30 Hour Summer Vacation

Yep, that's what Lee got for his vacation this summer! So what does one do on a 30-hour vacation? Where does one go?

The Forgotten Coast!

Driving down SR24 west out of Gainesville, after about a half an hour, one becomes very aware of why the west coast of Florida from about Cedar Key to Appalachicola is considered the Forgotten Coast. If you don't listen to the radio or talk to someone, it could be easy to fall asleep on that drive! It's a two lane road with just trees and more trees on either side, for over an hour. I believe we came to two blinking red light intersections on that trip down to Cedar Key.

Lee, Olivia, and I stopped off in Gainesville to pick up Luke on Friday afternoon to head off for Lee's "vacation". Driving along on SR24, I have a sneaking suspicion that Lee was reading my thoughts: We brought a teenager and a college student to this - the forgotten coast?! What were we thinking? We must've forgotten our minds or at least, what young people like to do on vacation!

After about an hour and a half out of Gainesville, we arrived in Cedar Key. Lee drove around "town", drove by the hotel, then said, "Well, what do you think? Do we do it?" I said, "Yea, it's only for one night." So we got checked into Park Place Hotel (the city park is across the street), then drove around (when we could've walked there faster) to Dock Street. We went into a couple artsy shops, but mainly "shopped" the menus of the restaurants to decide where we were going to have a wonderful seafood dinner that evening. Then we went back to the hotel.

While the others napped and read on this dog day of summer, I went with camera in hand to explore downtown. Mind you, it took me a whole two minutes to get to "downtown". Being that it was almost five o'clock, the shops were closing up. That didn't bother me, because I just wanted to walk and take photos of a town that seemed to have forgotten time. I took photos of art galleries, a historic hotel, and discovered the next day on our boat tour, that I had even passed an old Civil War jail! From town, I walked down Dock Street again, and out to the docks. There were a few people fishing, but not really catching anything but a few rays - sun rays. I mosied on back to Park Place, snapping photos of cats, horseshoe crabs, and boats.

When I arrived back at the hotel, Lee said he'd gone out to find me but couldn't see where I'd gone. I told him I was probably in one of the little shops in town. That puzzled him, as he said he thought the shops closed at five. So I told him about walking into one shop, seeing a gentleman near the door and asking, "Oh, are you getting ready to close?" To which he replied, "Well, sugar, I don't work here. But if they are getting ready to close, then I'd better hurry on up and get out of here." At that, a little gray-haired lady looked at me and said, "We close when there's nobody left in our shop." How much more small-town-America can you get than that?

Around about 6:30, I think the family decided they'd had about all the excitement they could take in that hotel room, and we decided to go to "Anne's Other Place" for dinner. AFter all, it was unanimous in the Guest Book in our hotel room that that was where one could go for a great seafood dinner. It was, after all, where the locals ate. So, we walked to Anne's Other Place, went upstairs, picked a table, and soaked up the ambience of the place. It was definitely where the locals ate! There was one waitress, and eventually she did get around to getting our drink orders and we decided we'd better put in our clam orders at the same time! The drink and the clams came and they were dee-li-cious! Next, our food orders were taken. I could almost taste my seafood platter! But....I never did. Not my seafood platter, not any platter! The waitress brought Olivia's meal....then a bit later, Luke's. With that she asked, "Okay, are we missing anything?" "Um, yeah, two meals." Next came Lee's meal. She said mine would be up soon. Twenty minutes later it still wasn't there, all the others were finished, and I just said, "Let's go. I drank my calories." From what the others told me, the seafood was great! Next time, I think I'll go to Anne's Other OTHER place. It's got to be better!

After dinner, the sun was setting and we walked to the docks, then through the town, and back to our hotel. We had a big day ahead of us! :-)

Saturday brought a hot sunny day on the Gulf of Mexico, dragging our toes for sand dollars. Six of us went out on a pontoon boat, six miles out in the ocean. (Okay, really only three miles from land, but Cedar Key is also three miles out from the coast....so they said it was six miles out.) The capitan shut off the engine and announced that we'd arrived. We were a good half mile from the nearest island, and the water was about two feet deep. I didn't "get it" but wasn't going to say anything. He showed us how to go about finding sand dollars, and I pronounced that I would take a few photos and then go in the water. I watched and snapped as six people walked around in water half way up their legs, dragging their feet, mostly looking confused.

But when Luke said, "I found one," and held it up high for all to see, I knew we weren't on a Snipe Hunt (as the captain had mysteriously referred to on the way out).

"Just drag your toes in the sand so you don't step on a sting ray, and when you step on something that's a bit harder than the sand, reach down and pick it up.....You'll know....After you find the first one, you'll know." And we did. And we also picked up some shells, some dead coral, and even almost stepped on a skate, much to Olivia's dismay and fright!

But, we came away with a haul - especially Luke, and learned an awful lot about Cedar Key along the way. Like the University of Florida has a marine research center on one of the keys, and there is a lighthouse with dormitories on another that is used once in awhile by the University.

One of the islands is covered with rattlesnakes because long ago they got trapped on the island with no predators......(Glad we didn't stop at that island!) We were also treated to some dolphins, as we seemed to be right in the middle of a school (pod?) of them.

We arrived back at Dock Street wet, but better than that, satisfied. Satisfied that our two kids enjoyed themselves. Satisfied that we all were able to shrug off our "big city" attitudes for 30 hours, and kick back and enjoy the slower pace of Cedar Key on the Forgotten Coast of Florida. Next trip - Appalachicola!