To Tennessee!- Day 1

On Thursday, July 3rd decided to drive up to Orlando. The drive was pretty uneventful besides the ever classic Stuff You Missed in History Class and Freakonomics episodes. We listened to some pretty interesting topics like Francis Glessner Lee: The Crazy Lady Who Transformed Forensic Science and The Science of Complementary Food. 

When we finally arrived at Orlando it was close to dark, so we decided to stop at the local Hard Knocks, a hyper-realistic lazer tag game. 

       Charlie modeling the Hard Knocks poster. 

There were three types of guns: shotgun, SMG, and pistol, and "realistic environments" including an office area with cubicals and a warehouse with conveniently placed boxes. We had fun ducking behind cover, sliding, and making believe we were in a real life version of Battlefield. We even got battle scars (aka scraped knees) from all the sliding and looked super awesome running from cover to cover and using "military speak" we'd learned from movies. 

And then all the other customers looked at us weirdly and tried to back away from us as slowly as possible while tring to inconspicuously dial 911...

After convincing the cops we were simply tourists, and not axe murderers, we decided to go and eat at Taverna Opa, a Greek restaurant we had visited during our previous escapade to Hard Knocks. We weren't that hungry so we just got a few appetizers to share, and Charlie got a gyro. The food was delicious, the napkins littering the floor and being used as confetti confusing, the music catchy (even if it was in Greek) and the belly dancer... interesting. Apparently, it was someone's birthday so he got to dance with the bellydancer... odd present, but who am I to judge? Anyways, the only intresting thing about that situation was how, with Charlie blatantly avoiding eye contact with the dancer and Dad's survival instinct kicking in, making him suddenly very interested in his food, Mom was the only one left to ogle at the bellydancer and make crude jokes... which is no different from usual, I guess. Oh well.

After the dinner, we continued driving for about an hour until we found a good hotel in Deland (No, I'm serious, the name to the town was Deland... The Land. I guess the mayors just weren't feeling creative that that day. "What should we name our town?" "I don't know, it's just the land we got from Aunt Deb." "By God, Darry, you're a genius, that's what we'll call it... Deland!") and went to sleep.

From Fort Myers to Tennessee

Thursday, July 3rd after work we drove up to Orlando and played laser tag at Hard Knocks and ate at Taverna Opa 

That night we stayed at a hotel in Deland.

The next day on the 4th of July we drove to Saint Augustine and from there drove north on highway 1 all the way to the St John's River Ferry. We ate at Singleton's Seafood Shack. We then drove to Little Talbot Island State Park.

From there we took the highway past Savannah to Charleston South Carolina. In Charleston we drove past Battery Park and through much of the riverfront downtown until we parked at the South Carolina Aquarium parking garage and saw the fireworks across the harbor from the top of the garage.

We spent the night in Columbia South Carolina. The next morning we got up to a swarm of ants in our car and had to stop at a gas station and vacuum the whole car to get rid them.

We drove on to Asheville North Carolina and ate at Chai Panai, Indian food for lunch. 

We then stopped at the Chocolate Fetish for a snack 

From there we drove the rest of the way to Granny and PaPa's with the obligatory stop at Wal-Mart of course.

Key West- The Awesome Version- Part 2

The next day we decided to take the City View Trolley around town. We drove to one of the stops, at an ecology center, which was unfortunately closed, and set out to be as loud and rude as possible as we waited for the trolley, to the agony of an unsuspecting local and his dog who were simply trying to get some peace and quiet so they could finally finish the latest installment of Fifty Shades of Grey. (OK, I made that last part up...)

When the trolley finally arrived, we hoped on and took the round trip tour all over the city. First, we went to the butterfly garden, or rather to the gift shop of the butterfly garden. Mom was especially excited about a large red glass butterfly she saw for only twenty dollars and Dad found an adorable headband with little butterfly antennas and a pink tutu with butterfly designs (or was that Charlie...) I, on the other hand, was more interested in the pretty bracelet-watches, which were all set to the wrong time, oddly enough- but, whatever, I fixed that mistake quickly. 

However, in what was by far the most surprising part of that stop, and in a twist that will be rembered in the history books forever, Charlie actually managed to tell a funny joke. The joke? Why are gay guys so funny? The answer? I have no idea, but I guess I must be as straight as an arrow.

