Florida - Homosassa

We left Deerfield Beach on the east coast and headed west right across the full width of the Florida pan handle to Homossasa, where we met up with Trevor and Carol, another couple who we have met previously in France several times but whom we did not know particularly well until now. They fit the description of snowbirds perfectly, living the summers in France and the winters at their home in Florida, and in their own words, they "don't do cold anymore".

Staying with them for a few days was great fun - not only did we get to know them better but it was also good to meet their neighbours and get an insight into living there. This part of Florida is well inhabited but not overly commercialized or particularly touristy, which was a complete contrast to what we have seen on the east coast and especially the Miami area.

Folks just having fun at the car show

We happened to arrive just in time for the annual Manatee Festival at nearby Crystal River, which was very much a community event with lots of artisan craft stalls, kids entertainment, food stands and live music. On the way back from that, there was a weekly custom car meet in the parking lot of a local supermarket, with some great vehicles on show and everyone just out to have a good time, which is the ongoing theme around these parts.

There's always plenty to eat too, from Neon Leons, a funky joint named after the bass guitarist of the southern rock bank Lynyrd Skynyrd, serving a unique style of cajun cuisine, to Cody's - a very American style eatery with its floor littered with the shells of the free peanuts that everyone throws to the floor. It was Saturday night, and nearby at the High Octane bikers bar the party was getting into full swing, weekend warriors cruising in for a beer on their iron horses. Folks here sure know how to have fun and party.

Typical boat lift at the bottom of the garden

Day out in the bateau with the neighbors

Every house with waterway access here has its own dock, and most boats are lifted out of the water on custom made boat lifts to keep their hulls clean. The next door neighbors Jim and Kay very kindly took us all out for the day in their boat, through the myriad of shallow water channels and eventually out into the gulf of Mexico. We saw manatees here again, an otter on the shore, and lots of bird life, but also and rather bizarrely, spider monkeys. There are five of them in all, living on Monkey Island, a tiny chunk of land in the Homosassa river. They are fed twice a day and have free run of the island, often seen swinging from the replica lighthouse and naturally retained by the surrounding water.

View of "The Shed" from the boat

All this is very close to a great bar called "The Shed", which really is not much more than a big open sided barn, and boasting its own dockside on the river. We pulled up here in the boat, a local band playing some classic rock tunes, bikes lined up on the roadside, and once again everyone just getting along and having a great time in the warm sunshine. Its quicker to get here by boat than car, and you don't get busted for drunk driving either !

For our last full day with them, Trevor and Carol took us up to a place called The Villages for a look around....a retirement village. However, this place turned out to be truly unbelievable - its a master plan design comprising a 53 square mile site - that's larger than our home island of Jersey - with a population of 109 thousand - that's nearly ten thousand more people than in Jersey (according to official statistics), and yet it had a lovely open feeling about the place. The heart of the villages are the three village squares, all themed differently and comprising bars, cafes, and restaurants, boutique shops plus supermarkets and every other store that you could possibly want or need, making it hard to believe this is all a purpose built complex. Every night is a Saturday night, with free live entertainment in all three squares plus regular events and shows being put on throughout the year too. The night we were there, a local band played rock and roll tunes as the sun set behind them, a bunch of folks had fun line dancing together or just dancing with each other, and even an older fellow in his mobility scooter enjoyed himself just banging his walking stick on the ground to the beat.

Trevor and Carol, Sel and Craig, at Lake Sumter in The Villages

This is custom golf buggy !
(picture is not ours, we pinched borrowed it from Google)

Owning a property here is restricted to the over 55's and the residential buildings are all single family detached bungalows, but the emphasis is very definitely on fun. The complex boasts numerous recreation centers, with pools, tennis courts, shuffleboard and more, lakes for recreational fishing, and over 39 golf courses. There are clubs run by the residents for nearly every activity you can imagine, and nearly everyone gets around by golf buggy, which have their own dedicated road network. Many residents have customized buggys, like this one pictured, built to resemble a Peterbilt truck. Many others have alloy wheels, custom flame paint jobs or maybe just their names on the windshield sun strip, so many of these folk are like born again boy racers and having a whale of a time doing it. Its Disneyland for older people, and with nearly ten women to every man its perhaps unsurprising that there is a huge black market for viagra but slightly more shocking that The Villages have the highest rates of STD's among seniors in the country. Its seems that many of these residents are enjoying growing old disgracefully !

