Up in the Air

Thursday, November 4th, MDW to TPA -   Take off in beautiful sunrise in Chicago.  Cold at Fort De Soto and at Sailport - warmer in Chicago. Loud screeching music at Whiskey Joe's - stay out of there after 8 and on Saturday.  Good annual meeting. Good to see Jill - too many Cosmos (not the best). Met awesome new people from Georgia and Illinois at the pool. SWA and Tampa airport are great.  Love spending time with my sister.  Brother in law with extra drink coupons: priceless.

Monday, November 8th, TPA to MDW - Sad news in A.M..  A favorite aunt has passed away at 93.  Tampa finally warms up to bid me goodbye. Aisle seat - my favorite.  Great views from the Orange Line on my way home.  157 bus to my door.  Great bus driver - actually waited for me to unload my bag.  Two hour rest before the opera.  That was an opera ? Bad music, not much singing, just talking and a big headed lady in front of me.  At intermission the big haired lady and half the audience left the building.  Second act not quite as bad - glad we stayed.

Thursday, November 11, ORD to EWR - AAdvantage air miles, first class - great trip (seatmate who didn't want to talk).  Beautiful color in New Jersey - shuttle ride to Chatham a breeze.  Stayed with old friends -50+ years - we can take up as though no time has passed.  Wake for my aunt.  Hundreds of people - what a tribute to a life well lived.  Many cousins not seen in years, daughter and family, nieces from Cape Cod.  At least 6 "you look JUST like your mother" comments from old friends and neighbors.  One hour wait for a burger at Charley's Aunt - bah.  15 year old grandson nails friends' golf ball balancing globe in about 15 minutes.  Glass of wine with good friends and "good night".  The funeral on Friday was dignified, moving and perfectly fitting for the gentle woman who was my aunt.  Typical after funeral party for our family.  Celebrate life, not death.

Saturday, November 13, EWR to ORD.  Beautiful sunshine, just as the previous two days, smooth ride to EWR.  Damn  AA baggage fees.  Too tired to carry on the big one - so suck it up. flight on time - a whole row to myself.  $7.00 for a Bloody Mary - are you kidding?  Arrived on time, bag waiting, train waiting, bus waiting.  Made it home in record time with no glitches.  At home - foggy, cold and damp. Husband with  bad stomach flu symptoms - really bad- wish I had been here. Glad I was at the funeral.

 And now.........................

We have three days to pay our taxes, do our banking business, make dish for faux Thanksgiving with family, enjoy family on Sunday, pack bags, go to the opera on Monday ( this will be a REAL opera). Batten down the hatches here on Tuesday for a month away.

Wednesday, November 16th, MDW to TUS.  I will need my month in the sun to recover from the last 9 days of travel. 

George Clooney - you can have it.

P.S.  I know why the SWA flights were all full and the AA flights half empty - but that's another story for another day after I recover.

Jewels of the Atlantic

Two of my favorite places to visit are Cape Cod and the Florida Keys. Whether you cross the Bourne or Sagamore bridge and head east and north to the Cape or take U.S.1 onto the Overseas Highway south to the Keys, you are traveling a narrow band of earth surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and going north, Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound. Going south its the Gulf of Mexico and specifically Florida Bay. Both have evacuation route signs and animal crossing signs - crocodiles to the south and deer to the north.

Heading north to the Cape you'll see quaint town centers with Puritan Shops, Mark Fore and Strike and cutesy colonial buildings with white tablecloth restaurants. My favorite spots are Cuffys for shopping and the Chatham Squire for decent food in a fun place. Head south to the keys and a string of T-Shirt shops "5 T-shirts for $10.00" and ramshackle "All You Can Eat Peel On Shrimp" shacks. My favorites are World Wide Sportsman for shopping and Lazy Days for great fish dinners overlooking the ocean.

If these two vacation spots were siblings, Cape Cod would be the well behaved older child and the Keys the slutty younger sister.

Take neighborhoods - on the Cape you have well defined communities which are clearly identifiable as middle class, upper class, lower class and so on. In the Keys one community bleeds into the next and you are likely to see a multi-million dollar gated home across the street from the local guy with 3 beaters up on blocks.

Can we talk about beaches? Because of the magnificent coral reef, the Keys have no natural beaches on the ocean side - no waves to create sand. The scraggy shore is broken up by stands of highly protected mangrove forests and the mighty Atlantic is reduced to a shimmering, gentle giant, feeding the pelicans as well as the fishermen. The Cape abounds with majestic dunes and large waves and therefore long stretches of sandy beaches, many alive with harbor seals. The Cape oceanfront is a bit scary in its vastness and depth - and gulls rather than pelicans abound.

Even at their extremities they are so alike and so different. P-Town and Key West are both known as party central - but feel so different. P-Town acts almost embarrassed at its wildness and is more subdued than Key West, where the pandemonium is all out "in your face". Both have wading birds and feral cats - but Key West has the added madness of feral chickens.

They are both indeed jewels of nature. Cape Cod is the string of pearls worn at the Falmouth Yacht Club and the Chatham Bars Inn. The Keys are the ankle bracelets and bangle earrings that are more at home at Sloppy Joe's and Hog Heaven.

Worth It and Then Some.

No need to have stressed. The trip was well worth it. In a nutshell:

*Free "Blago Pass" rides to and from O'Hare

* Friendly airline and TSA agents

* Any flight that lands is a good flight

* Fresh grouper hours from the ocean - yum!

* Fun friends from all over the country/world

* The Osprey nest that was blown away in a hurricane is back - and occupied

* No internet, TV or mail

* Hair blond, skin tan, mind rested - don't ask about the waistline

Now I can spend my time stressing about something else - like world peace or political sanity.

Is It Worth It?

My 46" carry on is almost packed, the newspaper and mail delivery have been dealt with and the ice maker has been turned off. My 3oz bottles of essentials sit staring at me from their 1 qt. see through baggie on the counter, practicing for their performance tomorrow morning for the TSA person who will barely bother to look at them.

After the theater tonight we will jump into bed, set our alarm for 4:00 AM and then spend a sleepless night worrying that the alarm will fail to go off. Tomorrow bright and early we will head out for the Blue Line to O'Hare hopeful that the "...we are being delayed waiting for signals ahead" announcements will be few and far between. Once at ORD, shoes and coats in hand, we and our carry ons- we refuse to pay $100 to check our bags - and our baggies of plastic bottles will be carefully scrutinized (or not, depending on the mood of the TSA agent). Then on to the gate to wait for our boarding group to be called. Instead of reading my book, I will probably be sizing up our fellow travelers for their propensity to commit acts of terror.

If we are lucky enough to land in Miami as scheduled, we will jockey for position at the car rental counter in hopes that our car is there and smoke free, as promised. Getting out of Miami is tricky, but once on U.S.1 its a pretty straight shot to the causeway leading to the Overseas Highway and our destination at Milemarker 92.5.We'll have two weeks of no newspaper, TV, Internet, ice or snow. For the last two days of our stay we'll start the process of preparation for travel all over again.

I sometimes think we should just stock up on seafood,unplug ourselves, buy a sunlamp and some Beach Party and Gidget movies, and stay home.