After we finally managed to stop giggling, we decided to walk down to Southernmost Point, a quick swim away from Cuba. We took one look at the line to take your picture with the marker, and decided to take a picture of the marker with nobody in it and photoshop ourselves in later. Still, here is the picture of the marker even though we aren't photoshopped in yet.

Next, we found a street vender and got Charlie a shaved ice and the rest of us three bottles of much needed cold water.

We finally got back on the trolley and were treated to some world class narration on the history of the island by our tour guide. One of my favorite parts of the tour was the highest point of Key West, a small bump, a whopping 18 feet above sea level. Wheeeee!

Another cool story was one the guide told about a Cuban superstition that demons can't cross over water, so the Cubans painted the bottom of their porches blue. Our guide then proceeded  to tell us that the superstition had to be true, because in the ten years he and his wife had lived in Key West, his mother-in-law had yet to visit.

Another joke poked fun at the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, who had a home in Key West. Hemingway liked to go out and drink often, and as such often got lost tring to find his way home in the drunken stupor. So when Ernest moved to Key West, he chose a house next to the lighthouse, that way whenever he got lost all he had to do was aim for the lighthouse, and he'd eventually be able to stumble home. Funnily enough this story struck a chord with me, as it reminded me a lot of my mom's method of navigation, after all if you follow the river for long enough you'll be sure to eventually find where you parked your car! .....well that or Canada.

We got off at the first stop of the trolley tour and we're treated to a odd sight, a humongous statue of an old fashioned couple dancing. 

This, of course, caught our attention, so we decided to go in and check out the building it adorned. We talked to the gift shop keeper who told us the building was the Old Post Office and Customs House of Key West, and the current Key West Art and History Museum. 

Our curiosity satisfied, we searched for a place to eat and were rewarded with the discovery of a small shop called Falafel King, and true to its word was the best falafel place (and probably only falafel place) in Key West. The shop was owned by an Israeli and the delicious food definitely made mom happy, which was all that matters.  

We got back on the trolley and continued on our journey. 

We saw the starting point, and ending point for Route 1, which goes all the up the east coast to Fort Kent in Maine. Even though the other sign had been stolen, I got a picture of the marker for the start of the highway.

Exhausted from a hot day in th sun we decided to get off at another stop and take a dip in the ocean. The beach was nice, and even though I was still disappointed at the absolute lack of waves, even normal Florida "wimp waves," the ocean was about the shallowest I've ever seen. We must've went out more than 100 yards, yet I could still touch the ground and have my head still be above water, so that was extremely nice.

Next we visited Martello's Tower, which had absolutely beautiful gardens, and we finally learned what kind of Palm trees we'd been seeing all over the island, not coconut or date, as my parents had been claiming, Christmas Palms, named for the red berries they produced. 

We then headed back for the bus stop, where we encountered the scariest ghost I've ever seen... Charlie!

He claims he was hiding from the sun, but this explains why he's so pale all the time and the creepy noises I've been hearing at night!

We then decided to visit Truman's Little White House. The tour was interesting, and the guide seemed to enjoy himself, but most importantly, the house had air conditioning!!!! Yay! We got to see the rooms Truman, his wife, and daughter stayed in, as well as learn about the great man himself. Truman had humble beginnings, but he worked his way to the top, proving you can be anyone if you set your mind to it- no matter who you are.

One of the many interesting things in the house was Truman's poker table, complete with a cover to hide it when his wife was around. 

We also learned about Truman's daughter's opera career (which didn't end well) and daughter's love for mystery novels, who also wrote mystery novels herself. 

One funny part of our visit to the house was when, in the gift shop, we were exploring the tiny museum which showcased Truman's life and achievements. One article made me realize the changes in culture between Truman and modern day, a mere 70 years ago. It was a page of a propaganda comic on Truman. The comic stated "Truman also made the powerful and awesome decision to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, ending the terrible World War." To the modern viewer the use if the word awesome sounds out of place and the article so obviously propaganda, that it really, in my opinion, provides insight into the way our country has changed since Truman's time and fascinates me. 

Anyways, we then proceeded to nearly get lost as we tried to find our way back to our car, and the trolleys had stopped running for the day.

After that we found a nice floating Thai restaurant off the pier, run by two nice Thai ladies, and had an amazing dinner. It was very interesting because, as far as I know I've never met anyone from Thailand and our server was very interested when she learned we were from San Fransisco. 

