Our Journey in Sunsets

Not much news to report from the past week.  We are still bumming around Florida, now on the east coast, outside of Melbourne.  Still trying to figure out (procrastinating) our next move.

So, I thought I'd post some of the pictures I've taken of sunsets during our voyage thus far.  I always love watching the sunset, it's such a magical time of day.  It can feel like getting a show for free everyday.

Marathon, FL Keys.  Nice of that bird to sit up there for us, right?

Bahia Honda State Park, FL Keys.  Considerate sailboat anchored for us to enhance the sunset.

Through the uprights, it's good!!  St. Pete Beach, FL

Near Charleston, SC

Outside Annapolis, MD

Sunset on the Chesapeake

From Mallory Square, Key West

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

Beach Bummin'

St. Augustine Beach

Since we arrived in Florida two weeks ago we've tried to hug the coastline as closely as possible, driving on A1A down much of the East coast and stopping at any interesting beaches that caught our eye.  It's been a laid back time for sure, which would explain the absence of blog posts.

We visited family in Jacksonville, saw dolphins play in the surf off New Smyrna, saw some ginormous houses in West Palm, went to an awesome free concert on Miami's South Beach (Zac Brown Band & Nic Cowen), and finally made our way down to the Keys.

The Florida Keys were another of those places where we could really see ourselves hanging out for a while.  If not for the ordinance against overnight parking, and the impending Thanksgiving Day holiday, we probably would have stayed longer there.

It's a bit as if we had driven out of the US and gone right into the Caribbean.  The water alternates between shades of turquoise, green, and gin clear; there are coconuts to be found around the palm trees; roosters walk the streets of Key West; there are very few box stores; and almost everyone seems to have a boat of some type. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the laid back vibe we experienced in the Keys.  There was no traffic, so many sounds of the mainland that bother us were absent, and we have a new found appreciation for Key Lime Pie (Snapper's in Key Largo has some of the best we've tried). 

We also treated ourselves to a Hobie Cat rental on the beach and got in an hour or so of sailing.  The wind was piping along pretty good, I'd say 15 knots.  After a bit, I dropped Trish at the beach to warm up and went back out and I got to have a an inadvertent man overboard drill as the extra life jacket flew off after crashing through a largish (from a Hobie Cat perspective) wave.  My technique wasn't perfect, but I managed to snag the jacket back by my lonesome.

We also took the opportunity to try out Stand up Paddleboarding, or SUP, through SUP Key West.  Trisha was a natural, whilst I was the first in the water after falling off the board.  I only managed to fall in twice, and took the stance that if you haven't fallen off, you aren't really trying.  All in all it was a great experience.  We traveled across the flats and saw Pelicans dive bombing the water for their meals, went through mangrove tunnels, and saw Jimmy Buffet's old house on a canal (pretty small, but so are a lot of houses down there, another thing we like).  SUP is definitely a new water sport that we will have to try more of.

Now we are in the Tampa area on the West Coast, visiting with more family for the holiday, without a destination in mind for where to go next.  Time will tell...

Zac Brown Concert

Rose on South Beach

Oooh I wanna take ya

Not a bad campsite

Obligatory stop at Margaritaville

Do you think Manatees have statues of Humans to hold their mailboxes?

Only 90 miles to Cuba!

End of the road on the old bridge at Bahia Honda State Park

Key West Sunset from Mallory Square

Down to the Water

There's something about water.  Something that binds us together as humans, that seems to bring out the best in people.  There is an optimism, a free spirited, good time feeling around water.  Whether on a river, lake, stream, or ocean; water seems to have a good vibe.

It's the power boater who waves as they pass you by when you are becalmed in your dinghy.  It's the guy playing with his dog next to the boat launch who wades out to give you a push when you are starting to drift towards the rocks.  It's the members of a sailing club who have your trailer already in the water when you get back to the launch because you had to be towed in by the committee boat.  These are the same people who would cut you off and give you the finger on the interstate, but around water there is something different.

Water gives us recreation.  It gives us hope.  There is a reason that the Man and the Boy in Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' are always heading towards the coast, away from the desolation of a post apocalyptic world.

Perhaps it is that we are mostly water?

There's a great story from Jimmy Buffet's autobiography, where he talks about his grandmother telling him to go down and wade into the salt water if he got a cut or had skinned his knee, and (paraphrasing here) "Later on down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land."

I owe a lot to water.  When I was five years old my parents moved from Long Island to the mountains of central NY to start a bottled water company.  In some ways water literally gave me life.

Yet water is not always kind, just ask the residents of the lower 9th ward.

But by and large, people want water in their lives. It gives us hope.

So here's to you water, thanks for everything.  I'm looking forward to a lot more good times.