I am breaking our experience kin Florida up into two
sections: Naples & the Keys, since there were two distinct parts to our
trip. We stayed in Naples 2 ½ days, and then got away to go to the Keys to
recover before flying home.
Several things strike you when you land in Florida. The
first is that you almost need a straw to breathe since the air is so humid. The
second is that it is a flatter state than Kansas or Nebraska. I am sure that
its highest point is a mole hill I saw being dug the other day. The third, is
that the state bird is the mosquito. It
is a green state and it is a state that no one would live in were it not for
the water that surrounds it.
Naples
We were late arriving to Ft Lauderdale because the plane they
originally loaded us onto in Atlanta was broken and we had to get off and then
find another one to fly. So we arrived 1 ½ hours late. We got our rental car
and headed out to Naples, Florida where we dropped Sam off at his Dad’s rental
house. We then made our way to a fantastic hotel, the Hawthorn Inn & Suites.
We loved our room and the service we got there. It was cheap too. We purchased
our tickets through www.lastminute.com.
If you haven’t checked them out you might want to try them out. We found some
killer deals. They also help you with reviews of places you are going to.
Naples reminds me in many ways of Pam Desert. It is a
retirement community. It is a “moneyed” community and it is a conservative
community. It does not believe in mass transit, is designed for cars rather
than people; and has wide, straight boulevards and high speed limits. It has
the sub tropic foliage to keep things beautiful and the beach as a bonus
distraction.
Though it is a great place to visit and it has much to
commend it– their schools are well funded and Sam has a school curriculum and
facilities this year that would make his Oregon teachers’ drool, I would hate
to live there. Naples is a mass of asphalt, heat, suburban sprawl and poor land
use and urban planning.
On Labor Day, Michelle and I traveled south to Everglades
City and took an airboat ride. 
What an adventure! We rode Speedy Johnson’s Airboat and
would recommend them to anyone. We sped through the mangrove swamps 
through
water trails that only the airboats could go, coming face to face with
alligators, 
and then we hit the grasslands and the swamps at high speeds and
did cookies while watching giant osprey dive from the sky to catch their fish
dinners.
Later that evening back in Naples, we went to the Dock at Crayton Cove for dinner and
sat next to the window and watched a flock of wild parrots land on the masts of
the boats parked next to us, while enjoying a good meal. That flock of parrots
was a gift to us. Later we went to the Naple’s
Pier to watch the sunset but the clouds built up so there wasn’t much to
see.
The Keys
After making sure that Sam was safely introduced to his new
school we headed south to the Keys. I had never been there before. I pre-booked
us into the Ramada Limited in Key Largo. It had rave reviews and a water view.
The hotel overlooked the Key Largo canal rather than the ocean, and so Michelle
quite rightly suggested we move on. We kept driving south to Islamorada. We
walked into the Pelican Cove
Resort and scored a room at an even cheaper rate than I had managed at the
Ramada on line. The Resort is right on the water with a pool and bar a stone’s
throw from the ocean, a swim area dug out in the ocean and a water sports shack
on the property.
Our room overlooked the Atlantic and though somewhat spartan
was adequate for our needs. There was no free wi-fi there and so we didn’t
connect, but one of the most relaxing things was to simply stand in the pool
resting on the side reading, while sipping a drink from the bar, occasionally
looking up to soak in the view.
That night we went to the Island Grille. It was perhaps the
most enjoyable dining experience of my life. It was not necessarily the best
food of my life, but the best experience…
…Billy Davidson
was playing. You gotta check this guy out. He was going to quit soon after we
arrived but we talked him into another set. (It probably didn’t hurt that a
bunch of people arrived after us.) When you eat on the deck at the Island Grille you are sitting on a
deck with your back to the water that laps not more than two feet underneath
you. It is everything you expect the Keys to be.
The next day we rented jet skis from the rental
shack at the Cove and played and then headed to Sundiver
to snorkel. It was a great trip; much better than I hoped for actually. That
night we had dinner at the Bayside
Grille which had great views of the bay to the west looking out at the
gulf. 
The food was good and the view incredible. After dinner we walked out
onto the dock and saw a baby manta and fed the fish, watching the guy at the
next dock land a small shark while fishing. The sunset was beautiful and we headed
back to Ft Lauderdale for one last night before flying home.
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