So I didn’t update my blog at all during my trip ’cause I barely turned on the computer and my cellphone. I was getting away from everything and having that connection wouldn’t have made it too good. Anyway, it was a pretty awesome trip. Friday night I flew into Fort Lauderdale and promptly drove to Primanti Brothers for a sandwich and beer. After checking into the hotel, I drove around a bit before calling it an early night so I could get a decent start in the morning. Saturday I headed to Key West. I had some awesome food along the way at a little place right on the water. It was clear enough that I could see fish swimming around and get some pretty good pictures of them. Once I got to Key West I walked around to get some pictures and see the sights. One of the big things there is the sunset festival they have a Mallory Square. Of course I had to head to that and check out all of the street performers there. After hitting some of the bars on Duval Street, it was another early night since I had to get up at 6:30am the next day. Sunday I was heading to the Dry Tortugas National Park. The park is about a 2 hour boat ride from Key West. While the park is mostly water, there is a fort there as well. We took a tour of the fort and then had some time to snorkel along the reefs that are there. We then made the 70 mile trip back to Key West. Again I hit up some of the bars and talked with some of the bartenders. I was quite surprised to find out how expensive it was to live there. I wasn’t expecting it to be cheap, but didn’t think it was as much as what I found it to be. Monday I was planning on heading north, but checked out a few thing in Key West before I left. One of them was the Hemingway House. It was an awesome tour and well worth the money. Having never read Hemingway in high school or college, I picked up a couple of his books to read. In Islamorada I was told that there was a tiki bar that I had to check out. It turns out this is part of a resort, so I decided to spend the night there. Unfortunately with it being a Monday night, the place was kind of dead. I ended up heading down the street to a restaurant on the water. One of the things I really enjoy about the Keys is the number of places to eat on the water. Tuesday I went to Biscayne and Everglades National Parks as well as Miami and Fort Lauderdale again. My brother was flying into town that night for work, so we got together and I crashed at his hotel. Wednesday before heading to Orlando to meet up with Matt and Kathy I drove around Boynton Beach where I used to live when I first started co-oping with Motorola. I was shocked to see that the plant that I worked at was no longer there. I knew that they had sold it, but was shocked to see condos in it’s place! The trip to Orlando went by surprising fast. I met up with Matt, Kathy, and Kathy’s friend Brian who lives in Orlando. We grabbed some lunch and then checked into the hotel. That night we went to see the Blue Man Group for Matt’s birthday and then went to Universal City Walk. Thursday Matt and Kathy went to a talk to try and get suckered into buying into the timeshare. I went to the pool bar and hung out and made some new friends. That night we went to Islands of Adventure. Friday we were up early to go to Epcot and then Animal Kingdom. It was a long day because Matt and I headed back to City Walk that night. Saturday I was heading back down to Boynton Beach to stay with Jay and Jen, but first I had to go check out the Kwik-E-Mart in Orlando. It was good to see Jay again and finally get to meet Jen. We hung out that night and went to see what all had changed in West Palm Beach and had a beer. Sunday after church we headed over to Jay’s aunt and uncle’s place for breakfast. It was really good to see them again too. When I lived down there we would hang out over there most weekends. I really enjoyed that time and miss hanging out with them. I was also really happy that I got to spend time with Jay and Jen as well. I was glad to head home where while it’s still humid, it’s not as bad as Florida. I’m not looking forward to the heat that August is going to bring us though.