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Published: March 22nd 2006
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Stay on the trail...
...nevermind that, just watch the hell out! Hello Everyone, nice to be with you again. Hope everyone is doing well. You might be wondering about the title of this blog. I'll explain. I'm not sure we could have had a more contrasting week than the one we just had. Primarily, the contrast came from going from the serenity of the Everglades National Park to the madhouse of 400,000 "Irish for the day", party people in Savannah for St. Patty's day. Nature, being the alligators, birds, and plants. Nurture, being the magnitude of revelers indulging in the second largest St. Patty's Day festivities in the US. So, are you with me here? Not sure I am either, but you get the point. Its been an interesting week, to say the least.
Driving south from Tampa to the Everglades, it became very clear that Florida is the retirement capital of the USA. We had never seen so many golf cart planned communities in our lives. It seemed like every sign advertised "the best place to become young again". The thing is, these places were exactly what I wanted! Honestly, a nice house, a golf cart garage, golf courses galore, and restaurants everywhere! Someone should plan a community and advertise
Heh, bird.
Getting to know nature. it as "the best place to grow old, now". Beyond the retirement meccas, we reached the Everglades National Park. Marisa have been more exacted. The goal was to see wildlife. The ultimate goal was to see alligators. Our goals were reached. Within the Everglades you can walk trails taking you to 3 distinctly different ecosystems, see alligators, explore and contemplate the plight of Florida's water distribution system, see alligators, learn how the natural cycle of life is completely unique to southern Florida, and you can see alligators. Did I mention the alligators? It is almost unbelievable how close you can get to these amazing creatures and how prevalent they are throughout the everglades. In the morning, we took a guided park ranger walk along one of the trails. By the time we came across this bad boy (see picture) our group was so accustomed to seeing alligators no one really seemed to care that it's nose was perched over our path. However, when the ranger stopped and warned us to not get any closer, the city slicker came out in everyone. This gator was actually fleeing another gator, because the other gator was....well....cough, cough.....horny. And when a gator gets horny....well....you
Kokomo
We'll get there fast if we take it slow, that's where we wanna go, way down to .... don't dare get close to see what happens next. Our group watched the gator pursuit across our path and continue into the marsh. After a slightly uneasy "phew" our group continued and we saw bird, fish, gator, turtle, and more gators. It was awesome! If you ever make to south Florida you must hit up the Everglade National Park. Just don't get close if you see a gator with a certain twinkle in his eyes. That afternoon we decided to continue south and see what we could see of the Florida Keys. We got a couple of great tips from locals and found a perfect spot to watch the sunset (see picture) and eat some local fish. There really isn't a cooler place and time to chill than an ocean side bar in the Keys. Beautiful.
After the Everglades we decided to drive through South Beach, take it in for an afternoon, get a lay of the land, and remember where best to come back to when the road trip grime has completely washed off. South Beach is definitely not the place for a couple of camping road trippers looking for the best penny saving option. However, we did
Ocean Drive
South Beach Art Deco at it's finest. see that it certainly can serve its purpose and provide a great time of clubbing, designer shopping, and lounging on over sized beds next to pools with no one in them. Oh yes, when I win American Idol next year, we will be heading back to South Beach.
Our next stop was Dodgertown, USA (Vero Beach, Florida for you non "sporties") In Dodgertown, Marisa got to see one of her good friends, Scott, and I got to soak up as much baseball as humanly possible. Amazingly, Dodgertown filled both our needs. Scott was awesome and showed us around the whole Dodger Spring Training facility and got us amazing tickets to the game. For those of you that know baseball, our tickets where right in the middle of the all the player's wives. For those of you that don't know baseball, that means our tickets were about as good as you can get. The bat boy might have a better seat, but he has to run around a bit, we just have to order beers and throw peanuts on the ground. Nice. Scott thank you so much for hooking us up. We will certainly return the favor and get you
Dodgertown
Our seats were right there. Aaron Sele's slider looks hittable this year. free tickets to what ever play the high school Marisa is teaching at puts on.
After Vero Beach, we continued north to Savannah, Georgia. For those of you that don't know too much about Savannah, it was one of the only cities spared from Sherman's fires at the end of the Civil War. Therefore, Savannah has kept its historic charm and turned into one of America's most amazingly beautiful cities. Also, as it turns out, Savannah throws a HUGE St. Patrick's Day parade and party. I know what you are thinking and trust me we asked. Why in the name of Freda Feltcher does Savannah care so much about St. Patrick's Day? Well, the answer is, don't ask, just accept it, drink a green beer, and have a great time. So we did. Our friend Scott (you might know him from a previous post, "Show me the Ocean") drove up from Tampa and spent the weekend with us enjoying everything Irish in Savannah. During the parade it is tradition for women along the route to run into the street and kiss any man marching in the parade how looks in need of a kiss. After a few green libations,
St. Patty's in Savanah
The lighting is off, but you can imagine. Green, green, and more green. Marisa took it upon herself to uphold this tradition and today there are more than a few firemen, police officers, military cadets, and politicians running around Savannah still wondering about the white girl who kissed them screaming "A Kiss with Aloha!" After the parade everyone, and I mean everyone, heads down to the "riverwalk" and wanders from stage to stage listening to music, drinking and waiting in port o potie lines. It is obvious that Savannah has celebrated in this manner for over a 100 years, from the very well planned and people friendly lines to get you through everywhere. The party continued into the night and at some point we woke up the next morning. All the green started to get a little blurry after awhile, OK? Savannah's St. Patrick's Day, a couple of huge thumbs up! You can check out more crazy green pictures. Just go to http://pixels.savannahnow.com/
After St. Patrick's day we continued to join Savannah in the St. Patty's day weekend festivities. We checked out the annual Savannah St. Patrick's Day Rugby Invitational, sat and took in the afternoon at a Tapa's Bar in City Market, and topped it off with dancing at the locally
The Captain!
Everyone's favorite pirate, Captain Morgan. famous Bar Bar. The next day we drove out to the seashore and walked all throughout the traditional buildings and squares that make Savannah one of the most amazing places in America.
So, as it turns out, we went from observing animals in the natural setting (Everglades) to becoming animals in an unnatural setting (St. Patty's Party in Savannah). Good thing we have a lot of time in the car to contemplate and clear everything up.
Currently we are in Charleston, SC and heading up to North Carolina tomorrow. DC awaits. Oh, that reminds me, if you have any complaints about the referees during this year's Super Bowl, I will be having a sit down with W about it. Feel free to send me those complaints and I will see what I can do. At the very least I figure he'll offer to have both the Steelers and the Seahawks over to the White House for tea and crumpets.
Aloha
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Andrea
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Josh and Marisa, I love your Travelblog! I feel like I'm living vicariously through your adventures (since I have no life right now with graduation about 6 weeks away). It's great to see and hear about all of your adventures. Keep me posted. It's the only traveling I'll be doing for a while. Take care and have fun.