Tennessee to Florida to Massachusetts

After pausing my travels for a week in Tennessee, I headed south and east. I spent a night in Atlanta, one in Gainesville, and one in Tampa. Then I spent most of a week in the West Palm Beach area with family, and then took 3 days to drive north, with family, to Massachusetts.

Some high points were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico at St. Petersburg, getting a tour of the Tampa/St. Pete area from a friend, and swimming in the Atlantic near West Palm Beach. I live near the ocean in northern California, but it's too cold and dangerous for swimming. The warm Florida waters felt so good! Wakodahatchee Wetlands park was great too. See my reviews.

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This place had good Indian food, nothing special but we liked it all right. Several other parties came in right after us and filled the place up. Probably because of that, service was slow, which was a bit of a problem with a 3-year-old. Still, I’d go there again.

We were tired and hungry, on the last leg of an arduous 3-day car trip, when we pulled in here. I generally don't try random Chinese restaurants outside of big cities, and didn't have high expectations. My first intimation that this place was different was the menu. It had sections for Chinese and Japanese food, and a whole separate section for more traditional Chinese food, the kind that people from China would want.

We ordered several dishes, including a tofu appetizer from the traditional menu. The waitress had to make sure we knew what we were doing when we ordered that; she apparently didn't think it would appeal to the American palate.

We liked the food quite a bit. We vegetarians were pleased with our dishes, and the meat-eater liked his too. Even the 3-year-old was happy. She ate a lot, and was able to run around a little without bothering anyone, as the place was almost empty.

Good food, good service, nice atmosphere—it was better than we would have hoped, and we left refreshed and well-fed.

Wright's is apparently a Tampa institution. We wanted a take-out meal for the beach. We had a Cuban sandwich—a grilled roll with Swiss cheese and veggies. (It would usually have meat, but we are vegetarian.) One sandwich was plenty for the two of us, and it was utterly delicious. We called in our order about fifteen minutes before we got there. The place had separate long lines for ordering and pickup, as well as tables with full service and a full menu. The pickup line had four cashiers and moved quickly, though we had to wait a few more minutes for the sandwiches. They were well worth it. Highly recommended. http://www.wrightsgourmet.com

Clean sand, tons of small pretty shells, and best of all, the water—clear, light blue-green, calm, and warm. We got in and waded across a sandbar, then treaded water lazily while we talked. It felt wonderful. It was the first time I’d ever been in the Gulf of Mexico. My friend said that the water temperature is about 80 degrees this time of year (late May) and it gets warmer soon, too warm for some people! Caution: Even though I was careful, I ended up with a mild sunburn—the water and a breeze made the weather deceptively comfortable, but the sun was strong.

Even driving up to the beach was an experience. The area has some older hotels, and my friend pointed out the large pink Don Cesar resort, which was built in 1928 and apparently has quite a history.

It was midweek, so the beach wasn’t too crowded, though most of the parking spaces were filled.

There are restrooms and outdoor showers to wash off the sand and salt, a small store for beach essentials and souvenirs, and a restaurant. All in all, a great experience!

This place is amazing! It consists of about 50 acres of wetlands associated with a water reclamation plant. The one-mile nature walk, all on a boardwalk, is very easy. The boardwalk consists largely of bridges over standing water. The sun was intense, and we stopped at each of the covered viewing areas to get some relief. But we could see beautiful birds, lots of them, every step of the way. We saw anhingas, egrets, herons, a purple gallinule, and many more. We also saw a couple of different types of turtles, and some cute brown bunnies. We looked closely for alligators, but didn’t see any. My brother had been there three times before, and it was the first time he hasn’t seen any. Still, it was well worth it.

On one island, we saw a great blue heron in a nest bending over, and some fluffy movements under it—it was feeding its chicks. Another great blue flew up, the two had some interaction, and one flew off. Maybe it was time for a change in feeding shifts.

It was a weekday, and there were some other people, not many. Mostly tourists like us. One man was apparently a regular. He had a professional-looking camera and had his pet macaw with him. The macaw perched on the fence and leaned over, and he kept a close eye on it—he said it had fallen in the water before and was almost snapped up by an alligator! He’d stopped having the macaw’s wings clipped so it could fly to get away if it needed, but said it hadn’t flown yet. He was trying to get a picture of a purple gallinule, but it moved out of range too quickly. I felt lucky that I'd already managed to photograph one.

All this and admission is free! I would definitely go to Wakodahatchee again, and again.

Look here for more information.

This was my first time in on the west coast of Florida, and I liked the Tampa area a lot. The evening I got there, my friend and I took a walk along the edge of Tampa Bay. We saw a lot of seabirds, a few fish, one sting ray, and a dead 2-foot-long hammerhead shark.

The next day, we planned a trip to the beach. She drove me through Ybor City, a picturesque part of town that calls itself the Latin Quarter and was once the “cigar capital of the world” (she pointed out the former cigar factories). It was worth the detour. We picked up lunch on the way to the beach—she introduced me to the Cuban sandwich, which I loved. We had a lovely afternoon on Pass-a-Grille Beach (see review) in St. Petersburg. We also took a nice walk at the downtown waterfront in St. Pete.

We even squeezed in a visit to a friend's tropical plant nursery--beautiful plants but way too many mosquitoes!

A totally delightful day--I would love to spend more time in the area someday.

In my opinion, the hardest place to drive in the USA is Boston; I won’t even do it, and I grew up near there. I think the road signs are based on the idea that if you don’t know where you’re going, you have no business being there, and the drivers are the rudest I’ve seen. New York City, no sweat; I can weave in and out between the cab drivers easily. Anyplace in California, a breeze—even in L.A., drivers are pretty courteous.

But driving on Florida’s highways presents a challenge. There are a lot of semi trucks, and on some of the big roads, they are banned from the left lane. This means that, if you’re driving fairly slowly (say 75, where the speed limit’s 70) and every one's passing you, the trucks want you out of their lanes. They let you know this by coming up behind you fast and getting very close, right on your tail. They want you to get in the far left lane so they can pass on the right. Drivers of SUVs and pickup trucks also tailgate you impatiently, whichever lane you’re in. Did I mention that 75 is slow? After my speeding warnings in Nevada and Arkansas, I wanted to stay within 5 or at least 10 miles of the speed limit, but even when I did 80, everyone was passing me.

At least most trucks were being driven sanely, but I encountered a couple that were weaving badly. I was tired too; for long-distance drivers heading south, Florida is the last state. I was glad to take smaller roads when I could, with fewer semis.