on the hunt.....

Its Boxing Day morning and given the number of people that are in this house, I am having a precious period of quiet. All the kids are upstairs, no doubt making a lot of mess, Paul is asleep, my friends are downstairs asleep and I am thinking..........

I want to find a new Key West. And no, thats not an actual NEW Key West but maybe a more grownup, quieter, less body paint and Spring Breakers, but the same beachy, restaurant, food vibe place where we can go.  I guess I really want some place where all the romance of Key West is but lacking drunkenness, tacky T-shirt shops (and they are REALLY tacky - I dont want to read the slogans much less have my girls do so), homeless bums, radical people that are all out there and general chaos of each night.

I used to love it, but not anymore. Paul swears that its changed but I am not sure, perhaps we have changed.
And I have no problem with those that are radical and all out there, just not shoved in my face in such a fashion,.. I dont care about your sexual preferences, hey I am all for happiness and some of my best friends are gay, but I do draw the line at rampant behaviour under my nose. I dont care for it, in short. Some things are best left private.

And Key West is a mecca for this stuff,its a party town and it parties extremely well.

But I dont anymore, in fact we dont anymore.
We want laid back, toes in the sun fun, a place where the cares of everyday slip away almost instantly. Somewhere with little shops that sell funky treasures by local artists, hole in the wall beach bars, flamingo pink and aqua houses, little waterfront restaurants where they serve up fresh, locally caught snapper and hogfish, followed by Key Lime pie.
And this sounds a little like Key West doesnt it, and it is, but without the debauchery... somewhere where I can take the girls without fear of what they may see....

So, I am on the hunt, and thankful to Google as it will help me, find the next spot to go and check out in our quest for this tranquility

.The images above are from a google search of small towns in Florida - this is Anna Maria Island.... I think this will be my first research spot