After the dinner, we began the long drive back to Fort Myers, where we arrived at Dad's house and promptly fell asleep, exhausted from our busy day.

Key West- The Awesome Version

Hey all. It's Joy, posting my first blog about our vacation. (I hope you're happy now Dad...)

After the long (but beautiful) drive down from Miami, we arrived in Key West and ate lunch at Moe's, a small Cajan place. Finally, after numerous phone calls to various hotels, we were lucky enough to secure what seemed to be the last of the extremely overpriced hotel rooms in Key West, and after playing games on my phone for the next three hours- I mean, a nap, we headed out to check out the cesspool of lewd humor that was Duval Street.  

Duval Street was certainly a very interesting place. As we drove, the daily 6 o'clock thunderstorm began and we decided to take cover in the Bull and Thistle Bar, a bar that interestingly enough contained another "clothing optional" rooftop bar called The Adam and Eve, and some very nice live music.

By this time, the rain had decided to spare us and stopped just as suddenly as it started, leaving us to poke our heads out of our cover and continue exploring all that Duval Street had to offer. Our first stop was, of course, was to search for the most humorous lewd t-shirt that we could find, and, trust me, there were a lot of contenders. However, after my father's first post about keeping this site "clean," I am obliged to keep the winner of this contest forever a mystery.

After that little escapade, we continued down the street enjoying the scenery (aka bars), sights (aka crude t-shirts), and people (aka drunks), before we decided to walk down to Sunset Pier and watch the sunset, which was absolutely beautiful. On one side of the scene there was a picture perfect sunset, and on the other a raging thunderstorm. To me this was an extremely beautiful picture because of the contrast of the sunset and thunderstorm. My favorite picture of the Key West sunset was one in which, a bird flew by just as I took it, so it's silhouette was visible in front of the beautiful sunset and dark thunderclouds in the background.  

Also, next to the pier my mom and I each bought a cute dress to wear over our swimsuits the next day. Mine was blue and much cooler than the one my mom got...

Charlie also got some fudge from the shop, which proved to be quite delicious- I mean it looked delicious. Because I totally did not steal any of it when he wasn't looking... Next topic please.

After dark, Duval Street's crazy side began to become more obvious as the bars and clubs exploded. Still, that didn't stop me stop me from snapping a picture of a (luckily) far off thunderstorm.

Oh, and I had to take a picture of this car, which was parked just outside sunset pier and too cool not to take a picture of.

Look! It's a boom box! Yay!

After that, we settled down at the local Margaritaville for a light dinner. We listened to some old Jimmy Buffet songs while trying to determine what the bizarre videos of drunk people being stupid that accompanied the songs had to do with the music, and after reaching no conclusion, settled down to listen to the live music- a man and a woman with guitars doing covers to various songs. My favorite was a cover of the song "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons, probably the most recent or "popular" song they did.

After we ended up getting kicked out for drunk behavior, we decided to go and steal top secret CIA plans, which led to a nationwide manhunt and numerous shootouts before we finally returned the plans and were rewarded a Nobel Prize for our awesomeness. Okay that didn't happen, but we did leave Margaritaville and continue wandering down the street.

I had my picture taken with a celebrity, as per the list of things I needed to do on the vacation provided to me by my friend, Charu. 

I also saw Darth Vader playing a banjo, which was just... awesome.

So that was definitely my favorite part of vacation.

Anyways, after that everyone was pretty tired, but we forged on and enjoyed the scenery, consisting of raging nightclubs, candy stores with HUGE! boxes of nerds (perfect for Charlie), and closed furniture and glass work shops which my mom drooled over through the glass. Oh, and of course the obligatory lewd t-shirt shops. Obviously. 

Finally, we decided it was time to get some sleep, and crashed at our hotel room, exhasted from our long drive and busy night.

Weekend travels (summer 2014)- Miami and Key West

During the weekend, we decided to go to Miami and then to Key West.  The road to Miami through the everglades was interesting again, since a thunderstorm earlier that afternoon had started a few brush fires. These are pretty common in south Florida and the road even has permanent signs warning of smoke and fog, but in addition to a few columns of smoke in the distance, we were able to see the flames of one of the fires. Undeterred, we continued our trip towards Miami, which didn't strike Yifat as a place she would want to be very much, especially as we are still watching Dexter hack and slash his way across Miami!  However, we went to Miami Beach, which DID seem really nice, with a very vibrant strip of restaurants and bars by a pretty beach.  We also had a wonderful dinner at Havanah 1957 located on the famous Espanola Way.