Owls in the wildlife park

Before leaving Homosassa we stopped by the Homosassa Wildlife park, centered around a natural hot spring where Manatee congregate in large numbers during the winter to enjoy the naturally warm water. The "Fish Bowl" underwater observatory there provides a unique glimpse into the world of these remarkable creatures, as well as the abundance of fish that hang out here too. Whilst the spring and all the wildlife there are open to the outside world and free to leave anytime, the rest of the park is much like a zoo, its most famous resident being Lu the hippo who has just celebrated his 55th birthday. They also have many other animals, such as Red Wolves which are part of a project to re-introduce these animals into the wild, and a range of bird-life too, like the owls pictured here.



Trevor and Carol made us feel very welcome and we are very grateful to them for being able to stay at their lovely house and for taking the time to show us around. Time is pressing on for us and we had to move on though we very much hope to see them again in March on our way back to Orlando.

We've not taken that many photos so there is no Facebook album this time but we'll upload a new album for the next post.

Florida - The Keys and Everglades

Glass bottom boat over the coral reef

After disembarking from the ship we transferred to Miami, said our goodbyes and collected another rental car. We did a drive around Miami Beach to take in some of the art deco buildings, then headed south to Florida City - the gateway to the Florida Keys - for a few days to plan the next stage of our journey. We narrowly missed out on getting what would have been a fabulous house sit, but as consolation we had a great boat trip in the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park where we saw loads of great fish, sea turtles and a shark too. Unfortunately the combination of a low swell and the optics of the glass bottom did not fare well for Craig who spent most of the trip out on deck !

Robbie's Marina

Southernmost point at Key West

Moving onto Islamorada, about a third of the way down the Florida Keys, we spent a few days exploring island life Floridian style. Robbies Marina was a great place, bright and colourful with a shallow dock where people fed the huge Tarpon by hand, and the endless Brown Pelican's all around. The Keys do not have many great beaches but they are magnet for sport fishing, speedboats and jet skis. We did a day trip out to Key West, and the most southerly point of the USA, along the way crossing the famous seven mile bridge that we've seen in several movies.

Returning to Florida City we had a perfect base for visiting the amazing Everglades. Driving up to Shark valley visitor center, we did a tram tour to experience the river of grass with its tree islands.

Close up of a heron in the Everglades

There is an unbelievable amount to wildlife to see - alligators of course but also an abundance of bird life such as herons, egrets, spoonbills and turkey vultures to name a few. On the way back that day we stopped just before sunset at a place called Flamingo, where we had our first glimpse and touch of the wild Manatees that hang out in the marina, which was very special.

Mama Gator with babies

The Everglades are huge, and the best way to see them has to be by airboat which are so famous around this area. The water can be only a few inches deep so the airboats are perfect for skimming over the grass in the shallows, and makes for an exhilarating ride, plus we saw Mama Gator with three of her little babies too.

Departing on the airboat

Having already booked for a few nights at Fort Myers we ran out of time and didn't get to see everything that we had wanted in the Everglades. At Fort Myers the beaches go on forever and we did chuckle when a couple walked past us on the beach wearing jeans, jumpers and jackets - as we were lying out in shorts and swimsuit. It's pretty easy to distinguish between the local Floridians and the tourists ! It is still close enough to get to the western edge of the glades from here though and we took a boat trip through the brackish waters of the mangroves where we saw lots more wildlife.

Egrets on the edge of the mangroves.

The pull of the Glades was to much and we retraced our steps back to the visitor center at Flamingo, to do one more boat trip out into the shallows of Florida Bay where among other things we saw dolphins, and which completed our understanding of how this truly unique ecosystem is held together. The Glades are indeed a very special place and unlike anywhere else in the world, extremely diverse and boasting a huge wealth of wildlife and natural habitats. Mankind has had a devastating effect on this fragile natural landscape in a very short period of time but the National Park Service is doing all it can to preserve what is now left.

