Blog, PLEASE forgive me for neglecting you for over a month!! I'm so sorry. So much has happened in that month, too! But we're going to breeze right by that and jump into a recap of Spring Break because really, that's what you want to hear about.
Sunday morning I picked Heather up and we headed to Birmingham to pick up Clay. We got him, got Taco Bell and made our way to Palm Coast. It was a looong drive and I was dumb and drove the whole 11 hours. OY. Didn't make that mistake again the rest of the trip! We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn because my military discount made it cheaper than ever other hotel in town. We're fancy, I know. Turns out, Bike Week in Daytona was this week and Palm Coast being about 45 minutes north of there, our hotel was PACKED with bikers. They were all pretty cool. Driving behind them made us insane, though. We were staying 5 minutes up the road from Flagler Beach and decided we needed to see the ocean since we drove so far. So at 11 we drove out to the beach. Stayed for a minute then went back to the hotel. Passed out. Monday we woke up, got our stuff together and headed for the Hammock Resort in Palm Coast. My mom was there for a conference for work so we got access to all of the amenities, including their private beaches and pools. It was AWESOME. We spent several hours on the beach using the free chairs, playing soccer and getting beat up by the waves. Well, Clay and I went in the water. Heather just supervised. My mom got into town around noon so we met her for lunch at one of the resort restaurants right off the beach. It was really good, and it was funny to watch the waitress judge us. After that we got some camping gear from my mom then parted ways so she could go do work stuff and we could keep playing on the beach. After a while we met her at her room and got her card so we could go to the pool. The slide was closed, so I decided we had to do the lazy river. SORRY Heather and Clay!! The water was frigid and awful. Oops. So then we found the massive really hot jacuzzi. That was wonderful. So then we said by to my mom and headed for JT's Seafood Shack, a dive just outside of the resort. It was packed and some of the best seafood I've ever had. Our waiter was great and it was a really fun place. We stayed a while, then headed back to the hotel.
Tuesday morning I made them get up to go watch the sunrise. It was at 7:37 and we left the hotel by like 7:30, meaning we cut it really close. Oops. But we managed to make it and get really good pictures and find lots of really pretty shells. So it was fun! After that we went back to the hotel to pack and clean up, then it was time to start the journey to Key West. I let Clay start the drive so I wouldn't make the mistake of driving for so long. It was a pretty good drive. We were behind bikers most of the way. The drive from the mainland to Key West is the hardest part. It's a 2 lane road that is about 3 hours long and you just hit key after key after key. But fiiiinally around....5 I think? We made it to Key West! We stayed at NAS Key West, the Naval base on the island. We stayed at Sigsbee Park, the awesome campground. For $12 a night, we had a waterfront campsite with enough trees to string up our hammocks. YUP. Sometimes it pays to be a Navy brat. Oh, another fun thing was every time we came in to the base, they saluted us. I assume the sticker on my car signifies in some way the fact that my dad was an officer. SO FUN. So yeah. We accidentally missed the office but found nice people who got us checked in. We set up camp and then ventured out to find food. We went in search of this Caribbean place only to discover that it was closed. Luckily for us, Finnegan's Wake, an AMAZING Irish place was right down the road and was bumpin. Parked in a parking deck and made our way over. It was an amazing meal in an amazing place. The restaurant was authentic and the atmosphere was great. We were happy. After that we headed to Duval Street to scope things out. Found a hammock store, decided we didn't need another one, headed back to the campground. Heather and I tried to sleep in our hammocks, but there were practically hurricane force winds coming off the ocean, so that didn't happen. Tuesday night we did sleep without the rain fly, so it was breezy and open and awesome.
Wednesday morning I woke up around 7 and laid in bed watching the sun rise. It was fun to be able to see it rise and set from the same spot. I got up, showered, paid for our campsite, then eventually we all got up and got ready. I had booked us on the Gulfstream party boat fishing, so we made our way to Charter Boat Row, after a few U-turns and less than legal driving maneuvers. We were by far the youngest people on the boat and poor Clay, Heather and I were definitely the most inexperienced. It was a good time, though. We caught 9 grunts, with Heather catching 2, Clay catching 6 and me catching the baby of the group. Oh well. We made some strange old man friends and had a good time. After the excursion, they sorted the fish in this weird man auction where you called out how many you had caught and they threw them in your fish basket. Then they filleted them for us and we took them to Half Shell Raw Bar, a really cool place just outside downtown. Unlike every other place in town, and unbeknownst to me, they based their prices on the amount of fish you brought, not how many people. So rather than pay $15 a person, we paid $9/lb, and at 2 lbs of fish, we each only paid 6 bucks for dinner. Pretty sweet. The grunts actually tasted really really good. I was shocked because I definitely don't eat fried fish, especially white fish. So yay! After that we walked around a bit by the ferry, Clay chased a chicken, then we headed for Mallory Square for the sunset celebration. We took lots of pictures, saw lots of street performers, then headed for Duval Street. We walked around a lot, saw all the touristy things, then remembered we aren't really crazy bar people, so we were just awkward. I decided we should walk to the Southernmost point, since it was only 1.5 miles away! We walked it, got some bikers to take our picture by it, then walked back. Heather had some weird allergic reaction in her eye, so she proceeded to die for the rest of the night. I felt so bad. We ended up at Joe's Taproom, this cool craft beer place attached the Sloppy Joe's. Had the best glass of UFO I've ever had in my life, probably because I was so exhausted. After that we headed back to the camp for what we didn't realize would be a night of adventures.