Joy stands next to the welcome sign at the entrance to Espanola Way

From Miami, we headed to Key West, stopping at Library Beach behind the Monroe County Library in Islamorada for a dip. We stopped at the Lions Lair swimwear outlet to buy a swimsuit for Yifat, which came in handy for the rest of the trip! The drive down highway 1 over the keys was beautiful and relaxing. The water was brilliant blue with a patchwork of greens and tans indicating rocks, sand bars and other underwater features. Boats, ranging from small ski-doos to luxurious yachts bobbed merrily in the gentle waves. There were several short bridges and a few long ones.

When we got to Key West, we ate delicious Caribbean food at Mo's Restaurant and looked for a hotel. Doug had assumed that like most of Florida during the summer, it would not be hard to find a hotel on Key West. However, we came to find that Key West, really is a special place and all of the hotels in town were full! We finally managed to find one hotel that was probably having trouble with their reservation system because the front desk had a room even though their booking desk could not book it for us, so we headed to the Fairfield Inn after lunch and secured the last room in Key West in person! It was a nice hotel with a beautiful pool and a sumptious breakfast buffet. We paid a lot more than we usually pay for hotel rooms ($250), but from looking around, I gather that we would have paid about the same price to stay at a dump.

After a nap, we headed out to Duval Street just as a thunderstorm hit the island. If you have not been to South Florida in the summer, then you may not know that daily thunderstorms are a regular feature around here. So we were not deterred by the rain. In fact, Doug dropped Yifat and the kids off at the Bull and Whistle Bar which had a live band and looked for a place to park. By the time he had found a place to park, the rain was nearly over. We wandered down Duval street which reminded Yifat of Bourbon street in New Orleans. We just had to take a picture in front of Captain Tony's the bar featured in Jimmy Buffet's "Last Mango in Paris".

Captain Tony's in Key West

We walked over to the sunset pier to enjoy a drink and watch the sunset.

The sunset from the pier. To the left you may be able to make out the receding storm clouds.

After dark, we wandered back down Duval street which was starting to exhibit a little bit more of the "crazy" that it is so famous for. We had dinner at Margaritaville, which featured some great live music.

The next day, we purchased day passes on the "City View Trolley" from Groupon and set off, criss crossing Key West several times. 

We saw a lot of cool places, including Southernmost point, swimming at Higg's Beach and viewing the tropical gardens at Martello Tower. We had lunch at the very unlikely Falafel King and were pleasantly surprised to find some of the best falafels this side of the Haifa bus terminal! The little hole in the wall restaurant is owned by an Israeli and in addition to serving authentic, tasty falafel kebab and bourekas, they even had Bamba, the Israeli snack that Charlie loved so much as a baby! 

Our most anticipated destination that day was Hemingway's house. However, our tour guide on the trolley managed to change our minds. Now, we would still have gone to his house if we had the time, but at the end of the day, we only had time to do the Hemingway house or Truman's little white house. We talked to the guide and he made a pretty good case for the little white house. And it was really interesting and thought provoking, a nice piece of American history. The picture that the tour guide painted of Hemingway's house was not flattering. A nice, but not spectacular house. An author whose art we should admire a lot more than his lifestyle (especially on Key West). No air conditioning, and semi-feral cats everywhere! The tour guide did tell one funny story about Hemingway. He said that the common wisdom is that Hemingway bought his house, right next to the lighthouse because that way he could always find his way home at night as he stumbled back from the bar on Duval street. 

Truman's little white house was indeed very interesting. He was a simple man from humble beginnings who rose to power and made some of the most pivotal decisions in world history. The atomic bomb, the Marshall plan, the beginnings of the cold war. It's easy to see why he needed a place in Key West to relax.

We drove back across the keys, part of the way through a thunderstorm and then back across the Everglades to make it back to Fort Myers on Sunday night. It was a fun, relaxing trip!

More fun places in Fort Myers

Another fun place we went in Fort Myers was Smuggler's Cove Miniature Golf. It was a fun, challenging course, with live alligators in the beginning and lots of cool holes. Dad was ahead until the very end when Joy came from behind to win by one stroke! Yifat played very well, making me think that she has been practicing when the kids are at school or something!

