AK Monthly Recap: February 2017

After a quiet January, I got back to the road in February with two trips that were out of the norm for me. A trip to Florida and a cruise — two very typical American vacations, but not the usual kind of trip I take. Even so, I had a blast on both trips!

Best of all, these were trips with friends — a road trip through Florida with Cailin and a cruise through the Caribbean with Jeremy.

Punctuated with some fun times at home in New York, it made for a very satisfying month. Here’s everything I got up to in February!

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Orlando, Islamorada, Key Largo, Tavernier, Marathon, Key West, and Miami, Florida

Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Favorite Destinations

Key West is one of my new favorite places in the United States!

San Juan is a fabulous city and I was happy to return.

And I’m just discovering how awesome Miami Beach can be.

Highlights

Having fun at Universal Orlando. Universal Studios was the main reason for our Florida trip. Cailin is an ambassador for the park, and part of her partnership is that she gets to bring friends with her to experience the park for themselves. She kindly invited me and I was happy to join her. We had a great time!

Some of the highlights: throwing out beads on a Mardi Gras float, going to the actual Moe’s Tavern from The Simpsons, wearing our hot pink BEST FRIENDS shirts, experiencing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and doing a hilarious Bertie Botts Roulette video on Facebook live!), having breakfast with the Minions, riding The Mummy over and over (flying around in the dark, fiery explosions, Brendan Fraser demanding a cup of coffee — what’s not to love?), and THE FOOD. Seriously. I did not have high expectations for the food at Universal but the restaurants at CityWalk were excellent, especially Antojitos. They made the best salmon over sweet potatoes…

Road tripping down the Keys. The Florida Keys were amazing and both fulfilled and defied my expectations. They were absolutely beautiful, gritty in all the right ways, and surprisingly a lot like New Hampshire…

Having a little too much fun in Key West. Let’s just say that at age 32, Key West is for me what San Juan del Sur was at 30, Vang Vieng was at 26, Las Vegas was at 23…it’s a fun place. And wild. And incredibly beautiful and historical as well, but still — this is a place where you come for fun. The highlight was our sunset cruise with a bunch of rowdy Boston sports fans and unlimited rosé…

Trying all the key lime pie. This was my major diet fail this month — but I did eat clean otherwise. Cailin and I decided to go on a quest to find the best key lime pie in the Florida Keys and we sampled eight different top recommended pies across the archipelago. Stay tuned for a post on the best slices!

Kicking back in South Beach. We had two nights in Miami at the end of our trip and decided to just chill out — we ate ceviche, relaxed on the beach, and vegged out at the W’s pool.

Enjoying my first cruise ever. Jeremy kindly invited me to join him on a weeklong cruise on the Carnival Vista. The cruise was split between February and March, so it seems a bit weird only writing about the first half of it here. I’m still on it as I write this, and I’m having a blast. It did take some getting used to (it was SO OVERWHELMING at first!) but once I found my zone (balcony, adults-only deck, fitness center, spa, and sushi bar), I was happy as a clam. And my favorite part was getting to know the staff. I’ll be writing more about my introduction to cruising in the future, so stay tuned.

An awesome catamaran ride in Grand Turk. We booked only one official shore excursion and it was a good one — a catamaran ride with snorkeling and a visit to a private beach. The water in Grand Turk is an UNREAL shade of blue and the beaches are fine white sand — Jeremy and I definitely chose the perfect excursion.

Revisiting Old San Juan. Jeremy and I had both been to San Juan previously, so this day was about wandering the town, revisiting some of our favorite places, and taking photos. Puerto Rico is a fantastic place and I’d love to return for a third time and see new spots (Culebrita, yo vengo!).

Meeting up with blogger buds for the first time. This month I met Hannah and Adam from Getting Stamped at Universal Orlando and Gloria from The Blog Abroad came to visit me in Harlem! It’s so nice to meet blogger friends in real life.

I also got some nice plane views over New York en route to Orlando. So pretty!

Challenges

As far as months go, there were no major personal challenges, and for that I am grateful.

From the “learn from my mistakes” files — Cailin and I decided to save money and have me be the sole driver on our Florida road trip, but we really should have paid more and shared the driving. Orlando to Islamorada took six hours and was a slog, especially through traffic around Miami!

Post of the Month

You may have noticed publishing was much lighter than usual this month. I only have one non-recap post, but it’s a good one: Where to Stay in Barcelona: Best Neighborhoods and Accommodation

Most Popular Instagram Photo

This is a bit of a misnomer — my actual most popular Instagram photo was the recipient of roughly 2,000 fake likes from a spammer that has started targeting me and a host of other travel bloggers. (Their method: give 2k bogus likes “as a gift” and then ask us to sign up for their paid service. No thanks. Plenty of travel bloggers use bots to artificially inflate their Instagram numbers, but I refuse to play that game.)

