+ Florida-Alabama Road Trip
The combo trip began with a week aboard Crystal Cruise Lines' Serenity. (Sandy and Mike have been on two other Crystal ships before, but have never been on this one. It's medium-sized, carrying about 1100 passengers.
Our first stop was at Grand Turk, in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Mike was brave, and went off on a snorkeling and "pet the sting rays" trip, but Sandy stuck close to the ship.
We were surprised to see the Holland America Line ship Noordam pull into the dock across from us in the afternoon. This is the ship we spent 20 days on last summer over in the Mediterranean, and now here it was again, right with us at Grand Turk.
Our route took us right between Haiti and Cuba (a few days before the big earthquake), and we sailed right by Guantanamo Bay, although we were too far out at sea to really see anything.
It was windy and cold at Grand Cayman, our second stop, but we did manage to walk along the beach a bit, opposite where our ship was at anchor, and did enjoy a nice sunset when we sailed away.
Our last port call was at Key West, where the merchants advised us we were experiencing the "coldest January 10th in 112 years!" Not much to see at Key West, other than the "southern most point" marker and the "little white house" where President Truman spent many holidays.
Once back onboard where it was warm, we got ready for dinner, and passed by the ship's photographer on our way to the dining room.
Back in Miami, we got into our trusty Budget rental car, we headed for the Orlando area, where Pam and Larry, some former Californians who used to be in an investment club with Sandy, have recently moved. We had a nice visit, including lunch at a great French restaurant at Epcot Center.
Bravely heading on north, with the temperatures lower each day, we went to Guntersville, where Mike and Amanda, two of Mike's cousins on his Dad's side, and their spouses, live. We had a nice visit, including dinner and brunch the next day, and then headed out to visit the graves of Mike's Mom and Dad. (His Grandmothers and Grandfathers are buried there as well.)
Now we turned back south, with our first stop at Tuscaloosa, where some former Walnut Creek neighbors live. Unfortunately, the lady has a fairly severe case of Alzheimer's, and it didn't appear that she recognized us. Her husband was glad we came and tried, and we had a nice dinner with him and his grown daughter, in any event. (Also in Tuscaloosa the day we were there, to our complete surprise, were huge crowds everywhere in town -- turns out that the University of Alabama, located there, fielded the champion national college football team this year, and the day we were there happened to be a monster celebration event at the stadium.)
We then headed for Auburn, the other big college town in Alabama, where we had a nice visit with Mike's aunt (Mom's sister) Helen, who is still quite acitve at 90. Her son Tom (seen here) and his wife joined us for dinner.
Now it was time for some sightseeing, so we headed on south, hitting the Gulf Coast at Panama City. We then followed the coast east, and then south. One interesting stop was Tarpon Springs, where there's an Italian cork fishing village. Further south, we looked around the Tampa-Sarasota area, including a stop at the Ringling Circus Museum. Continuing south, we left the area via a high bridge across Tampa Bay, which is very similar in design to the new San Francisco Bay Bridge, now being constructed just east of Yerba Buena Island.
Our last stops were at the beach at Siesta Key, and at Naples and Marco Island (to see how the upper crust of Florida lives).
