Grande Adventura a Florida, Ole!

Florida State Road A1A

I had one of my most adventurous weeks in recent history. It is actually going to be the inspiration for three posts, it's that adventurous.
First off (not chronologically, but by adventurous-ness), I went to Florida this week for the first time. A group of friends and I took a short trip over spring break to the lovely little town of Vero Beach (about 1 hour north of Palm Beach).



This is our travel group, Amy, Melanie, Kasey, and Adam. Our plane left DCA about 1/2 hour late. We only had 35 minutes between flights in Atlanta. So when we landed, we were super-happy to hear that our plane hadn't left yet, but we found out it was in another terminal. We ran through terminal C and barely made our connection. As evidenced by the photo, we were pooped.

We landed, and got a great deal on our rental car, a Ford Taurus. We were hungry and went to IHOP, where we had Luis, the waiter-in-training. I was tired and hungry and was hoping to get shortcake pancakes. Luis couldn't quite understand what I wanted (which was prominently placed on the placemat). I didn't think I was angry, or whiny, but judging by the fact that "but I want these pancakes" was a running joke throughout the trip, I guess I was less than kind to our friend, Luis. I hope we didn't make him up and quit that night.

We safely made it to the 55 and older community where our condo was located. It was a beautiful area, but it was obvious that it was an elderly community judging by the decor that looked like that from an eighties hotel room, but with extra wicker.
Day one, we went to the beach, we had a great time, played frisbee, and had a mud fight. Later we went to the pool at the condo, got in the hot tub, and met a friendly old man named Richard. We chilled at home that night. The next day, we went to the beach again. We had a great lunch at the Red Onion Grill, and then went home to the pool where it was less windy. We played Marco Polo, which actually ended up being quite fun. That evening we drove around for a long time, looking for something to do. The bowling alley closed, but we found a pool hall.

Mel and Adam playing pool

Poor Amy, has tendonitis, and couldn't play with her braces.

We went home and played hearts. If you look closely at the score, you will see that I completely dominated in this round (look and you'll see that I shot the moon twice).

Day three started out with breakfast and whatnot. Then four of us (Kasey had left to go on a run) decided to go on the "nature walk" beneath the cloudy skies. There was a very light sprinkling when we set off.

Adam decided to give a massage to a turtle statue.

There was all sorts of flora and fauna on this nature walk, but the most creepy part of it was where the gigantor spiders dwell. There were about 20 of these giant arachnids that we saw sitting, waiting on their webs. Creepy.

The light sprinkling quickly turned into a downpour. We hurried back towards the house, but ended up completely soakedI don't know what Adam's face is doing. Mel looks a little uncomfortable too.

We cleaned up, and left, hoping to go to the Lion Country Safari, however, due to our needing to dry shoes after the nature walk, we left later than we had hoped, and missed the closing time by minutes. So we decided to go to the beach at Palm Beach since we were there.
Dog owners think they are above the law.
The only time Adam looked like he was having a decent time on the trip (okay, not true, but the only photographic proof).


The beach at Palm Beach was beautiful. Clear water. And what could be better than seeing it with a sweet little red-headed girl.
In my humble opinion, Florida is great. I would love to retire there. I am not sure what it would be like in the heat of summer, but in spring it's amazing.