But this is the most popular photo minus the spamming — one of Key West’s legendary sunsets.

For real-time updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram and Snapchat at adventurouskate!

What I Read This Month

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins (2016). Kathleen Collins was one of the first prominent black female filmmakers, and she died in her 40s in the 1980s. This collection of short stories she wrote was only recently found among her belongings and published last year. Some stories read like poetry, some like prose, some like plays.

More than anything, this book is about how black women love and the sacrifices they make as a result. I loved these stories of women who fell in love, women who stayed by their cheating men, women who attempted to carve out a life of their own. You could call it a companion piece to Beyonce’s Lemonade. It’s a relatively quick read and one that I highly recommend. Category: A book by a person of color.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016). I was afraid to read this book for a long time, despite its stellar reviews. I tend to avoid books about confronting death and grief (the same reason why I haven’t read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking), and I didn’t know how I would handle reading about a brilliant young neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer. This book is about how he evaluates his life prior to diagnosis and his outlook afterward. I shouldn’t have avoided it.

This book is written so beautifully. The best memoirs are fascinating stories that are told well, and this absolutely fits the bill. Dr. Kalanithi wrestled with whether to become a doctor or a writer, and tentatively planned on leaving medicine to focus on writing later in life. But what a way to leave the world — this book is a treasure. I read it in one sitting. I’m grateful that I got to know Dr. Kalanithi, if only posthumously. Category: A book about a difficult topic.

What We Do Now: Standing Your Ground in Trump’s America by various authors (2017). This book, obviously published quickly following the 2016 election, is a collection of essays by liberal leaders talking about what needs to be done in the resistance against Donald Trump. Some of the authors include Elizabeth Warren, Paul Krugman, Bernie Sanders, and the first Somali-American legislator, Ilhan Omar.

I had read a handful of the essays before, including Warren’s and Krugman’s. Everything was organized by topic, from LGBT rights to the environment. And honestly, this is a very preaching-to-the-choir book, especially if you’re a liberal who follows the news, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless and got some new insights. Category: A book with multiple authors.

Wendy Darling, Volume II: Seas by Colleen Oakes (2016). My cousin Colleen is an incredibly prolific author and the mind behind two young adult series of retold fairy tales. My favorite books of hers so far are the Wendy Darling books — a dark retelling of Peter Pan from Wendy’s point of view. These books are visually lush and much more mature.

In the first book, Wendy realizes that both Neverland and Peter Pan are far more sinister than they appear, and she escapes with her brother Michael. In the second, she joins Captain Hook and his crew as they sail Neverland, trying to stop Peter Pan with the help of bloodthirsty mermaids and deranged fairies. And if Peter Pan was sexy in the first book, CAPTAIN HOOK was sexy in the second! I love Colleen’s view of Neverland! Category: A book involving a mythical creature.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934). I’ve actually never read a book by Agatha Christie in my life (!) but I needed a book that’s becoming a movie this year, and I got excited when I saw that not only is Murder on the Orient Express going to be a movie in December, but Leslie Odom Jr. (a.k.a. Aaron Burr from Hamilton) will be in it! It has an awesome cast: directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh with Odom, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, and DAME JUDI MOTHERFUCKING DENCH.

This iconic mystery takes place on the Orient Express from Istanbul to Calais in the 1930s. A passenger is murdered and the train gets stuck in a snowstorm, which means the murderer is one of the passengers in the car. Good thing detective Hercule Poirot is on board and is able to deduce who the killer is.

One thing I didn’t expect…the surprising amount of casual racism about Italians and Italian-Americans. According to one character, the Italian must be the murderer because Italians love to stab people…That said, it’s a reminder that Italians and Irish were once treated with the prejudice and scorn that Muslims, Latinos, and Africans receive in America today. I’m eager to see how they modernize the film. Category: A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017.

What I Listened To This Month

“Etunnel” by Primary feat. Gaeko. Another one of Spotify’s picks for me (seriously, Spotify knows my tastes inside and out), this is a lovely Korean electronic/hip-hop song with a touch of Burt Bacharach. Give it a listen; I bet you’ll love it!

Fun fact: I didn’t even know it was Korean until I looked it up just now…

What I Watched This Month

I’ve started watching Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. This comedy stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as boring-yet-happy realtor couple living in the suburbs with a teenage daughter — until one day Barrymore’s character suddenly turns into a zombie and starts eating people.

It’s not the sharpest or most cutting-edge comedy of all time, but it’s wacky and I love it! The cast is great, and it has a very sweet message of doing everything you can to protect your family, even if that means killing people you can’t stand in order to eat them.

