Pumpkin and Spice

If you're like, well... everyone else everywhere, you're feeling the pinch of the economy. (If you're not, send me a job application for where ever it is you work!) While I know better days are on the horizon, I'm impatient and don't like postponing fun "splurge" activities like fabulous vacations. I love vacations, but we just don't have the funds right now to visit luxurious and exotic locales. As a result, I'm becoming a master (mistress?) of the mini-vacay.

I define a "mini-vacay" as a short (ususally weekend or 3-day weekend), local-ish (driving distance), vacation. Cheaper than a "real" vacation, but we still get the change of atmosphere and pace that make vacations so refreshing. Recently, Kyle and I took a long weekend to enjoy St. Petersburg, FL.

The Florida Keys are well known for a lot of things- Jimmy Buffet, Ernest Hemingway, drinking, gorgeous weather, drinking, fabulous fresh seafood and of course... Key Lime Pie! Being a sugar-fiend, I was determined to try as much Key Lime Pie as I could!

Just about every restaurant and bakery in the Keys serves Key Lime Pie, and they all claim to have "the best pie in the Keys!" It would be an impossible task to try every pie in the Keys- I mean, even with the help of Mom and Kyle, I only averaged one slice a day... and I always managed to be full whenever we passed a stand that sold chocolate dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick. Oh, well. I'll have to try that next trip!

Tuesday was our last day in Key West. We woke up super-early (too early for my tastes, really) to go out on a chartered sailboat. We actually got up so early, breakfast hadn't been set up at the hotel yet. I was a little irritated... I'm the first to admit that I am cranky in the morning, and even more so when I am hungry in the morning. We were walking to the dock, however, and I luckily remembered that there was a Starbucks on Duvall Street on the way there. I stopped in and got a skim milk latte and an oatmeal. (Can I say how much I love that Starbucks has oatmeal now?) We got to the dock, and I was able to sit on a bench to eat my oatmeal while waiting to board.

We went sailing with Danger Charters, a company in Key West that does a sailboat charter to the Key West National Wildlife Refuge on a replica skipjack sailboat. It was beautiful, sunny and windy as we sailed out- the sky was perfectly clear and the ocean was a beautiful turquoise!

Our Monday morning started in Marathon. We woke up and had breakfast, and then visited a pretty, quiet little beach (thanks to a tip from a friend). It was a beautiful morning- sunny and cool, with just a bit of a breeze. Mom looked for seashells (and was very sucessful- there were a lot, along with pieces of coral). I just walked along the beach, enjoying the weather and the sound of the ocean.

After the beach, we loaded up the car and headed on down to Key West. We checked into our inn, then headed down to Old Town to have lunch. Duvall is the main street in Old Town, and is where most of the bars are located. There are also restaurants and shops ranging from a Coach boutique to tacky touristy t-shirt shops. We stopped to eat lunch at Croissants de France, a French-style bistro and bakery. We got a table that faced the street so we could watch the passerbys (though Duvall doesn't start getting interesting until sunset). I wasn't in the mood for anything too heavy, so I ordered a cup of French onion soup and a Salade Nicoise.

This morning, after a healthy breakfast (frosted mini-wheats, Silk chocolate soy milk, coffee and an orange), we packed up the car and left our cabin in Key Largo to head south.

Our first stop was the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehab Center in Tavernier, FL. The Rehab Center rescues wild birds that have been injured. They care for them, and if the birds can be healed enough that they can be released into the wild, they release them. There are some birds that cannot survive in the wild, so they live at the center. It was a really unique chance to see a lot of native Florida birds up close. They must take great care of the birds, because this fellow in the picture was a "patient" at the center 12 years ago- and he migrates back to the center every winter!