I just finished reading an article (which I have linked to at the end of this post) that talks about a survey that was done a bit ago where people were asked to rate their favorite vacation spots in reference to California vs Florida.
Though the "Sunshine State" was still in the top percentile, it seems for the first time in 14 years that California has "outshined" it's southeast sister.
But I have a few reasons for making Florida one of my next vacation destinations:
(One could call this post a reminiscing of my 1994 Florida Vacation).
First, I have not been to that wonderful state since 1994. I remember that three week vacation with fond memories. I was living in Minneapolis at the time and it was still rather blustery up there in the "ice bucket metropolis".
The day I hopped my flight, it was about 32 degrees even though it was the middle of May already (are springs up there come late...), and it was still a little cool when I landed briefly in Detroit to hop on the other plane and join my two friends who were traveling from Green Bay.
When we landed in Fort Meyers, it was 80 degrees and I could already feel the humidity. And it felt great.
We got to the car rental area of the airport and we grabbed our Ford Mustang convertible (what other way to travel in the Sunshine State?) and hit the road for our vacation destination which was Sanibel Island which was across a causeway from Fort Meyers.
We had reserved rooms at a "Ramada Resort" , (which I think has been "rebranded and rennovated" as a Best Western:
http://www.bwsanibel.com/ ....I think this was the property...almost positive!!)
on the island and as we pulled up to the hotel, we were immediately disappointed and we felt that this was a bad omen.
The "resort" looked like a series of "shacks" and a main building that had been there since God created that island.
We went around the back to check in and once we got to our rooms, as we opened them up, a overbearing smell of must or mildew hit us in the face. Right then and there one of my friends said...I am outa here!
I suggested we check out the rest of the property first and maybe there would be some redeeming quality to the hotel somewhere.
So we walked around and came upon an outdoor pool with a bar set by the side and all of this overlooked the ocean in the near distance. The scenery was actually very nice. At the moment I looked out at the ocean, I saw two dolphins jumping in the surf. Now that was cool!
They saw it also and from just that, we decided to give the place a chance.
Though it was not at all like the brochure described it, it was rather inexpensive and it seemed like there were quite a few people staying there....so we unpacked and got settled and then decided to drive around the island.
An afternoon of exploring the island and finding some neat little beach areas and some cool restaurants and we also drove over to the other island that attaches to that one called Marco or Captiva (I can't quite remember)Island. A lot of cool houses and more wonderful ocean views.
That night we decided to head into Fort Meyers to grab a bite to eat and explore that area as well as Fort Meyers Beach. We had a good dinner at some restaurant called "Beefsteak Charlies" where they had kareokee going on in the bar and then we were all so tired that we decided to go back to the hotel and crash for the evening as we wanted to get an early start to the day in the morning.
One of my friends woke up and there was a spider on his chest!
And I jumped out of bed and I stepped into the shower and accidentally stomped on what looked like a cockroach or a beetle...wasnt sure.
As one of my other friends was showering, the drain backed up and water went all over the bathroom and floated onto the carpet of the hotel room....arrg.
At that point we decided to check out and try to find another hotel for the rest of our stay. We were planning on making Florida our home for close to three weeks and wherever we stayed, we had planned to make one place our home base and then do day trips around the state.
So, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel dining room (the food was actually pretty good and the waitress who was close to 90 years old was so good I wanted to steal her and take her back to my restaurant in Minneapolis but she said it would be too cold for her...) and then checked out and drove back to the mainland to find another place to call home.
We ended finding a limited service hotel in Fort Meyers and because I worked for the company who had franchised this brand, we got a pretty good deal. It also had a smell of must or mildew...so we surmised that this must be the case for all hotels in Florida.
(If anyone can really tell me if this is the case, please let me know as I have been curious all these years!)
So, we settled in and decided to take a trip around town and we then went back over to the island and spent the day on the beach. It was my first time swimming in the ocean and it was so amazing. The surf, the sun, the sand on the beach, the boats out on the water in the distance.
