Florida: Keys and Sarasota

After our night outside Charleston, we had a giant driving day to get down to Key Largo. Florida is a really long state.

In the Keys Hilary did some diving, including a trip to Spiegel Grove. We drove down to Key West for a quick look at the old houses and a stop at the southernmost point in the continental US. On the way we made a short detour to see the Key Deer. They're so cute! The bucks were a few feet tall and the does were maybe half that size.

We also met up with Marc at Alabama Jack's on the Card Sound causeway for lunch. The restaurant was half shack, half deck hanging out over the swamp. Perfect! We were treated to an awesome thunderstorm which shook the building and set off car alarms. Marc sent us off with several bottles of mead and starfruit cider. Yum!

Did lots of eating in the Keys. Had smoked fish paste a couple times, very good. Conch fritters, peel and eat shrimp, seafood scampi with fresh hogfish. We love fish. We happened to be in the Keys for our 5th anniversary, and we got Key Lime pie to celebrate. We also hit a few driving milestones while here: 12,000 total trip miles and 20,000 total vehicle miles. We drive too much.

The Keys were nice, but really you need a boat to enjoy yourself. We didn't see if the Outback would float sufficiently. We drove out of the Keys and into the Everglades. We stopped here and there to wander on a few paths and boardwalks in both the Everglades and Big Cypress; we'll have to come back some time with more money and take an airboat and rent bikes. Didn't see any alligators. Got to Sarasota to hang out with Emily.

We went out with Emily on the fishing boat. Hilary of course sucks at catching fish, though she did wind up hooking a puffer fish and several snake fish before hiding from the sun. Too bad you can't eat those. Aaron got 4 keepers: two each silver groupers and grunts. Lots of red groupers were caught (by Aaron), but none reached the 20" required to keep. Emily was a fish catching machine, getting her first keeper about 30 seconds after starting and catching the only keeper red grouper of the day. We ate a previous day's catch in a chowder for dinner. Yum fish!

Carolinas

We had planned to visit the Great Dismal Swamp on our way down to the Carolinas. The goal was to find RoUSs. Unfortunately some lightning strikes had about 90% of the reserve on fire, the deer hunt was canceled, and all the trails were closed. So much for that idea. We drove straight for Raleigh instead.

In Raleigh we met Rebecca for dinner at a neat local pizza place. After dinner we drove just outside Raleigh to Umpstead park, which was actually a really nice park. It was adjacent to the airport, but planes are a lot less annoying than trains and they don't run for several hours in the middle of the night.

We left Raleigh and drove across the Carolinas. We saw Philip Morris and tobacco fields, and the south's answer to Wall Drug: South of the Border. We didn't stop, but it looked like Wall Drug on crack. No jackelopes there though. We got to Charleston around 5pm, parked near the Battery, and walked around for a bit. We immediately saw dolphins in the harbor, got a view of Fort Sumter, and the sprawling live oaks. Nice trees. The houses were great; they all had big porches facing away from the street with a door leading out. Porches had lots of comfy furniture and ceiling fans. Obviously folks spend a lot of time hanging out there. Charleston was really walkable and lots of folks were riding bikes. Not sure how they navigated the old brick and cobblestone streets though, the tree roots made those roads rather bumpy. We decided we liked it there and should move there.

Washington DC Area

Wednesday I went down to Delaware to see Matt & Nicole. First time in Delaware! Holy crap is there a lot of insane traffic between Philadelphia and Wilmington. Had a good time there, though later I found that my feet had been feasted on by all manner of small insects. Itchy.

Thursday we drove into Delaware again, this time to visit Dogfish Head. We barely made the tour at 11; had to run back to the car to get our close-toed shoes. Delaware must have some really strict OSHA laws because we've walked around breweries that were a lot more cramped, wet, and dark than Dogfish wearing only sandals. Ah well. So-so tour, we stood way too long in the room with the kettles where it was just a bit hot and humid. Only 4 beers on tap there too, so we decided to drive to Rehoboth to the brewpub after our tasting was finished. Excellent decision, they had all sorts of cool stuff on tap there. The Midas Touchstone (Midas Touch with added cherries and sourness, on cask) was great! Unfortunately everything exciting was not available in bottles, ever, so we missed out on bringing some with us.

After a quick stop at the beach and some unsuccessful searching for local crab, we crossed the Chesapeake and got to experience DC traffic during rush hour. Good times. We got away with only traveling on the SE quadrant of the beltway and got ourselves to Brandon's in Springfield only a few hours late. Got some Ethiopian food, mmm.

