FEAR ANTS: Perdido Key, Florida / September 2008

We left NLR on Thursday, after work. We drove to ATM's folk's house in Jackson, MS, the half-way point between AR & the beach. We wanted to break up the driving time for the sake of our sanity & physical well-being. 5 hours to get to Jackson & another 5 to Florida.

We arrive in Florida the next day in the early afternoon & after the greetings, hugs, & leg-stretching, we go upstairs to our new home away from home. I'll let the pictures do the talking about the view from our balcony:

Our apartment was incredible. I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't expect that level of fanciness! It was on the 7th floor, we had a beach view, a private balcony, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a properly stocked kitchen, a dining room, and a laundry room. Best of all, we had very nice company. ATM's parents are so kind, giving, funny & fun to be with. They let us come & go as we pleased, made food for us & let us be us. I felt very very fortunate.

After a brief tour of the apartment, we went to the beach. We put on our swim suits, slathered on the sun screen, and flip-flopped on down. The first thing I did was punch the ocean. Then I swam in it. Then we walked along side it for a long time, picking up shells & poking dead tentacle-less jelly fish. I found a real-life sand dollar, in mint condition. I put it in my bag, I wanted to give it to ATM's mum for her birthday. Obviously, that was a bad idea, by the time I got back upstairs, the beautiful sand dollar was a fine particle pile in the bottom of my bag. I never found another the entire trip.

Souvenirs for the ladies. I'm gonna run a little ribbon through the holes, make a lovely simple bracelet for all the girls.

It was hard to see them sometimes, the jellyfish. Having poked it with a stick, it's firmer than I imagined:

After hours in the sun, I went upstairs & took a nap. To the sounds of crashing waves. When I woke up, we went out for supper @ a dive called The Original Point. I had one of the catches of the day, the grouper. It was just o.k., I thought that ATM's mum had the best plate amongst us. She also got a catch of the day, the wahoo. A.H. got fried oysters for supper. He offered one to ATM's mum & she found a pearl in it! It was a good size, round, and very pretty.
My notes: Good fried squash appetizer, really good entertainment & the best key lime pie I've ever had. Get the grilled wahoo next time.

Shots in the dark:

I woke up early the next morning & took a walk. This fella let me take his photo, but I had to earn his trust first. That meant that I had to be still for a long time. He was small.

ATM woke up & we headed over to The Reef, another dive, for some seriously propah eggs benedict. No need for extra sides, FYI, the main course is plenty. The Reef smelled like WWT, so in my mind, it is the pastel, salty, Floridian cousin of WWT.

We spent most of our time on the beach. ATM's parents had a beach umbrella & some chairs, so it was comfortable.

Photo by ATM's mum

Our last day was the best. Before we arrived in FL, we got a text from ATM's mum saying that they saw dolphins. I never saw them until the last day! I go from not seeing them at all to there being dolphins for miles, swimming in pods, back & forth, playing & chasing fish. They weren't close to the beach, they were in the near-distance, but you could see them clearly & even better with binoculars. Too, the water was the clearest it had been the entire time we were there, you could wade out further w/o being completely terrified of the unknown. I saw all kinds of things, tiny fish, slightly bigger fish eating tiny fish & large flounder. We actually got caught in a fish frenzy, it was scary and awesome all at the same time. The fish were thrashing so hard, it made the water choppy.

Hobbit feet!