Welcome back everyone!
I know I know I know…I started strong with three posts a week and have
slowly moved to just one post per month.
In fairness, I’ve had a lot going on…what’s that? You’re still not happy
that I left you to read past posts without explanation or apology? Well, let me make it up to you…by telling you
what I’ve been up to the past month(ish) in what is easily the longest post yet
(1,800 words)…try making it through without taking a break…I dare you!
Let me take you back to a simpler time…like the weekend
before Thanksgiving. I had been
searching for upcoming events in the Tampa area and stumbled upon the inaugural
“Uncorked in Clearwater” event which featured a wine, beer, and liquor (shots?)
tasting…mixed with all the food you could eat…mixed with cooking
demonstrations. And where was this all
held? Why on one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida…literally right ON Clearwater
Beach. I could have thrown my wine
tasting glass a short distance in any direction and hit a European in an
unfortunately revealing speedo. What was
the cost of this event (keeping in mind that there was no limit on alcohol or
food consumption)? $200? $100? Try $27!!! That’s right folks, it might have
been the greatest deal in history (except for the obvious rebuttal of the
Louisiana Purchase, Bobbie Sue). LK,
soon to be LS, made her way down from Georgia to partake, and we took full
advantage of what the event offered. Some
of my favorite areas were the “grape stomping” booth and most of the beer
areas. We obviously made several rounds
which included repeat stops at the Sam Adams, Sangria, and pizza booths. Once we found there was top shelf liquor across
the street in a tasting room, we quickly made our way to try such beverages as
“Adult Chocolate Milk” and some Vodka that had allegedly been distilled 5 times
by some guy in Texas…I think they were more impressed with themselves that the
crowd was. Despite all of the booze
available to us, it should come as no surprise to most of you that my favorite
part was the food…and my favorite food was the oysters we’re talking oysters
with bacon, oysters covered in melted cheese, oysters with hot sauce (I’ll stop
there for varieties, but you get the idea)…for those of you who haven’t tried
fresh seafood from the Gulf, you need to…like today. My second favorite food was the pizza. We must have gone back to the pizza stand 5
times during the day and each time we loaded up. Once the event had ended, we stopped by one
more time and the guy running the stand gave us a full pizza! (pictures
available on facebook) Trust me when I
say that I took a looong nap on the beach after all of this before we finally
went home a few hours later.
Let’s fast forward to the Thanksgiving weekend. I decided to take off the Friday after
Thanksgiving and the Monday after that to make way for a 5 day weekend trip down
to the Florida Keys! On the way down I
drove down I-75 which goes south through Tampa to Naples and then cuts across
the state to Ft Lauderdale…apparently this is due to the large national park
south of Naples…I believe it’s called the Everglades? (side tangent: the Everglades literally look
like portions of South Dakota…if the water was replaced with grassland…so I
guess they aren’t really so similar, but the trees that are down there reminded
me of driving east on I-90 between Kadoka and Murdo…(sigh)) After several hours, I made my way to the
only highway that goes from the mainland to the Keys (aptly named Federal
Highway 1). It is literally a 2 lane
highway with no passing possible. I
don’t see how this is possible with all the hurricanes in the area…one two lane
road?!
I decided to make my base camp in Key Largo at the
Marriot. They easily had the best Tiki
bar in town and their prices were pretty reasonable. I arrived on Thanksgiving Day and ate in the
hotel restaurant (they had a great turkey dinner and pecan pie…you all remember
how I feel about pecan pie) (side tangent #2: Yes I went on this trip by
myself…no it wasn’t weird or awkward or lonely.
If you go on vacation and can’t find anything to talk about with the
thousands of other people on vacation, then that’s on you. I was not about to pass up the chance to road
trip to the Keys because I had no one else to go with). After my dinner, I made my way to the hot
tub/tiki bar. While there, I started up
a conversation with a few of the locals (see side tangent #2) who told me that
people who live in Key Largo are encouraged to use the hotels and bar areas as
they want. They decided that since I was
there by myself that I should be shown a proper evening. They took me to several bars and showed me a great
time! They even gave me the number of a scuba/snorkel
guy down in Key West that I should contact…the locals could not have been more
generous.
The next day, I drove the 2 hour drive on the same 2 lane
highway to Key West. Key West is a very
interesting place…Duval Street has all the food, booze, and souvenir shops you
could ever want. Kind of like a Las
Vegas meets Hawaii meets your high school’s hallway (Packed, with people
wearing island attire holding open containers…really cool vibe). Vendors on the
street want you to go see Ernest Hemingway’s house which is apparently filled
with 20+ 6-toed cats…(none for me, thanks!)
