virtual vacation

Final Thoughts on Palm Island, 2006

Here are my final thoughts on our Spring Break trip to Palm Island Resort in 3/2006.

1. The Beach at Palm Island - wide, deep powdery sand, hard surface near with water for walking, no red tide :-)
2. The Ocean at Palm Island - calm, very warm,
3. Sharkey's on the Beach in Venice - awesome blackened grouper, but don't let them talk you into lightly blackened
4. The Tomato Patch - Sandwich spot in downtown Venice
5. Splash - Venice - Get Your Bathing Suits here
6. Unit 2011 at Palm Island Resort - All in Blue and Yellow, best appointed condo ever! Cook for 1,000 at this place. Veddy veddy nice.
7. Golf Cart 28 - it rocked
8. Drive to the end of Palm Island at Sunset - don't forget the G and T!
9. Dinner on the patio - either at J & E's or at Palm Island - don't forget the candles.
10. The Fishery Restaurant at Placida - super fresh fish cooked to order - they take reservations, too!
11. The Fish Market next to the Fishery in Placida - RIGHT off the fishing boats - the shrimp is absolutely the best!

1. the Rum Bay Restaurant at Palm Island Resort - only served fried grouper, lunch was inedible, seemed to cater to busloads of senior citizens
2. Florida Drivers Suck
3. Minnesota Drivers Suck
4. Johnny Leverock's used to be much better. Not so hot any more. Wait isn't as long, either.
5. The drive from Palm Island to Ft. Myer's airport - it is two lanes most of the way and you have to travel behind 90 year old ladies going 20 mph in a 55 mph zone with no way to pass

To the totally rude people who stayed in the unit above 2011 at Palm Island Resort, played loud rap music and played tennis inside the unit at all hours.

Beach Shelter - The Final Word

The last time we were at Palm Island, we pined away for some sort of a portable beach shelter that would allow us to enjoy the sound the the surf and the sea breezes without being baked in the sun. I did lots of research last fall and settled on this:

It is a Parawing shelter made by MSR. Unlike other shelters I considered, this one actually would use the wind to provide stability to the structure - great concept for the windy beach. Or so they said.

At its best, ours looked like this

and this


More importantly, with the stakes that were included, the thing stayed anchored for at MOST 30 minutes. Then one of the stakes would pull out and the thing would collapse. We tried everything - digging 2 feet down before putting in the stakes, creating "deadman" connections (I found this idea on the web - great concept, bad idea), adding sandbags or rocks to the tops of the stakes. Nothing would keep the stakes from pulling out of the nice powdery sand of Palm Island.

The other real problem was the thing's use of the wind to provide structure. Great idea - it is always windy at the beach. Problem is, the wind is ALWAYS shifting. You get the thing set up the right way, then the wind shifts and the shelter collapses.

We provided lots of comedic entertainment for the other folks on the beach all week. I could hear them laughing every time the shelter fell.

We should have bought one of these:

This is a shelter made by Kelty that has alot more structure to it.

Instead, I will buy some sand stakes and we will once again provide beachside entertainment for guests at some Florida resort.

Piggies

I am posting this movie because I can. So There.

Another Day, Another Beach, Another Sunset

Is this starting to get boring? Don't answer that.

I spent most of the day in a panic about the impending snow storm that was supposed to hit Minnesota. I watched the storm track all day - it was definitely going to hit hard and, as the day progressed, it looked like Northfield would be right in the middle of white out about the time Nick's taxi was scheduled to take him to the airport.

Plan B was placed in effect - Nick took a cab to an airport hotel last night and avoided the worst of the storm. This morning at 5AM, he grabbed a hotel shuttle through the start of the snow storm in the cities and boarded his plane only 20 minutes late. In the meantime, the roads in Northfield were closed - good thing we moved fast! UPDATE: BOARDING A PLANE AND TAKING OFF ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. NICK SAT ON THE RUNWAY FOR TWO HOURS - MSP AIRPORT WAS DOWN TO ONE RUNWAY. AT LEAST HE GOT OUT.

We beach walked a lot yesterday. This is the perfect beach for it, too - very wide, hard sand near the water, lots of interesting shells and coral and very few people.

Pete and I didn't want to drink and drive so we hired a chauffeur to drive our golf cart around the island at sunset

She was a good driver, but was kind of a ham on the beach

You can see the beginning of the sunburned nose - today it looks like bozo. Sorry, Abs
We cooked in last night - the condo is amazingly well equipped with anything a cook would need. I had made a large pot of homemade spaghetti sauce at GG Rue's earlier in the trip and saved three servings so we had spaghetti, garlic bread and salad while watching yet another boring amazing sunset

Stay tuned for the next entry - the Prodigal Son Returns

Another Day in Paradise

Today was the first offical beach day on Palm Island. Armed with Dad's new beach shelter, we headed off to the sands at around 10AM. You can see our new shelter in the center of the picture. It actually uses the wind to poof it out - totally cool and very comfortable, although we had many nasty words while dad tried to pound the stakes into the nice powdery sand.

Here is another artsy-fartsy shot through the sea-grass:

As you can see, crowds are a huge problem here in paradise. This was looking up the beach from the shelter

Not good if you are looking for lots of babe action. No wet t-shirts in sight.