What I Cooked This Month

No pics, but I am cooking these turkey spinach burgers all the time. They’re super healthy and a good source of protein, and I love making four at once so I have a few ready to go in the fridge! Plus, they look like Oscar the Grouch.

Four pieces of advice: 1) This recipe calls for a truly insane amount of spinach — just go with it. 2) Be very gentle when mixing the turkey; if you mash it too hard it will be too dense. 3) They will fall apart if you grill them, so bake them in a glass dish. 4) Top them with avocado or guacamole — it’s the best! Avocado is my main substitute for cheese these days, and I find it just as satisfying.

Fitness Update

I’m still working hard on my fitness and I think I’ve been making progress at a much faster rate lately. Something has shifted — I work harder and better and am feeling great!

That said, this was also my first month traveling since starting my fitness regimen, and it was challenging to keep up workouts and eat well on the road. I could have done better with both, but I’m glad neither trip turned into a gluttonous free-for-all, as it would have in the past.

I tried two new classes this month — Pon de Flo with Oneika, and IMAXShift with Beth. Pon de Flo is a Caribbean dance class in SoHo that includes HIIT segments — think Zumba but with more push-ups. IMAXShift is a spin class in front of an IMAX screen located in DUMBO — you ride through space and lasers and the sky.

I only lost a few pounds in February, but I don’t mind — according to my body analysis I’m gaining a ton of muscle, which is heavier and cancels out a lot of fat loss. Weight isn’t as important as you think. More important is that I look and feel different — especially in my face, my upper arms and my thighs. And I’ve lost three inches off my waist since December.

Also a bonus: I went bathing suit shopping and found three suits that I loved and felt great in!

Coming Up in March 2017

I have a few more days on the cruise at the beginning of March, and beyond that, I have no travel plans scheduled in March. Which, once again, is great. I feel like I’m actually starting to live my goal of traveling 25% of the time or less.

I do have a lot I want to do in New York this month, including visiting the new Golden Girls cafe in Washington Heights, so stay tuned for more local coverage!

Plus, Cailin is coming to stay for a few days (amusingly, she’ll already be at my place when I get back from the cruise). I’m also looking forward to hosting my book group at my apartment, which is shockingly the first time I’ve invited more than two people into my apartment simultaneously!

What’s coming up for you in March? Share away!

from Adventurous Kate http://www.adventurouskate.com/ak-monthly-recap-february-2017/

The Nomadic Network: The New Way to Meet Other Travelers

Every traveler needs a community. Stepping out the door into the wild unknown can be a daunting task, and planning such a trip can be overwhelming without the proper know-how.

Where do I book the best flights? How do I find the best travel insurance? What shots do I need? Where do I stay? How much of the language do I need to learn before I go? How much should I budget? Will I make friends? Will I be safe? What’s the best way to get money?

These questions — and a million others — all bubble to the surface when planning a trip, and it can be a challenge to address them all without help. While I have been incredibly lucky that my family and friends help and support my love of travel, not everyone has those same support systems. Not everyone has a community they can rely on when planning a trip.

Years ago, I launched the community forums as a place where travelers could interact, chat, get to know community members, and ask the little questions that didn’t always lend themselves to long blog posts. It provided another way to get your travel questions answered. Fast forward to now and we have over 7,000 members and do regular contests, member features, polls, and have a book club.

But I’ve always wanted to do even more than that. I’ve been wanting an in-person community. As incredible as a virtual community is, people are still social animals. And the truth is that the Internet will never replace the benefits of human interaction.

I’ve always been inspired by my friend Scott’s LYL worldwide community meet-ups and wanted to create something similar — but with a practical twist. I wanted to create an in-person community and planning event where people could meet future travel partners and community members, as well as learn practical advice, pick up resources, and take action right away!

Enter The Nomadic Network.

What is The Nomadic Network?

The Nomadic Network will be a global community of travel enthusiasts who support and inspire one another to travel better, cheaper, and longer. Whether it’s a short jaunt to a nearby city or an indefinite round-the-world trip, The Nomadic Network is here to help the world travel — one nomad at a time.

Starting in March, I will be road-tripping around the USA, organizing events with Chris (this site’s community manager) where we’ll meet up with you and talk about ways to plan your trip. Part workshop, part socializing, we want to bring travelers together to show how easy it is to make your travel dreams a reality. The goal here is to not only give you advice but also help you meet other like-minded people in your area, so you can have a support network of people to push you when you feel unsure of yourself!