Instead of going to see the cats, I went to the southernmost point on
the continental US (note: I had previously been to the southernmost point in
the US which is in Hawaii so this was a must…81 nautical miles from Cuba?
Really?! Believe it). After the quick
trips, I made my way to see Don…the scuba/snorkeling guy (I may or may not have
referenced Along Came Polly…yes, I was for scuba). Don took me to the corral and I got to swim
with a ton of different sea creatures on the Atlantic side of the Keys (side
note: as you drive down to the Keys, one side is dubbed “the Atlantic side” and
the other is “the Gulf side.” What the difference is, is beyond me.)…it was
truly one of the greatest experiences of my life.
After all of that, I drove back across 7 mile bridge and
through the various Keys to Key Largo.
If you ever want to go down to the Keys and don’t want to deal with Key
West tourists and chaos, stay on Marathon Key…just trust me on this one…So much
else to tell, but this is already becoming a really long post, if you want to
know anything else about the trip, you know where to find me. Also, if you want to take me with you on a
trip down there, I wouldn’t say no.
My final weekend trip was up to the Washington DC area to
meet up with CM and LS for CM’s birthday!
I booked the ticket for a direct flight from Tampa to Baltimore for a
measly $181 after taxes…did I mention that I also got the exit seat with no one
sitting next to me for both of the flights?! (note: there were at least 30
empty seats on the way there and back…apparently no one is flying between Tampa
and Baltimore…I repeat, no one). This
was my first trip to our nation’s capitol so I naturally had a few destinations
I wanted to see while I was there: 1.) I had to see the National Christmas Tree
and 2.) I had to eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl.
I know what you’re thinking: Zach, I understand wanting to see the tree,
but Ben’s Chili Bowl? Wait…you’re thinking that wanting to see either one of
those things instead of the usual tourist stuff is ridiculous and a huge waste
of time?...well…you’d be right, mostly.
The Tree was the most disappointing things to happen to trees since the
invention of Arbor Day (go invent another holiday Nebraska!) The only thing to
save the tree experience was a lonely bagpipe player (who CM claimed to have
hired for our entertainment) who played for our entire time there (10-15
minutes). Following our trip to the tree
CM led us on a tour of Washington DC that included, but was not limited to the White
House, Capitol Building, The Smithsonian, the Washington Monument, the
Jefferson Monument, the Best Ethiopian Food restaurant in DC, and a lot of “that
place” references. I believe her exact
words were: “no one else has ever taken this tour of DC.” Her mom’s words upon
hearing of CM’s tour: “Oh. Well, I thought she would have been better.”
(Note: Ben’s Chili Bowl was fantastic! The girls were struggling a little from the
night before and didn’t take as much joy in fried potatoes and hot dogs
smothered in chili, but if you make it to DC I recommend you take the time to
eat there!)
The nights we went out in the DC area were also a ton of
fun. My favorite night was the second
one in which we rode the subway system and took the largest escalator that I
have ever seen (for those of you on facebook, LS has posted plenty of pictures
of me riding up and down it in various poses with KW (a boyfriend of EC who is
a good friend of CM…get all that?)) to the street level. The night also included
a stop at a bar called “The Big Hunt” (a name which we found hilarious) and a
dance bar. Everything was going smoothly
until the end of the night when some random dude decided to dance up on EC (remember
this is KW’s girlfriend). KW stepped in
to make sure random dude knew he wasn’t welcome and random dude decided that he
wanted to start a silent staring contest (keep in mind: random dude might have
been 5’8” and was swimming in an extra medium polo…I don’t think KW or I really
took him seriously). The staring contest
lasted several moments and ended with random dude breaking the silence by
yelling incoherently as we walked away…I’m pretty sure that’s the same as
blinking…we win.
Overall the trip was a huge success! I had Ben’s Chili Bowl, had 2 great nights
out, and got to sleep on an incredibly comfortable couch 2 nights in a row. (my
apologies to CM’s mother who…I think was a little disappointed that I didn’t
sleep in the beds that were laid out for me…and I didn’t drink any of the of
apple cider…which she purchased solely because I mentioned, in passing, that I
wanted to drink cider at the National Christmas Tree…if I could have taken the
entire gallon in my carry-on, I would have!)
So that’s what I’ve been up to! I’ll make this my last post for this
blog. I only have a 26 hour car ride
with RT back to SoDak left before I start my next clinical in Des Moines and if
any good stories happen along the way, I’ll update you through facebook. I really did enjoy writing these posts and
want to thank all of you who read them!
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