We were all in a sort of "nirvana" and just layed and snoozed and walked along the seashore all day.
I ended up getting a pretty good burn but it felt good.
Around the middle of the afternoon we noticed something weird. As we were frolicking in the water, as we were heading back towards the shore, we noticed some jellyfish looking creatures swimming just below the water line. Later, when we asked about them, someone called them "Bats" and said that they come close to shore in the afternoons and when swimming one should "swoosh" their feet through the sand instead of walking or bouncing because these creatures have tails with ridges on them and if you step on one...it can go through your foot and cause not only tremendous pain, but a bit of damage to the foot in trying to remove it. Ikkes....so that was my education for that day.
We were all so exhausted from just being lazy all day that we ended up finding a seafood restaurant on the island, having a good dinner and then went back to the hotel to crash yet again.
I won't bore everyone with the whole three weeks of our travel experience but some of the highlights were our trip to Miami and spending the day on Miami Beach, a nice dinner at a very "gay" restaurant in Fort Lauderdale that Elizabeth Taylor has beeb known to frequent, a full day at Busch Gardens in Tampa and a lot of lazy days on Sanibel Island just getting as much sun as possible.
One highlight for me personally was an escorted tour by a local who I met on the beach in Sanibel.
He took a liking to me and adopted me as his personal best friend for the remainder of our stay (and he became my personal local tour guide) and on one day he took me for a drive to Naples. He had some pretty cool connections and through those connections, I ended up having dinner with some pretty wealthy people in a drop dead amazing mansion one night. I felt like a local and whenever my new friend would take me to all these little known places off the beaten paths, I knew that this vacation would be one that I would remember for years to come.
Unfort. one of my traveling buddies got sick on our last day in Florida and for him, the trip home wasn't the greatest. Somehow he had developed some pretty serious intestinal-stomach problems and we spent part of the day at the hospital and then we stayed close to him in the hotel room and tried to comfort him as he was in a lot of pain.
The flight home was quiet.
In Detroit, I bid my friends goodbye as they got on another plane to Green Bay and as I was waiting for my flight, which was delayed a few minutes, an announcement came across the loudspeaker system saying that our plane had to be diverted to another flight going to England and that we would have to wait for a replacement. (I guess there wasnt enough room on the original plane for those people flying across the pond or something).
So I waited for over 6 hours and finally a plane was delivered for us to get back to Minneapolis. It was one of those huge jumbos with the center row of seats and guess where I was stuck...you guessed it. Right in dead center. For those unfamiliar with dead center on one of these things.....there are two flight attendants that go down both sets of aisle ways. I seemed to get missed by both! All the time! And to get out to go the the bathroom.....I had to hop over 3 people on each side of me. I pretty much grumbled and moaned all the way back. Thank God it was only a few hours.
When I got home late that evening, I was actually so glad to see my room mate and though it was only in the low 40s....it was a low 40s that I was familiar with and that weather greeted me with a smile.
Second I have some family and friends that call that state home.
My aunt and uncle and their children all relocated down to the Tampa area a few years back and though I have seen a few of them in recent years when they were back in Wisconsin, I have always wanted to spend some time down there with them.
I also have some newer friends that I met through the hotel that I work at. I try to keep up with them through emails and such and one of them gets back to Racine every now and again for work reasons.
And now tonight I have just found out that one of my oldest and dearest friends in thre world, who used to be one of my room mates at different times through out my adult life, has just moved to the Tampa area. I knew he was seriously thinking about moving for quite some time but it came as a bit of a shock when he emailed me just a few minutes ago to let me know that he is down there in Brandon, which he says is a suburb of Tampa.
So.....Tampa and Southern Florida watch out.....Here comes Johnny!!!!
Oh and click on the link for the story from the St. Pete's Times online about the survey I mentioned in the beginning of this somewhat long post:
Tampabay: Florida loses some of its shineA Good Tuesday to all.
