This past week was my final Spring Break as an undergraduate student at Miami. Knowing I would regret it forever if I just went home or did absolutely nothing with myself that would be memorable, I decided to be proactive and agreed to go with my good friend Sam (girl Sam) to travel to the Florida Keys to spend the week with her grandparents. They have a trailer there to get away from the cold northern winters.
We left extremely early (coughcough4:30amcoughcough) on Friday (meaning I hazardously skipped both my Friday classes, of course definitely worth it). However, planning to start this trip at this time possibly should have been reevaluated as we celebrated the incredibleness of Green Beer Day in Oxford the day prior. Fortunately for me, Sam had my back that day and got me to bed early and I was well rested, and of course I am usually pretty lucky to not receive painful hangovers. Sam, however, was not as fortunate and spent perhaps too much time celebrating GBD and let's just say getting to Dayton airport with her driving at 4:30am after binge drinking for a whole day was an adventure, and if we didn't get killed from her driving off the road or hitting something in the dark, I was almost certain Sam was on edge of killing me personally because of her intense agony from drinking too much mixed with my annoying positive attitude and laughing ability at the situation.
Anyways, after we successfully boarded our plane at 6:55am (after stressfully finding a place to leave Sam's car and check our baggage and all that jazz) we landed in Ft. Lauderdale just after noon with a layover in Charlotte. Thank god for that layover, because it allowed Sam's hangover to calm and put her in better spirits for landing in Florida.
We rented a car from the airport to make it down to Key West, what I thought was our definite destination for the entire trip. I was driving and I must say I don't think I have been able to drive through such a beautiful landscape before, water on both sides the whole way down after hitting key after key and getting more excited with each one. We finally reached our rental car drop off place in Key West where Sam's grandparents were patiently waiting (for much longer than we had anticipated them to wait), but luckily we happy to see us and very friendly right off the bat. We then drove back northward to where they actually reside during the winters, to Cudjoe Key (pronounced Cud-Jo, not Cujo like the devil dog). So we were actually about 30 minutes north of Key West, and turned out to be PERFECT. The entire community was so close-knit and who wouldn't be nice and friendly when you are retiring in sunny Florida and can enjoy beautiful weather away from mounds of snow and ice for however long you want to stay?
We arrived at Sam's grandparents trailer in Block 7 of Venture Out (the name of their community). From now on I will refer to Sam's grandparents by name, Bill and Marie (something I did not decide to ask to call them until the second day we were there). Silly me I kept just saying "him" or "her" when necessary and finally had to clarify if they wanted to be Grandpa and Grandma Mullan or be on first-name basis, I liked the Bill & Marie combo so I settled with that.) There little trailer was incredibly cute and perfect for any retired couple to relax in for a few months of the year, especially since most of the day is spent outside in the warm sun anyways!
So I think about 5 minutes after settling in we were already being fed like kings. Marie was determined, as most grandmothers are, to feed us until our stomachs were on the brink of exploding, and even then she wouldn't believe us that we were full. Throughout the week we were prepared lasagna, mammoth hot dogs (apparently they are made twice as big in Florida), a wonderful Sunday breakfast, homemade scones and lemon squares, and an incredible meatloaf on our last night.
So Friday consisted mainly of the travel day with dinner when we were back. Saturday morning we awoke to head straight to a Venture Out Pancake Breakfast. It was the perfect start and of course Bill & Marie were eager to show us of to their friends. I don't think there is anything more important for a grandparent than to see their grandchildren be good people and to be proud of the life they are living. With Sam headed to med-school after graduation Bill & Marie had the best intro to anyone they wanted us to meet. Like I said though, every person we met during the week was incredibly nice and polite. No matter who we walked past any day there was always a wave hello or a "hi there" from people that had absolutely no clue who we were.
We hit the pool that day and started getting the most we could of the sunny conditions. It was only mid 60's maybe with a high of low 70's the first day or so and of course this was heaven to Sam and me, however, everyone that resides there thought it was basically freezing and we actually had the heater on in the trailer the first night or so, haha. Lucky for us though, a neighbor of Bill & Marie weren't down for the week so Sam and I got to use there place to sleep and get ready in the mornings. Cute little vacation condo-style house that was perfect to spend our nights in. Like I said, we were outside as much as we could, we never know what Ohio would have in store for us when we got back so we soaked up every drop of sunshine. Of course, this followed with intense scrutiny by Marie about being fully covered with 50 spf sunscreen (which was actually kinda needed at some times, you forget how hot a sun can feel when you haven't been outside longer than the time it takes to walk between classes for months and months in the cold Ohio winter).
Anyway, quick recaps of adventures. We hit up a flea market Saturday with a lot of random amenities, bought some cheap gifts for family of course. Lots of pool time, and at night...the jacuzzi! So hot! But so nice!
We actually traveled to Key West on Tuesday which was perfect as we saw 6 friends from Miami at different parts of the day that were either in the area or stopping in for the day as well. So perfect and a really nice place to walk around and enjoy the day, however, very glad we only did do it one day and that we were staying in Cudjoe Key instead, Key West was way to spring-breaky and touristy, also, other than the amazing beauty of the ocean and watching the sunset on the ocean (absolutely beautiful even when cloudy) the city itself seems to be full of quite grungy looking locals. Some cool street performers, one of course standing on a ladder while juggling fire stood right (and i mean RIGHT) behind us as we were waiting for the sun to set on the very edge of the island. But yea, very glad we enjoyed Cudjoe instead of being right in the heart of Key West.
We went to a place called "No Name Pub" properly located on "No Name Key", another island, that was really cool. The entire place is covered in one dollar bills! It's been a tradition there forever for visitors to write/draw on a dollar and then staple it to the wall. There is no wall space left anywhere in the place as the bills have completely covered everything! Rumors have it there is around $70,000 in dollar bills stapled in the place. CRAZY! It was very cool though! Also, it was Bill's 75th birthday! He is probably the most active 75 year old man I know and boy can the man probably drink anyone of any younger age under the table. He received a birthday slice of key lime pie, something I had never tried before, but am not an avid key lime pie lover. It was so fresh and good! We also got amazing pizza from the place for dinner.
Bill and Marie have a small boat down there that we got to enjoy a quick ride on one day when we put it in the water, unfortunately because it kept being predicted to rain on Wednesday and Thursday we didn't go back out in it, but the short ride was fulfilling enough and the water was great!
Ok I'm getting tired now, so maybe I will add more later, but overall this was the perfect way to spend my final Spring Break in college and I will always cherish Bill and Marie and cannot wait to introduce them to my family at our graduation in May. They were incredibly kind and fun individuals that give everyone in their lives so much love, and even I felt it after only a week of time spent with them (the only time I have ever known them). I will never forget sharing this break with Sam and I thank her for being a wonderful travel-companion and one of my best friends I have developed in college. We have barely known each other well for a year and here we were sharing this vacation together, it's more than I could ever ask for in a friend to be able to do such a thing and not be at each others necks at all (of course excluding that first day of hangover issues, but so is life after green beer day.)
I look forward to my last half of senior year that basically starts now, and really hope to enjoy every minute spent with my friends and will never be opposed to continuously develop strong relationships with any new people I meet. We'll all be going in our own directions soon enough and to have anyone at all to keep in contact with will be the most treasured thing I could take away from my college experience. I will be missing Cudjoe Key for the next week I am sure, as the weather is already proving to continue to suck in Ohio (rain rain go away), but I will take advantage of my time left here in Oxford and make it worth the while, because once it's gone, all you'll have is the memories, so we all might as well make sure they are good ones.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere...and life couldn't be better at any other time.
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