Mark and the terrible horrible no good very bad day

 The guy in the visitor's center at Shark Valley said Alabama Jack's was his favorite place "in all of Florida."  We didn't know anything about the guy or his taste or if he's been to anywhere else in Florida, but we took his word for it and went to Alabama Jack's.

The sky got darker and humidity got thicker as we went.  We were sort of between a crocodile preserve and the ocean on a narrow spit of land that had a tree lined road on it.  In a somewhat wider spot, there sat Alabama Jack's.  It was an open air restaurant with a line to get a table mid-afternoon.

humidity + Mark's hair = wowza

It was decorated in the same license plate motif that seems to be all the rage.  There were a few wheezing and gasping fans that did nothing to cut through the heavy oppressive air.

We secured a table and placed our order.  People were smoking and bikers were buying buckets full of beer bottles.  The guy behind the counter clanged a bell whenever that happened.

It was a whole experience.

Our food arrived.

Clockwise from top: the crab cakes Geri ordered (delicious), the blackened mahi rueben Adam ordered (delicious), the coconut shrimp I ordered (delicious), the sweet potato fries, onion rings, baked beans (delicious, delicious, delicious).

Mark ordered nachos.  Why you'd order nachos in the south of Florida where Mexican food isn't much of a thing, is beyond me. They weren't delicious.  They were a huge pile of chips and this gross cheese product and lettuce and a few pieces of chicken.

It was hot and Mark was cranky and the heat coupled with the nasty food made Mark feel sort of sick.

We got back in the car and drove to Biscayne National Park.  The dark sky broke open and it rained. 

In Washington, when it rained, my friends and I would tell our kids that they weren't made of brown sugar and they wouldn't melt.

They may have melted in Florida rainstorms though....

Adam nobly dropped us off at the visitor center and went to park.  We got thoroughly soaked.  Inside the visitor center, Adam chatted with the man working behind the counter in the marvelous way he has to make people feel interesting.  The man seemed really happy to have someone to talk to.

We didn't see much of the park because of the torrent, but it gives us a reason to go back.  (Except we probably won't feel the need to visit Alabama Jack's again.)

Mark was still sick and cranky so he sat outside under a covered overhang and got positively eaten by mosquitoes.

It didn't do much to improve his mood.

He was swelling up all over so we stopped at Walmart for benadryl.  That made him sleepy and made his blood sugar spike.  Then the ankle zipper on his favorite pair of sweatpants (why you wear sweatpants in melt your face off weather is beyond me) and he was done.

I lay next to him at the hotel until he fell asleep.  While he slept, I scrolled through my phone and saw this:

It was exactly the kind of day Mark was having, but he did cheer up after his nap.

The next day we flew home.  It was such a lovely trip and I'll always remember it and feel grateful for the chance we had to spend time together and see sights.

Florida Keys and Dry Tortuga

We spent several days in the Florida Keys 

Mark and Geri were feeding tarpon fish off a dock at one stop off and a manatee showed up.

We had the necessary Key Lime Pie.

We ate in dive restaurants with amazing seafood.  Adam coincidentally sat next to Washington.

We saw what looked to me like the desert island in all the Far Side cartoons. 

We saw pelicans and more chickens and so many iguanas.

I think this is a snowy egret.  I don't know, but my students asked me to take lots of pictures of animals so this is me taking lots of pictures of animals.

Walking around Key West (where we spent most of our time) was at once lovely and sort of seedy.  It was also hot as you can see by my rosy cheeks.

Key West is a picturesque little spot. 

The ocean was warm and pleasant to swim in.  Geri took our picture when I was in the water because she said our children would never believe it.  Fair point. 

Speaking of swimming in the ocean, Mark had a whole lot of beach hair, don't care going on.

A highlight of the trip was our trip to Dry Tortugas.  It was amazing.  I vacillated about whether or not the steep ferry ticket was worth it but it was! Here is where we were:

I already posted some pictures last week, but here are a few more:

On the ferry

Walking along the roof of the fort--that's me in that fashion forward hat....

Adam and Mark snorkeled for about an hour and a half.  I floated in the ocean a little and read my book.  We were all happy.

The world is full of wonders.

Everglades and Little Havana

 We went to two different parts of the Everglades on two different days.  The first day we went to Shark Valley (named because of the Shark River that runs through it.  The land was very flat so it didn't feel like a valley but there you are.)

We rode a tram and I enjoyed it.  I pictured it to be more swampy and buggy but the water was crystal clear and the only bugs were the ones that dive bombed Mark and left the rest of us alone.

It was all flat and wet except these mound of trees here and there.  Some of them are hardwood and they were "hammocks" where the natives used to live.  Since they were slightly raised, they were dry.  Some of them are where the alligators live.

Here is an alligator.  I don't know if you can see it.  It's the only one we saw.

There were lots of great blue heron sightings.

This is an anhinga showing off his wings.

We also went to another part of the Everglades a different day.

This seemed like a place Monet would have liked to paint.

The water was just so amazingly clear.

Here's a really big grasshopper shown next to my foot for scale.  Mark would not get that close to it.

What we didn't get at the Everglades was a poster.  The stores were all closed so we'll have to get one online.

 I loved little Havana!

There were chickens just roaming around, coexisting with the pigeons.  And they weren't just any chickens.  They were beautiful.  (I've never thought a chicken was particularly beautiful before.)

There were huge interestingly shaped trees and beautiful flowers and colorful houses.  

Do you have to be Cuban to live in Little Havana?  

Fort Lauderdale

Just me doing some digital scrapbooking....

We flew into Fort Lauderdale.  Maybe the tickets were cheaper, maybe the times worked better, maybe it was closest to the New Haven style pizza restaurant. 

Only Adam knows the answer to that question.

We went to a beach for our first turquoise ocean view:

We saw this enormous spider above our path for our first wildlife view:

It was hot.  And humid.  Mark said, "Now I know why the Spanish were in such a bad mood."  Also, Mark was so hot he wanted to buy some shorts for our first Mark's legs view (he hasn't worn shorts for probably a decade and I had to take a picture to send his siblings to mark the occasion):

I remembered Adam telling me about the winged Pegasus statue so I wanted to see it.  It didn't disappoint, especially since he has a front leg on a dragon's neck.  Why not?  I showed Emma the pictures and she laughed and said, "It's just so dramatic for no reason!"

We finished the day with New Haven style pizza.  I will always be here for it.  We were trying to decide how many pizzas to get.  Mark thought three or four.  We consulted the waiter and he looked at the four of us and said, "Two medium sized pizzas will be plenty."

Adam said, "Yeah, we'll get two large."

We weren't sorry.