4 days in one. Are you ready?

Okay, okay. It's been a few days since we've added to this ol' blog of ours. Can you blame us though? We're in Floridicalandsvilltonburgstownia! Nothin but bootiful beaches, refreshing ocean and expensive cocktails. We've made sure to get in the water everyday. The plentiful sun has given us quite the sexy tans (read: melanoma).

Monday we followed Dave and the two "A"s to Ft. Walton Beach beach (eh?). The worter there was pretty, pretty warm. Like bath water or maybe like 1000 immigrants relieving themselves into a strawberry farm irrigation ditch. Having water this warm leads to much algae it seems and I was having a hard time coaxing Jen into this green stew that was quite tasty I might add. Unk Dave was nice enough to take a picture of us together so there's no photoshop shenanigans here.

Tuesday morning we packed up, said our goodbyes and began the 500 mile trek to Tampa. We met up with my cousin Sarah and her fiance Nick for some authentic Floridian Chili's restaurant. After some burgers and brew (Oh ya, and quesadillas) it was very necessary to get in the hot tub at Sarah's housing complex. Apparently in warmer parts of the country, aka Not-Alaska, water temperature in hot tubs is equal to the ambient temperature. Very nice indeed.

The following morning we took an hour drive south to St. Petersburg to visit the Salvador Dali Museum (thanks for the idea John and Dee Dee). With paintings titled "The Great Masturbater", "Atmospheric Skull Sodomizing a Grand Piano" and "Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln" it was sure to be vaddy eenterestink. How often do you get to see the inner workings of a perverted mind? The guy definitely had some issues but without them he surely wouldn't have developed his ability to give visuals to the craziness that happens in the mind.

The museum had a lot more content than Jen and I had expected and we ended up spending quite a long time looking at test sketches, full paintings and tidbits of info. Eventually it was time to stop being wine-sipping, snooty, artsy types and get back to the dang ol' beach. This time we went to Clearwater Beach which did indeed have some fairly clear water.

***5 minute intermission. Grab a coffee, use the restroom, whateva***

(I need to take a break right here for some back story. I've had a pair of Oakley sunglasses for a few years now. During this period these Lazarus-like spectacles went through more deaths and resurrections than Jen playing the New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. Somehow no matter how badly they were bent I could always bend them back and reinsert the lenses. Okay sure, the lenses would fall out at the slightest nudge but they still kept the harmful UV A and B rays from damaging my retinas. Back to our story.)

I got totally, like, super excited when I saw the water and jumped right in with sunglasses still on my face. Not worrying about a thing I proceeded to frolic, prance and play in the surf with Jennifer and then the big one came. This wave was gargantuan (when compared to Vern Troyer) and the only thing either of us could do was trust our instincts and meet the wave head-on (apply directly to the forehead) diving right through it before it crashed. Well that bugger of a wave had some kinda hydro-turbulence behind it. Regardless of me flexing my temple muscles the glasses were being pulled into Davey Jones' Locker. Just when I thought they were gone forever, I felt them hit my foot and snagged them with my finger-like toe. I might have been able to hold onto them too had it not been for Jen making me cut my "disgusting Eagle talons". Alas it was not to be. The monster waves third cousin once removed came to play just a second later and finished the job. Ya I was sad but also a little relieved. You see I had been fighting with those darn lenses falling out the whole trip and now this was an excuse for some new shades. (consequently, Josh, order me up those new ones.) It was time to get over it and enjoy our day at the beach. We picked up where we left off, frolicking, etc, for another hour or so and just when we were about to leave I looked over at Jen as a wave of excitement rolled over her face. She dove under and I yelled, "Water you doing!" with the sort of pun-fueled enthusiasm I often have. Up she came graceful, yet powerful, fist clenched like four baby boas wrapped around their collective prey. My glasses (sans lenses)!

That night, after all the excitement at the beach, it was time to chill out. Sarah, Nick and some friends took us to a pier where the sunsets are supposed to be amazing. As we walked out on the pier in the dusk we noticed the beach moving. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a shit ton of fiddler crabs. Very, very cool. These little fellers had shells only as wide as a quarter and the mature males had left claws about the same width.

^Click on this to enlarge^

After a crabby photo shoot we strolled to the end of the pier where people were fishing and we looked out across the bay. The clouds rolled onto the horizon right as the sun was setting and gave off a nice assortment of purples and blues. Right there in the shallows was what looked like a heron doing some fishing of his own. Jen caught the scene on camera:

So, today we left for the Everglades and then the Keys. On the way South we took a small detour to Siesta Keys Beach for a little more fun in the sun. This was the best beach we've been to on the trip thus far. The water was clear and the perfect temp, the sand was white and soft and Jen had plenty of things to shoot at . . . like these ibis nibbling:

It was a given that there was much fun to be had in the water. I think this pic illustrates it:

And that's all for this post. Yay! You made it all the way through. I'm proud of you.