I can’t believe how far we have come already! After the St Petersberg area, we stopped at Naples, and realized we were so exhausted, we basically had a room day-it was such a great room, we really didn’t want to leave. Movies and sleep. It was much needed.

We stopped in the Everglades, for a quick airboat tour. It was a blast! Captain Fred, drove that airboat like a crazy person-doing donuts….

We moved on to South Beach, in Miami. We used Priceline, for another smoking deal right on Ocean Drive. Excellent location, excellent price. You just choose where, the number of stars and bam, you save a ton! We stayed here for three nights. Great Cuban food, great seafood, wonderful Mojitos…… And the beach-wow! It really puts Waikiki to shame-I am bound to get some nasty remarks from my Hawaiian friends for that-but oh well. The beach goes on forever…. and there is great shopping and people watching.

It was suggested by someone-I will not name names, that periodically I photograph Rick holding a current newspaper to prove that I have not killed him during the roadtrip-lol! Seriously, we are having a terrific time! He is alive and well.

Some well meaning person (probably) commented on this blog about how I could do things differently to make this blog look more professional. FYI-I am doing this for fun. It is not supposed to be professional. I am old. I did not understand 98% of what you said. But thanks for the advice…..I did not approve it for posting, because very few people that would read this blog would understand what you said either. Sooooo……….

On to the Florida Keys!

We arrived at our condo at Belleair Beach, which is the Clearwater area, near St Petersberg and Tampa. This is the most beautiful part of Florida I have seen. Seriously, the beach is fantastic and goes on and on forever. It is un-crowded and the vegetation is very much like Hawaii, only, the beaches here are prettier and bigger. I was never very interested in Florida, but, wow! I get it now. We would  have loved to have stayed here another week, however, our condo was booked for tonight. Rick met the owner of our condo, who gave us his card so we could call him directly if we want to come back after we go to the Keys….really considering it.

We went to our second Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives place here called Keegan’s Seafood Grille. And, oh my gosh, it was incredible! We started off with baked octopus with feta and then each of us had a fish entrée.

We decided to head to Naples, which will put us in striking distance of the Everglades and Miami. Breaking our 2 night minimum rule, we booked just one night at the Inn on Pelican Bay (note to self-got it on Hotels Tonight). After hearing so much about the Naples area, I was frankly underwhelmed. It is pretty enough, but also crowded and not nearly as nice as where we just left.

Ps-I totally blew the caption under one of the sunset pictures, but being old and all, I have no idea how to fix it, I promise I will do a better job editing before I hit Publish next time….and the last photo is of the baked octopus dish I mentioned above.

We left New Orleans and crossed the 24 mile Causeway (which is way strange-just a road across a lake for 24 MILES!!! like a bridge on steroids) across Lake Ponchartrain, to try our first Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant of the trip. Louie and the Redhead Lady. It was delicious, and the fact that I was able to eat anything was short of a miracle. Got a bad Boudin late the night before. Let it suffice it to say, nothing good came of that evil little sausage….

We made it to Panama City Beach, FL, just in time for a cloudburst. Had a nice couple of days there. We finally got to hang out on the beach and swim in the gulf (definitely nothing you want to do in Corpus!). The water was beautiful, clear, turquoise and warm. We finished up our stay with an oyster feast at a great little dive called Hunt’s Oyster Bar. At the risk of sounding like Bubba, we had raw oysters, baked oysters and fried oysters. Cajun baked being the best! We are headed to the St. Petersburg area tomorrow afternoon, where we did something crazy. We actually booked a condo on the beach before we even got in the car to drive there. Unheard of!

Another random thought…. Just because the hotel has the word Suite in the name, does not really mean it has anything to do with a suite…..sadly.