Alligator

Fantasy Fest has ended and we have left key West. We are now in Fort Myers on the west coast of Florida. We drove up from the keys and then headed across the state on Highway 41. We took some back roads getting there and go lost a little. Highway 41 goes trough the Big Cypress Reserve which is an extension of the Everglades. We saw some alligators along the way.

Toga Party attire

The last days of Fantasy Fest were pretty interesting. We had lots of fun at the Toga party at Sloppy Joes. Friday night features a parade through town in costume. Marreros guests adopted the theme of gangsters, and we all dressed the part as best we could. Along the march various inns along the way supplied libations for the parade participants. Saturday is the day of the big parade, lots of fancy costumes and music. Tons of beads are passed out to parade spectators. Marreros is ideally situated for parade viewing, as the parade loops around starting on Whitehead street and finishing by going down Duvall, and Marreros is in between. We got lots of beads which we will share with the grand kids.

Saturday Parade scene

On Sunday the party is over. We rented a scooter to do some exploring around the area. It was fun but hard on the backside. We are now on our way to Destin Florida on the Florida panhandle. The beaches are supposed to be beautiful. It's good to be on the way back. 

Tu-tu Tuesday

Fantasy Fest continues! The revelry here is pretty much non-stop. There are events and parties every night, most involve costumes and lots of drinking. The costumes can be fun, but we are only moderate drinkers, and we are not quite as young as we used to be. none the less we do our best to get in the swing of things. Some of the events in the last several days have been: Tu-tu Tuesday, Plaid Night, Red Night, Hippie Night, Fetish night, Rubber night and many more. We made no attempt to attend them all. Some of the events are so big they spill in to the streets to the extent that the police barricade off entire blocks. The crowds can be so thick that you literally cannot get through. Lots of folks in either elaborate or scanty costumes constantly are posing for viewers or photographers. We were a little prepared with some costumes and improvised what we could to suit the occasion. We were even asked to pose for the occasional tourist even though on the Key West outrageousness scale, we could have passed for Amish.

Steve and his gals, Tu-tu Tuesday

On Tuesday, our innkeeper at Marreros supplied everyone with tutu's so we could properly represent the house and participate in the Tu-tu Parade which wended through town stopping along the way for periodic refreshment. Marreros sponsors a happy hour on their porch every day at five and everyone was out in their tu-tu best, harassing innocent passers by. 

Body paint on the streets

Another tradition at fantasy fest is body painting. Lots of shops along Duvall, the main street, offer body painting. Shops that normally sell t-shirts, jewelry stores, restaurants, and convenience stores all set up booths along the street with resident artists to do body painting. The law says all the body painting is to be done out of public view. The law is almost universally ignored and in some cases blatantly so. If you want your face done it will be fifty dollars or so. A whole body job can go into the hundreds. You see lots of painted people on the streets at night. In some cases that is all they are wearing.

Ready for the Plaid Party

Tonight, Thursday, is Toga Night at Sloppy Joe's. We are somewhat prepared, though the local costume shops have outfits that cost into the thousands of dollars. There are parades Friday and Saturday and then things wind down and we will again hit the road. I will do one more Fantasy Fest blog before we leave Key West.

Relaxing by the pool

We've been in key West for a while now and it's been some time since I have posted a new blog. Our first week here was pretty uneventful. Lots of relaxing by the pool and seeing the sights. The time was only marred by the fact that several of the guests here at Marreros were chain smokers and Linda is pretty sensitive to tobacco smoke so we would often be driven out of the pool area in search of clear air.

Now Fantasy Fest has begun. It is a ten day festival that is held each year in Key West around Halloween. The first couple of days are relatively tame. There is what is called Goombay, an African themed street fair with lots of eats and booths. There is also a Goombay parade which we unfortunately missed.

Goombay food

After Goombay Fantasy Fest starts to get in gear. Every night most bars have special costume events. So far we have done Little Black Dress night and Pirate night. We managed to put together some passable costumes to get into the spirit of the thing. Ours were pretty tame. Others went from pretty elaborate ($1000 +) to literally nonexistent. So far I haven't been packing my camera around so I don't have much in the way of pictures. Google "Fantasy Fest" images if you want to get a taste of what it's like. I will probably add some later, though I have been trying to keep this blog PG 13 and much of what goes on in the street is R and beyond.

Pirate Night

The biggest happenings are in the last days when there is a major parade and of course lots more parties, some of which might be more out of control than we are up for.

We have been if Fort Lauderdale for a week now. It as been a pleasant respite from our constant movement from place to place, very relaxing. Also, since the condo is prepaid, we are not putting miles on the car, and we can eat in our room, we are nor hemorrhaging money as quickly as we had been before. The condo here in Sunny Isles is very nice, as is the beach and facilities. We are about half way between Miami and Fort Lauderdale so it is quite convenient.

