a few years ago..), but we did fall in love with the key lime pie (how many pieces did we eat?) and the cats at Hemingway’s house.

Hemingway's home

Arriving in Key West is a little bitter sweet, as we have come as far south on this trip as we can, and now are making our way back towards San Diego. The west coast of Florida awaits….