In fact, the best thing to do here is to walk the beach

nice pedicure, huh?

Some build castles:

...while others beach-comb, picking up shells and coral...

but watch out for the jellyfish!

The sand is soft and the water is very warm. Dad is keeping the boogie board warm for you. Good luck on the English exam tomorrow.

We ate at that restaurant on the dock before you ferry over to Palm Island tonight - Johnny Levrock's - I had blackened grouper and it wasn't as good as Sharky's.
Call us when you are done with exams at this number.
1-941-697-3672 (at palm island resort - unit 2011)
(and keep it with you when you are traveling) - we are cooking in so should be here in the evening. If you don't reach us, leave a message and keep your phone on. I will also be calling the taxi guys tomorrow to confirm your pick up on thursday am.

Palm Island

We arrived this afternoon via ferry. We got our golf cart and dragged all our junk to the new place. It is really nice and comfy. This is the view from the front of our screened veranda.

Weather forecast is lovely - 80 every day and breezy. We will be unveiling our new shelter tomorrow morning so I will post some images tomorrow.

We ate at the resort restaurant tonight. In honor of you, dad and I had had grouper sandwiches. They didn't seem to have blackened grouper - it was fried. Still good, though.

Grandpa's really good friend died last night so they will be heading to Washington DC for the funeral on Friday. They really want to see you so we will pick up some fish at the nearby fish place and go up to see them on Thursday night (sorry you won't have a long time to recover, but it will be an early night).

We also need to go back on Sunday night to return all the beach equipment that we have borrowed from them(it's only 30 minutes from here). We thought maybe you might like to stop here for dinner:

(blackened grouper is always on the menu).

a demain!

Saturday Update

We spent the day relaxing again (are you jealous yet?).

Dad and Grandpa golfed. Abby and I slept in, then went into town to shop with Grandma. Abby bought some tea and a post card for Anna. We almost bought you a man-thong bathing suit, but I was worried that you might actually wear it (we stopped at Splash on the way back.)

We PLANNED on going to the beach, but napping other activities took up more time so we ended up heading here around 5 PM:

That's Abs under the Sharky's sign and Grandpa on the left. We actually saws guys catching a shark - little, but a shark, nevertheless. Grandma and Dad were someplace else.

We had an hour wait so we did some people watching. We observed lots of

and tons of

the sunset was great

and the menu choices looked yummy

but we know that there is only one thing to have a Sharky's:

yum yum.

Then it was home to a Scrabble Challenge and bed

She is blowing you a kiss - thanking you for vacating this comfy bed with the big tv!

Tomorrow it is beach in the morning and spaghetti dinner a la mom - leftovers to be delivered to Palm Island for our leftover pleasure.

Stay tuned tomorrow....

We've Arrived

We arrived two hours later than expected at GG R's last night. Here is what you missed:

• Sun Country Good - seats have lots of leg room, are leather, but don't do much to absorb the sound of a woman sitting behind you reading books to her five year old. Either the kid is deaf or she just had a big mouth. Didn't bother those of us with NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONES.
• Flight was delayed coming from Orlando so we waited..
• Make sure you print out your boarding pass the night before you leave since this could save you from standing in a nasty line if the outside baggage check is open. (If not, you are sol)
• Don't come to Florida expecting to find a quick bite to eat at 10PM. Everything is closed - even the fast food places. We did find a Perkins, but it stunk so we left. We found another Perkins in a better neighborhood and some guy tried to pick Abby up - as we were leaving, he had the waitress hand Abs a bag containing a muffin and the following, written on a napkin:

• He failed to leave his area code, so he is SOL.

This morning, we awoke to the most wonderful Florida vacation day ever - warm( 80 degrees), NO humidity, breezy.

After napping to recover from our relaxing day, we headed off the the "Sharky's Beach" - the one near Osama bin Laden airport (GR and GR hate it when I call it that). We first ran into this bird - Nick - I swear it is a supermodel bird. The thing was at least four feet tall and it just stood there when I took its picture:

We took a really nice walk on the beach - no red tide at all. Water was warm and waves were up.
Of course, it was a Japanese style of family walk since the woman walks 30 steps behind and I am sure that is not so she can take photos ;-)

Later we dined al fresco by candlelight (on the porch at my insistence since it was 70 degrees, light wind and NO humidity) on lamb chops, baked potatoes, green beans, salad and apple turnovers. YUM.

Tomorrow, Dad and Grandpa will golf, Abs and Grandma and I will beach it and we will eat at Sharky's for dinner. Grandpa promises to have blackened grouper in your honor (Actually, he claims he would have blackened grouper no matter what.). We will save some for your arrival.

More tomorrow. We miss you madly and think of you often. Don't study too hard.

It has now taken me an entire day to try to get blogs to post over a dialup connection - hence very few images. Once I get to Palm Island, more images will magically appear.

Welcome to Virtual Vacation

A vacation without Nick is like a day without sunshine. For this reason, I have created this blog. Through the magic of the internet, a digital camera and a cel phone, I will try to capture the sights, sounds and smells and emotions :-# we are experiencing on our first vacation without you.

you lucky guy, you.

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