I recall that hotel night, the next day breakfast and the ride to the Keys in a Greyhound bus. We went through Homestead and made our way down the chain of islands until we entered the city limits of Key West. I encountered strange and interesting people on this adventure at 24 years old.
That evening I sat on a bar stool at a locals haunt in Geiger Key and drank a pina colada as the sun set and felt again that I had found myself in paradise. The emotion, the overwhelming amazement at just being there is still a strong memory.
The years that followed found us, Paul and I, back in Florida as often as financially possible. We endured 9 hour flights once a year (once we got to do it twice :-) ) for two blissful weeks. We added Orlando to this bliss and Bahama Bay where our children learned to swim in the hot tub there, and then St Augustine with its Prairie Creek.
We started to bring our children up with Florida in their lives. People used to think that the draw was the theme parks and the shopping, and while the theme parks are great, it was actually inane things like stop signs, crickets, heat, drive through coffee, different wildlife, fresh seafood, space in house, wood floors, firepits, cinammon rolls, pontiacs and chevrolets etc. Add to that funky restaurants - Conch House, Mangrove Mamas, Mangoes, Creekside Dinery, Bahama Breeze, Tradewinds.... (even the names are romantic and tropical).
When I was in Florida I used to walk, endlessly, soaking it all in. When we left I sobbed all the way to the airport. Arriving back in the UK I would then spend the next 50 weeks of the year planning 2 weeks when I could live in the present moment.
Fast forward to present day where I very much live in the present moment and have done now for 7 years.
Returning to Florida is still a trip of the heart. That drive to the Keys through Homestead down fills me with the same emotion. Orlando makes me feel like I am in paradise still. The only difference is when I am not there, I dont live waiting for the next time.
Summer here in Nova Scotia on Canadas East Coast is quintessentially that Spring that we enjoy in Florida. Same heat, same humidity, same crickets. Its called the Maritimes for a reason and it has the same laid back friendliness. Its a Canadian Florida Keys to me.
It has beautiful beaches, seafood and the very same cinammon rolls. Stop signs and drivethrough coffee, along with a large spacious home, pool and a hot tub is my everyday. My July and August is that 2 precious weeks that I used to live for.
The rest of the year is very much Canadian which is everything I envisaged it to be.
So freakin blessed.
