40 to 80 in 3 hours.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well. I'm back from FL :) I got back this evening like 6-ish. I am waaaay tired. So I will have to go to sleep really early tonight. Two nights of going to bed late do not make for good times at work tomorrow.

Of course, I have to tell you about my trip, right? For my travelling buddy's perspective (he'll have pics with his narration, I'm sure) you can check Geneman's site.

So let's see, here's a recap:

After I left you Saturday morning, I managed to do some last minute stuff, like cut an MP3 CD (that I never used), wrote out a card to the X (it's her birthday today), and scrounge around for money (instead of going to the bank.

Around 11 ish I was on my way to the airport. Geneman was already there, so it was neat to meet up with him in the middle of the airport at our gate.

Before leaving, I had checked the weather - Rain in the morning. I figured no big deal right? We'd get there around 4, and stuff would dry out, right?

Wrong.

For the most part, the flight was fine - The descent kind of made my stomach queasy though. I didn't feel like needed to hurl, but I wasn't liking the feeling. We had gone through these crazy temperature fluctuations from the minute I got in the airport. In the typical air conditioned environment, it was nice and cool. The moment we stepped on to the jetway it was like we were already in Florida. Very hot - The plane was warm and cold at times as well.

By the time we touched down, it was raining. I couldn't tell if it was raining super hard, but it didn't look good. I was scared it would be one of those movie moments where it rained the entire 3 days we were out there.

We were kind of winging it, so we didn't have a definite plan of how we were going to get to the hotel. I knew that we were to take a cab, but the cab information that I got the first time around (the cancelled trip) was old and to a different hotel. We ended up taking a cab though - Driven by this low talking, mumbling dude that I couldn't really understand. He had a funny smelling cab too. It was a weird smell of like incense and bad air freshener. It actually reminded me a lot of the candle section at Middle Earth in Ann Arbor (sorry, couldn't find a link either) where they sold incense and stuff.

The initial "get in" fee for the cab was $1.50. I knew we were in for an expensive ride when the meter was already $2.50 and we were still under the airport structure. Lovely.

So again, it rained the whole way to the hotel. I tried to stay optimistic. I think I was just excited to get to the there. We got to the hotel, checked in, and went up to our room. Not to shabby. It was exactly as advertised:

(taken from the confirmation e-mail):
Room Description: 2 DOUBLE BEDSTRADITIONAL NON-SMOKING LIMITED VIEW MODERN LIGHT WOOD FURNISHINGS HIGHSPEED INTERNET FOR A FEE ARMCHAIR AND OTTOMAN, WELL APPOINTED;SPACIOUS 330 SQ FT; DECORATED IN TROPICAL JEWEL TONES; VIEWS OF THESURROUNDING AREA

I guess we never checked to see if the room was actually 330 square feet, but the tropical jewel tones were true (lot of coral and green-like color I'd say is close to teal.) We didn't use the highspeed internett (ripoff), and green armchair and ottoman. We did get a bonus chair though.

As i usually tell people, the main differences between the hotel rooms I've stayed is:
1) The mirror in the bathroom
2) The bed covering
3) Pillows on the bed (yes or no)

I'm not saying I've stayed at the super luxo hotels, but I'd say those are the biggest differences so far - I have ranged from the super cheap to mildly posh.

Oh yeah, there was a fancy embroidered robe in the closet too. Gene and I had to flip to see who got to wear it. Just kidding. It stayed in the closet, dirrty people. :)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so we check in, get kind of settled in, and decide to explore the hotel before venturing out to forage for food.

We went all over the hotel. There were 3 buildings - 2 were connected (our side) and then what I called the "ghetto tower" across the street. I thought it was the ghetto tower cause the lobby left much to be desired.

And everything smelled funny. Chemically speaking, of course.

You know, there's a normal "hotel" smell. Kind of like how the Gap always smells a certain way, no matter which one you go to. Anyway, I'm sure you know what I mean by hotel smell. So the ghetto tower, and parts of our building smelled like chemicals. Like a cleaning cart exploded on every floor.

OK, so what else - the hotel was nice. Beside the ice cold air conditioning that was pumping in the hallways, it was ok. Not kickass, just ok. It had two pools, a gym, restaurant, bar, yadda yadda yadda.

And of course, there was the beach :) The whole reason why we chose the Yankee Clipper in the first place. My main criteria in choosing our hotel was that I wanted to be able to walk outside of the hotel and hit the sand without having to cross a road or by walking really far. The beach was pretty much outside of the building.

When we first got outside, we took some time to snap some pictures of the surroundings at night. I don't know if any of the pics came out - I'll let you know.

By the time we had finished exploring the building and we were walking around the perimiter, the rain had stopped, and everything was drying up. It was all smooth sailing after that. The weather after that was kickass. Shorts and t-shirt the entire time. There were times in the evening where I could have used a fleece or something, but I never really needed it.

For dinner we ended up walking up the main strip that ran along the coastline and see what was around us for dinner. After walking for what seemed like a while, we came to a pretty busy area that had restaurants and cheesy souvenir shops. Oh yeah, and lots of tattoo parlors. The traditional kind, henna, and temporary. And where there's tattoing, there's piercing too. Pretty wild.

I figured the tattoo that I already had of "thug life" was enough.

After checking out the menu of a few places we ended up at the Quarterdeck Seafood Bar and Neighborhood Grill (couldn't find a link). The menu looked pretty good, so we were sold. We ended up getting crabs. Stone crab, to be exact :) We were lucky to be "in season." I've never had stone crab before, so I thought I'd give it a try. Geneman and I got the same thing so we were happily cracking shells and making them fly all over the table. One of the most expensive meals that I've ever had, but I would say it was definitely worth it.

We ended up walking around some more - And we found Beach Place (note, not the official site - I coudln't find it). It's this very swanky open air, multistory mall with shops, restaurants, and clubs. We poked around there, looked at a few menus, checked out a few clubs, and then we called it a night. We were pretty tired from staying up late the night before and from the travelling we'd done.

(to be continued)