Friday we took the Metro into DC to meet Brandon for lunch and a short walk near where he was working that week. Saw the White House, and more importantly the official state bee hive. After lunch we walked around with Steff and saw some monuments, including the missing reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. At least the Washington monument wasn't covered with scaffolding yet; apparently it's got a nice crack in it after the recent earthquake. We stopped in the Natural History Museum, then the Holocaust Museum. After museums we walked to Cedar, a local restaurant/bar to meet Rachel. The bartender was super friendly and we ended up staying there pretty late and drinking a couple bottles of wine and uncounted cosmos. Luckily Brandon stopped drinking early and was able to drive us home.

Saturday was a day of "rest". Got some awesome pizza for late lunch, then Rachel came over and we had an evening of old-school games like TechmoBowl, Contra, and Dr Mario. For the record, the Packers beat the Bears 3-2. (We suck at TechmoBowl, though I think I was even worse as a kid.) Sunday we had a low-key morning and lunch at Brandon's favorite American place, then set out for North Carolina. Fun times in DC!

Havertown & Jersey Shore

Not much in the way of pictures lately, but we have been active. Spent the latter part of last week with Hilary's mom. Had the requisite chicken cheesesteak stromboli the first night. Then we got to make some nice dinners in the kitchen.

For the weekend we visited Laurel at the Jersey shore. Despite the initial forecast of "Hurricane Katia", the weather was actually very nice on Friday and Saturday. There was much ocean-going. Also on Saturday we visited Six Flags and spent a few hours riding the roller coasters. We love Nitro!

Sunday we came back to Havertown. Had an awesome dinner Monday night. Mostly slept on Tuesday, we seem to have picked up a stomach bug of sorts.

8 Week Trip Summary

The end is nigh! Here are some quick stats for the first 8 weeks of the road trip. Only a month left before we head to Quito.

Miles driven: 9778.1
Nights spent with friends & family: 21 (thanks!)
States & Provinces visited: 22
Border Crossings: 6
Breweries Wineries Cideries & Meaderies Visited:  19
Conversations about life after the trip: 781 (give or take a few)
Conversations including "we can't afford that":  57
Pictures taken: 244
Times Hilary has refused to eat dehydrated beans, again: 15
Times Aaron cooked them anyway: 3

Lancaster, PA

After leaving Massachusetts, we drove along I-84 (to avoid the 95 corridor) to Scranton, PA. When we got close to town, we put on the 30,000 lbs of Bananas song. It was glorious! A little further down I-81 we turned south and got to Lancaster, where Court & Elyse live. We all went to the newly-discovered Ethiopian restaurant, which was awesome. Wow we missed Ethiopian. (Image is after we stuffed our faces.)

On Friday, Hil's mom came out for the long weekend. We all went to Lancaster Brewing for dinner. The beer there confirmed our west coast bias; we mocked their Pale with <30 IBUs and the IPA with a measly 55. They did, however, have two blends on the sampler board: the milk stout mixed with the strawberry wheat and the IPA. Both blends were pretty good and the stout/IPA was probably our favorite of the 15.

In Lancaster we spent time walking around the cool old buildings, going to funky shops, and cooking. We also visited the house that Court & Elyse are buying (pending the inspection). Nice! On our way out of the area, we met Allison for lunch outside Harrisburg. And she's talking about getting a new house too! We feel a bit behind. [just repeat the mantra: we're going on a trip, we're going on a trip] Arrived in Havertown for some time with Hil's mom.

Day in Boston

Wednesday we drove to Boston to see Zach and Lindsay. They took us to a nice sushi place (sushi! haven't had that in months) and afterward we visited the rooftop deck of their building to look out over Boston as the sun set. Beautiful city. We played Ticket to Ride before bed; again we lost badly but it was fun and is a game we need to own.

Map Link (finally updated!).

Tooling around on Cape Cod

After the storm passed through, we borrowed a few kayaks from Eli's boss and went out on a bay with Mel. Boy it was windy. We paddled around the buoys and watched the activity around a capsized boat that must have tipped over in the storm the day before.  It was Aaron's first kayak adventure, and he did great! :)  I believe the words, "I think I could start to like water sports" actually left his mouth.  Hell yes!

On Tuesday, Mel and I (Hil) went diving at Sandwich Beach on the Cape.  Several gear mishaps later, we finally actually got in the water and had a nice time tooling around.  Lots of mating crabs (the boy crab carts the girl crab around under his arm until she lays her eggs) and star fish.  Yay, water :)

In addition to the water sports, we spent time each day playing Settlers of Catan. Despite the fact we kept losing, it was a great game that we now need to own. We got to cook in a kitchen, drank some of the wine we picked up in the Finger Lakes, and watched movies. Good times!