Wednesday night we still had the rain fly off the tent since it was so nice out. Unfortunately, around 11-12, the skies opened up and started pouring. We jumped into action and managed to get the fly on without much getting too wet, but the hurricane force winds picked up and threatened to collapse our whole tent. So in the middle of the night, in the middle of the pouring rain, we had to unstake the entire thing and turn it 90 degrees and stake it back down. Did I mention we were camping on essentially solid rock? Yeah. But somehow we managed to do it and spent the rest of the night praying we didn't wake up in a collapsed, drenched tent.
Thursday morning we woke up to discover that it was still raining, but our tent had survived the night. We got up and got ready, then headed to Smathers Beach. We managed to avoid the throngs of obnoxious Spring Breakers and found our own cozy spot down the beach. We spent 4 hours laying in the sun. It was glorious. I burned a good bit, but it was such a good day. From there we headed back downtown to a place called Two Friends Patio, because we remembered them advertising a lobster special and that was the one seafood we hadn't done yet. I ended up being the only one who actually got it, but it was good. It started raining again, but stopped by the time we were done. We walked over to Joe's again, which was much easier this time because it was still light out. Duval was always crowded though, with people of every age. Heather's eye attacked her again, so we headed out early. We stopped at Walgreens on the way home because, I forgot to mention, Tuesday night my bed popped, so I slept on the rocks Wednesday night. $9.99 later, I had the crappiest air mattress I've ever owned, which immediately popped as soon as I put it down on top of the other mattress. Oh well. We went to bed relatively early. I walked to the bathroom, which was fine, but on the way back, Poseidon's dog tried to attack me.
OH MY GOODNESS I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT POSEIDON.
Poseidon was our camping neighbor. He was clearly a long term camper, with his fortress pretty well fortified. He was an old man with a long beard and a tan, and he looked just like Poseidon. We never spoke to him and only saw him twice. He had a lady friend....we heard them having their special time Wednesday afternoon. That was....awkward.
So yeah. Poseidon had this dog, Cujo, that liked to wander the camp and assert its authority. Unfortunately, he was roaming my path on my way back from the bathroom. He didn't notice me until he saw my flashlight, then he freaked out and started barking up a storm. I shined my light at him and he REALLY didn't like that. Finally I turned my light off and stood still. He seemed to forget I existed and trotted back to Poseidon's lair. Unfortunately, he woke up our other neighbor's dog, and the neighbor, who came out to see who was skulking. It was just me...
Okay. So Friday we woke up and weren't sure what we were going to do. We had mentioned renting kayaks before, but never got a chance. Clay found a 2 hour tour that was reasonably priced, so we decided to go for it. We went to ITT, who happened to have a $10 off discount for military. WOO! So we got the tickets and headed over there. I had never been kayaking before, so I was a little nervous. Luckily, I took to it easily, and we had an amazing time. We bonded with the guides, I didn't fall out, and I was never last. I loved it. It was easily one of my favorite activities during the trip. We saw mangroves, sea hares, sea cucumbers, conchs, and so many other things. It was amazing. After that, we ate at Hurricane Hole, a restaurant conveniently attached to the marina. It was really good. We also ate conch for the first time. It was pretty good. After that we changed into dry clothes and started the journey to Spring Hill. The trip went pretty well. We got in around 1:30 in the morning. Oh wait, did I say the trip went well? I mean I hot delusional state about an hour or two outside Spring Hill and caused utter madness. Then we stopped at an abandoned gas station in Dade City, there was yelling, laughing, not breathing...it was good. We finally got to my house, I gave them a quick tour, then we passed out.
Saturday I actually woke up surprisingly early. We made breakfast with Kathy and Dan, ate, then they left. We spent the day in/near the pool with my parents, Chris, Amy and Craig. It was fun. We went to dinner at Buffet City for my dad's birthday. It was fun and they were nice. After that we came home, lounged a bit, then played lots of games. Eventually we did cake and presents, then more games. By 11, we were exhausted, so we got to bed around midnight or so. It was a fun day.
Which brings us to today!! Which is good because my battery is about to die. We got up at 7:15. Well, I got up at 7:15, packed my things, then they got up. We packed up, said good-bye, then started the journey to Tuscaloosa. Clay and I drove. We hit a lot of standstill traffic, but overall made surprisingly good time. We had a lot of fun psychoanalyzing eachother and jamming to country music. We got back a little after 5, I dropped them off, came back and unpacked, then we reunited to watch The Walking Dead and Robert joined us. That show is craaaazy.
I'm not sure what to do with myself now that I'm back to the real world. I don't want to be here, and it's REALLY weird to not have Heather and Clay with me 24/7. We had a really, really good time. I'm SO glad we went. It was the perfect last Spring Break.
Anywho. I hope this exceptionally long post will make up for my absence. Hopefully I will see you again soon. Until then, here are some pictures!!