Deerfield Beach, but not great weather !

Leaving the Everglades we headed back up the East coast, stopping for a few days at Deerfield Beach. On our way up there we met up with Gill and Trevor, friends who we know from France. They just happened to be there on holiday, visiting their daughter who lives near the huge Sawgrass Mills shopping mall complex. It was great to be able to meet up with them and we had a great day out. That mall may well get another visit from us before we head home, to stock up on some bargain clothes.


That was all a week ago and a lot has happened since then but we'll save that for next time - and there is another French connection to come !

Please click here for the latest selection of photos on Facebook.

Cruising the Caribbean for Christmas and New Year

Firstly, we wish everyone a very Happy New Year ! We hope you've enjoyed the holidays as much as we have.

Arriving in Fort Lauderdale we returned our rental car to the airport, took a bus back to our hotel and and did some boring admin stuff. The excitement was mounting for us though, with the imminent arrival of our great friends the Jaffrelot's from our home island of Jersey. As if that wasn't enough to be excited about, we were all heading off together for Christmas and New Year on a cruise ship for two weeks in the Caribbean. Top that off with celebrating Tiani's 16th birthday in the middle of it all and we had all the ingredients for a great time, and it certainly lived up to all expectations.

Stunning Magen's Bay, from Mountain Top, St Thomas

Having had a day together in Fort Lauderdale, we boarded the ship and set sail, spending a full day at sea before arriving at Princess Cay's, a privately owned resort in the Bahamas. Taking a tender to shore we swam in the warm sea and tried not to burn in the fierce sun. Next port of call was the unique island of St Martin, part French and part Dutch, and our first glimpse of the many duty free shops that are strung across the various cruise ports in the Caribbean Islands. Christmas eve we arrived at St Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands, where we took an open minibus tour around the island, stopping at Mountain Top, home of the Banana Daiquiri, and with a great view over Magens Bay too.

Boxing day in Nassau

Christmas Day was another day at sea and was the second of four formal evenings, and on Boxing day we docked at Nassau, the capital of the Bahama's. It was carnival day here, and the locals were having great fun dancing down the main street in their bright colorful costumes, with drums beating and trumpets blaring. Our ship returned to Fort Lauderdale to drop of some passengers and collect new ones, and we elected to stay aboard, whilst our friends did a quick dash to a huge mall near Miami to make the most of the great shopping.

All of us in Hell, Grand Cayman.

Setting sail again and after another day at sea we docked at Grand Cayman, an island which is an overseas territory of Great Britain. Here we did a taxi tour around the island with a local lady who was quite a character, stopping in "Hell" for a picture, and also at the dolphin centre.

Swimming at Roatan

Tequila tasting, serious business !

The ship's next port of call was Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. The cruise port here is rather captive with yet more jewelry and duty free stores but there is also a great beach where we swam in the warm Caribbean sea, soaked up the atmosphere and some more sun. Sailing on again we docked at the island of Cozumel off Mexico, where we did another taxi tour with a local, saw ancient Mayan ruins, sampled some locally made tequila and generally had a taster of this Mexican island.
The final port of call was back to Princess Cays, and having been there once already we decided to take advantage of a quiet deck and stay aboard, watching a movie on the giant screen above one of the four pools on board.

On a breezy deck, happy times with great friends.

In between ports of call, the cruise ship offered something for everyone at nearly anytime of day or night, great food, superb entertainment, lots of activities to choose from and a great deck layout too. However there is no doubt that what made the trip really special for us was being with our great friends Paul, Sue and TJ, especially as this was our first Christmas away from home for both of us. Being able to celebrate TJ's 16th birthday with them made it doubly extra special for us.

Back on dry land for just a week and we have already done and seen lots more things, but more on that next time. Some of the photos on this post are courtesy of Suzie (Thank You Muchly) and we've also uploaded a small selection of our own to Facebook which can be found by clicking here.