We also went out to Rusty's Raw Bar and got even more Oysters! I love the Oysters at Rusty's, they are almost as good as those we had at the Smokin' Oyster Brewery. At Rusty's we got to watch the end of the World Cup Game between America and Belgium. We started watching just as the regulation game was ending at 0-0 but the overtime was really exciting with a score of 2-1 and we really thought that the USA might even it to 2-2. We also played the most epic Jenga games in history using their giant Jenga set made from 2x4s!

In Fort Myers- summer 2014

Like Doug said, the kids and I had a very relaxed vacation.  I took Doug to work daily and then went to get donuts for breakfast and do some shopping for lunch, unless we met with Doug and went out for lunch.  The kids slept most days till 10 am or even noon.  Charlie worked on his Eagle Award and Joy worked on her Silver Award, while Yifat checked Silver Award reports of other girls in the troop.  During the later hours of the day, we enjoyed picking up Doug for a nice dinner and then watching movies or science programs on TV, such as Cosmos.  We got very much into the Southern mood: hiding at home during the heat and getting out more at night.

Few trips we made in the area included a trip to the Sun Harvest store.  The factory, where citrus is sorted, packed and shipped, was closed for the season, but they have a store with very cute gifts.  Joy got very charming shell earrings, Yifat got a citrus soap and we all enjoyed many, many samples of juices.  Joy and Charlie loved the lemonade and Yifat loved the orange juice.  We also got ice cream: key lime flavor for Charlie, chocolate for Yifat and vanilla/orange for Joy. It was awesome!

Another trip we made was to Lover's Key, which is a beach in Fort Mayers, as well as a state park.  We swam and got ice cream, which seems to be what we did really any time we got outside in Florida.  The water was warm and, unlike in the Bay area, swimmable (!!!), the sand was soft and almost white…Heaven!  Joy complained bitterly about the lack of waves, and I have to agree with her that some waves would have been really nice, but it was still super great!

Lakes park was also a great destination.  It's a park by Doug's house with lots of wildlife, as well as a small area for water sprinklers, a big lake with rental paddle boats and canoes (or was it kayaks?), hiking trails, a train museum and a kid-size train etc.  We ended up renting a bike for the 3 of us, though the kids were so generous and decided not to slave mom too much paddling, so they ended up biking on their own.  They spent 1 hour biking together and another hour, taking turns on a single-person bike. Needless to say, ice cream was involved also in this outing…

Yifat's favorite night in Fort Myers, though, was going to another Fort Myers' beach with Doug and the kids.  After a walk on the beach, we went to the Smoky Oyster Bar and got the best oysters ever Yifat has had.  Due to a mistake of the server, we actually got double the amount we ordered and it was just an amazing food.  The music in the place was a lot of fun and the drinks were great.  We sat there, while outside it rained and thundered, and it was really a wonderful evening.

Picking up Yifat and the kids from the airport

We had a great trip this summer! It started on Monday June 23rd with Yifat, Charlie and Joy flying out to Fort Lauderdale and Doug driving their across the central Florida swamp to pick them up. I arrived at the airport, just in time to pick them up after their 9:30 PM arrival. It was great to see everybody again, since it had been Memorial day since we had seen each other last. The drive back to Fort Myers was dark and more than a little bit spooky as the Everglades often are at night. There aren't really any towns, and very few man made structures along the long stretch of Alligator Alley (Route 75). The darkness engulfed us and it seemed that the world ended beyond the reach of our headlights. We drove through large swarms of plump juicy bugs that made it hard to see through the windshield after a while. When we stopped at one of the few gas stations along the 2 hour drive I popped out to wash the windshield but quickly retreated as the bugs were thick under the lights. I was taking shallow breaths, afraid that if I inhaled any harder I would suck one of the tightly circling insects into my mouth or nose. Yuck!

It was around midnight when we got to Fort Myers. The kids crashed on my bed and Yifat and I went to the nearby budget hotel. We were too tired to deal with the sofa bed in the living room. The next several days, she and the kids led a lazy life. Yifat drove me to work in the morning and brought back Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast but the kids did not usually wake until it was time for us to meet for lunch!

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This Blog is intended to be a diary of our family life, especially our travels. If you don't know us in real life, you probably won't care to read any of our posts but if you do read on, then please keep your comments family friendly.