The Journey Begins

Well, we've made it down to Marathon! The past couple of days have been really busy and, at times, stressful too. I reached Melbourne on Wednesday night from Dallas and was greeted by Evan, who treated me to a wonderful dinner out at one of our best seafood restaurants. The next morning required an early rise to drive our cars up the east coast of Florida to Jacksonville. The process was tedious and time consuming, but smooth overall. We figured it would take us about 30 minutes to drop off the car and pay. It took close to 2 hours. After which, we had to acquire a taxi to get us to the airport in Jax where our rental car was waiting - a huge SUV, thank goodness (all our stuff would fit!!!!).

The day that we had planned for was about 3 hours behind schedule. Once we reached Melbourne, we had to clean Evan's house and load the car. We didn't head out for south Florida until 10pm. We reached his folk's house in West Palm at 12:30am. LONG day... at that point, all we wanted was a snack and some sleep. But it didn't hurt that this house was waterfront, beautifully decorated, and wonderfully inviting for two tired travelers. I suppose Sophie was pretty amp'd as well to finally get out of the car, I think all this traveling has been a little stressful for her.

This morning was more easygoing - we backtracked a little north to Jupiter so that I could appease my desire for cupcakes one last time before leaving the continental states. :) (Want the BEST cupcakes in south Florida? Check out DD's cupcakes on Center Street!). Then began our long journey further down south to the Keys. I know the Keys are beautiful and relaxing and fun, but when you've already driven the entire northern and central east coast of Florida... you're kinda just even more eager to finally get there :)

But of course all that languor and monotony of riding in the car for 2 days straight just melts away when you reach Key Largo and start to see the gorgeous turquoise waters. It's even better the further south you travel! And the ohhh, we're finally here in Marathon!!

We'll be staying for four days with Evan's mom and her husband while we wait for our cars to reach San Juan. I believe we have some sailing plans tomorrow and some very delicious seafood dinners planned :)

On August 2, we fly out and begin the second part of our adventure!!! Be sure to stay tuned for updates!!!