Last night we had dinner in South Beach which has to be the best spot in the world for people watching. Today, daughter Cara visited. By a great coincidence she had to make a business trip here while we were visiting. It was great to see her. We had drinks and dinner at pub and french restaurant on Las Olas Blvd. downtown Fort Lauderdale. It was excellent.

Golden Strand Resort

Tomorrow, (Monday) we head further south to Key West. Before we go we plan to have breakfast with Cara in Fort Lauderdale. We need to get to Key West before around five PM when innkeeper Steve will be locking the door. We will have about two weeks in Key West and then we turn around and start the long journey home. While in Key West the Fantasy Fest celebration will be going on. It promises to be a raucous time. Lets hope us old folks are up to it. I should be posting more frequently again once we get there.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

We took the trolley tour of St. Augustine. They run a shuttle bus out to the beach where our hotel is located, which made it convenient getting in to town where parking can be scarce.The tour itself was so, so. Some good history was communicated, but so was hype for every tourist trap in the area. As you may know, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the USA, dating to the 1500's. Ponce de Leone is supposed to have landed there. The city has been under Spanish, English and American rule. Because of depredations by English pirates (Drake and others) the city was walled and fortified. there are cannon and fortifications on almost every corner.

Oldest wooden schoolhouse in the US

The next day we headed south again after getting a late start. Along the way we stopped at the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. The last time we had been in this area we had stayed in Titusville ( over 15 years ago) and had been lucky enough to have been there when there was a night time space shuttle launch from the Space Center. We waited three nights on the sea wall since the launch was cancelled the first two nights. Across the street was a Krystals where we got some of the hamburgers (minis) that they sell. It was the first time we ever had them, they're tasty. We were surprised to find that the Crystals was still there, so we had dinner there. This time there were no launches, but we did get to explore the seashore and dip our feet, and other parts of our anatomy, in the Atlantic. The water is very warm this time of year. 

Daytona Beach

We finally stopped at Cocoa Beach for the night. Tomorrow we will be in North Miami at a condo for about eight days. I will blog again in three or four days. 

Kids and the big tank

Whale shark

We found the aquarium, no sweat, its on the former olympics grounds. The Coca Cola tour is next door (we passed that up). It's billed as the biggest aquarium in the world. I don't know how they measure it, Sea World in San Diego is bigger, but the indoor tanks are incredible. In various sections and tanks, you can see beluga whales, sea otters, whale sharks, dolphin shows, tropical reefs. The place is especially kid friendly with all kinds of places where tykes can crawl into exhibits to get better views. The size of many of the fish is amazing including manta rays and five whale sharks. The dolphin show is indoors in a setting like a theater stage with glitzy lighting and a corny story line around which the show was shaped. Wasn't my favorite part of the place, though very impressive.

Lion fish (I think)

The next day we headed off to Savannah. Savannah is an old city with lots of history. There are many  beautiful parks, a river walk, and old beautiful southern mansions. in particular, the streets and parks are lined with incredible old oak trees. After touristing about for a bit we headed out for St. Augustine and finally got a look at the Atlantic. The was rainy again but the water was warm. Coast to coast we have put 5800 miles on the car. The price of not taking the direct route.

Live oak

We will spend two nights in St. Augustine. We have a nice place on the beach at the Hampton Inn. There is a great restaurant across the street.

Savannah mansion

On our last day in the Great Smokies we wanted to tour the park a bit and visit the Lost Sea Cavern. The plan was to drive through the park and then on to the cave. It was Sunday afternoon and everyone in the world was out for a Sunday drive or a Sunday picnic. There is a loop in the park called Cades Cove that is about eleven miles long we thought we could leave the loop about halfway through and make our way to the cave. The speed limit through the loop is twenty miles an hour. We averaged about five or six bumper to bumper the whole way. It is narrow and one way. There were many signs instructing drivers to be considerate and use the frequent pullouts. Nobody did. We didn't find the exit from the loop and went the whole distance in about two hours. Even though it was now getting late it was on to search for the cave which turned out to be further than I thought. After about another hour and a half we were in the vicinity of where the cave was supposed to be. But no cave was to be found. Later we found that the name of the cave had been changed. In any event, we headed back to our condo and two hours later we were there.

Today we checked out of the condo and headed for Atlanta. Our route would take across Great Smoky National Park, a drive that is considered one of the most beautiful in the country. Unfortunately it rained most of the way. We did make a few stops and managed to get a few pictures between the rain drops. The fall colors were better at higher altitudes and we could see how spectacular this area would look in a couple of weeks.

We are now holed up at a La Quinta a little outside Atlanta. The rain has been torrential and the TV says there is a tornado potential. We have come to Atlanta primarily to see the Georgia Aquarium which is supposed to be the largest in the world. We plan to check it out tomorrow morning before heading to Savannah. Hopefully we will be able to find it.