I would like to add our message of thanks to the gracious and generous Gypsykayak Sandy. Within minutes of our arrival at Chez Kramer we were given glasses of champagne, a tour of the lake, and a soak in the hot tub, with Florida paddling videos showing tubside. Then came dinner! Sandy knocked herself out to provide airport pickups and dropoffs, meals, paddling trips, boats, cars, travel books, kayak roof racks, coolers, AND places to stay for her visitors. She was a most hospitable hostess, and meeting her, Marinell, Pat, Joan & Bob, John, Sharon, and Bill was a highlight of our week in Florida! Our Florida travels included a stay in Miami Beach, (hot hot hot!) paddling on the west coast, near Fort Myers, bird watching at Ding Darling State Park, beach combing at Sanibel Island, a tour of approx 14 of the 10,000 Islands in the Everglades, snorkeling at Pennecamp Underwater Park, joining in the Sunset Celebration in Key West, paddling near Big Pine Key, and meeting the PWers for the Indian Key/Lignum Vitae paddle, and the following day's paddle near Key Largo. We managed to consume many pounds of key lime pie, cracked conch, conch fritters, shrimp, conch chowder, and various other regional delicacies. (Mangrove Mama's at MM 30 in the Keys had the best food we found!). My fave desert was the frozen, chocolate covered key lime pie slice on a stick! Really!! The good news; I discovered the perfect place to spend my twilight (winter) years; the Jolly Roger Travel Park (MM 59.5 in the Keys). One can simply buy a trailer there, and belong to an active, fun community of retirees that really know how to enjoy life! Forget Leisure World! The bad news..... Florida has some seriously nasty bugs. I was plagued by something that couldn't be seen, heard OR felt, and they left many lovely blistering bites! Those buggers were bad, and they seemed to love DEET and citronella oil. The tan's already gone, but those red spots will probably be around for months.... Otherwise, a fun trip. Thanks again to our gracious host, Sandy! The card is in the mail.......... Tina Portland, Oregon ---------------------------------------------------- _____________ / -()-()-()-()-()- / I / -()-()-()-()-()- / / /___________/ / I___________I / Experience O R L X T C at the Bento Buggy: http://www.pcez.com/BentoBuggy --------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:20 PDT