Vacation and the Beauty of the Florida Keys
I think everyone should at least visit the Florida Keys once in their lifetime… It is one of my favorite places in the world. Not that I have been in a lot of places in the world, but you have to start somewhere. This time we stayed in Key Largo, in a nice hotel with a great view of the marina. Unfortunately, a not so friendly person at the reception desk, when we got to the hotel, a bit worn out from the 12 hour drive,the welcome we received was not even close to polite. We walked in and not a word was spoken by the lady behind the counter, Odette. There was a lady telling a story that was rather confusing but I think there may have been a tad of alcohol consumption involved. After this rather interesting person left, Odette took up a very friendly and very long conversation with the guy in front of us, who apparently was checking into the hotel too. She gave him all kind of tips where to go for dinner etc. and continued to totally ignore us. Now we were tired. And hungry. And the bladder was at an uncomfortable level, even though I had scared the crap out of my sister while traveling….do not ever drive with your bladder full because if you happen to be in a car accident it will explode. You have to love having a family member that is a nurse in an ER…… So our level of patience and understanding was not too high either. So maybe, if all that was not the case, she may not have been that bad. But finally she looked at me, after I had put my head on her counter and sighed dramatically a couple of times, and asked me: “Do you need towels or something?”. So I told her as polite as I could be that no, we would like to check in. Ignore episode 2 started immediately, and she took her sweet time to continue to chat with guest number 1. Finally, she gave us her attention or whatever appeared to be attention: drivers license and credit card”. No please, thank you or anything friendly came out of Odettes mouth. Now I know that my sister was waiting for me to explode. She knows me well. But I decided that it was not going to help me getting to a bathroom sooner, and that I really was too tired and hungry to start a good argument. So I didn’t. I did try to melt the ice a little by asking her where the best place was to snorkel. To no avail, Odette just did not like us, or whatever her problem was.
We made it to the room and were pleasantly surprised. It was a large room with pull down beds and a full kitchen. Unfortunately nothing to cook in. So my poor and brave sister went back to the front desk and came back with a box from Staples. At the first glance at the box I was a little confused, but then discovered that she had not acquired a lot of copy paper, but indeed pots and pans. With the strict instructions to put them back in there when we left. Of course, by now we were trembling in our flip-flops, and made a pact to make sure the pots and pans would be back in the Staples box by the end of our visit. Because, oh, the fear of the wrath of Odette!!!!
The next day we spent all day at the beach in John Pennekamp State Park. The whole day we laid on the beach under the palm trees. Heavenly!!! The water clear and warm, not a worry in the world except when to re-apply our sunscreen. After this day on the beach we were ready to explore, so the Everglades were next on our list of things to do. The first stop to take a walk was shortened since it seems the mosquitos had not eaten any humans in a while, so we walked in a cloud of bugs for a little bit but this did not last very long. Almost running back to the car while hysterically hitting ourselves….good there was nobody around to witness this because we may have been admitted to the psych unit for self mutilation. And since my sister is not used to the mosquitos here in the US, her bites became enormous welts almost immediately. poor thing. Oh yes, DEET does not keep the mosquitos from biting. Just to save you some money and poison on you. Anyway, we decided to go on a boat ride. But unfortunately, July is the wrong month to visit the Everglades when you want to see wildlife. Too hot. Smart animals, stupid humans…. We did see some birds, and two alligators in the hour or so we were on the boat. The coolest thing that day was when we walked back to the car and this beautiful osprey landed above our heads on a tree branch with his lunch in his claws. He sat there for a while, looking at us and his prey..wonder what he was thinking. Anyway, I got some cool pictures and he got his human entertainment. On our way out we drove through this humongous swarm of dragonflies and birds, pretty weird. Luckily no one hit the windshield, although maybe not so lucky for the dragonflies, lunch or a spot on someone’s windshield, I don’t know what is Key West. The drive itself is so very cool. Over the Seven Mile Bridge, with the blue water all around us, wow. Key West is great to visit, cute houses and weird people. And HOT!!!!!! But all worth it!
After all this we needed another day of rest, so back to the State Park and the palm trees. On the way back a stop in South Beach and lunch with my friend in Miami.
Now we are back home. Not to shabby here either. The weather has been great, on the beach with a book, a little swim and do it all over again the next day. Lots of gym visits too, so you don’t think we did not do anything productive…..
Back to work in the morning. Hopefully my attitude has improved after this vacation…. We will see:-)