Our first series of events begin in March in the following cities:

• March 19: Seattle – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 20: Portland – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 21: San Francisco – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 23: Los Angeles – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 26: San Diego – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 28: Austin – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 29: Chicago – Eventbrite | Facebook
• March 30: Washington, D.C. – Eventbrite | Facebook
• April 2: Philadelphia – Eventbrite | Facebook
• April 3: NYC – Eventbrite | Facebook
• April 5: Boston – Eventbrite | Facebook

These events are FREE and will run for two hours (or longer if you stay around), feature a presentation, Q&A, and social happy hour!

While we are starting with just a few cities, after we do this and get feedback, Chris and I will do another trip around the US and then Canada. Eventually, Chris will run the whole show and we’ll have local chapter leaders and events all around the globe! I want to empower the community and it take it to the next level – offline and in the world where it belongs!

But one step at a time right!

I am really looking forward to this new initiative. Travel isn’t just some fun and exciting series of adventures (though it often is that!). It is a tool for personal growth, a way to learn about yourself and the world we live in. And, most importantly, it’s a way to connect with people from around the world and understand other cultures. Travel bridges gaps. And, in a world that’s so divided, I think a little connection goes a long way.

Naturally, you don’t need to be a full-time nomadic backpacker to benefit from this community or these meetups. This is a community for anyone who wants to (and loves to) travel. So whether you are a weekend flashpacker, looking to plan your honeymoon, or are a globetrotting vagabond, come to one of these events! I’ll be offering practical advice no matter your travel style!

Looking forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,

Nomadic Matt

P.S. – I’m not married to The Nomadic Network name so if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!

P.P.S. – BIG NEWS! This year I’m also relaunching the Nomadic Matt group tours. You can come travel around with me and other community members! I’ll be doing four this year. You can find out more about them and sign up by clicking here. 

The post The Nomadic Network: The New Way to Meet Other Travelers appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Nomadic Matt's Travel Site http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/nomadic-network-community/

Welcome to the Florida Keys

Most of the time when I start dreaming of a new destination for the first time, I can point to several factors. Maybe it’s the setting of a book I’m reading. Maybe it’s getting a lot of press thanks to a news story. Maybe I have a blogger friend or two who visited recently and loved it.

In the case of the Florida Keys, one of my top dream destinations lately, I can point to one source. Bloodline.

My sister had been recommending the Netflix drama for quite a while, but it took me forever to sit down and actually watch it. Bloodline is about a prominent family in the Florida Keys: the parents (Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard) own a luxury resort in the Keys; they’re pillars of the community. They have four children: a detective (Kyle Chandler), a lawyer (Linda Cardellini), a shipyard owner (Norbert Leo Butz), and a burnout who waltzes into and out of his family’s lives (the excellent Ben Mendelsohn, who won an Emmy for his role).

But behind this picture-perfect family are secrets, and crime, and murder. And the show raises questions about how far you’d go to protect your family.

(Just know one thing — Bloodline is a slow burn. I think it took me about four episodes to really get into it. I highly recommend you keep going even if you’re not sure how you feel about it — trust me, it’s worth it!)

What I love most about Bloodline was how it captures the Keys, and particularly paints a gritty image of the Keys — ratty local bars, grungy docks, and dirty trailer parks interspersed among the resorts.

I always had an image in my mind of the Keys being nothing but jaw-dropping beauty and luxury properties. This gritty portrayal was nothing like what I had imagined. And for that reason, I became obsessed with visiting this destination for myself.

I knew I had to visit the Florida Keys.

My friend Cailin and I decided to do a road trip through the Keys and Miami as an add-on to our trip to Universal Orlando. This jaunt would give us two nights in the mid-Keys, based in Islamorada, and two nights in Key West. (We were supported in part by Florida Keys Tourism; see the end of the post for details.)

Key West is like a completely different planet from the rest of the Keys — and for that reason will be covered in a different post. THIS post is about the Mid-Keys, stretching from Key Largo in the northeast to Big Pine Key in the southwest.

Here is the story of our trip to the Keys, told in a series of vignettes.

The New Hampshire of the South

As we drive into the Keys, I’m struck by the sensation that I’ve already been here — that this is a place I knew well.

It hits me when we drive into a sandy parking lot punctuated with palm trees. I’ve seen parking lots like those many times — only with pine trees. In New Hampshire.

Rural streets filled with discount souvenir shops, hawking cheap t-shirts and pool floats. Lots of prime waterfront space without any exceptional beaches of which to speak. Unpretentious restaurants where the dress code is nonexistent and hits from decades ago play loudly. Loud, warm locals that lean into your conversations and give no-nonsense answers.

Not to mention the sneaking suspicion that you would never want to get on the bad side of one of these locals.

This was what I grew up with during my summers camping in New Hampshire. Turn up the heat and humidity, add palm trees and mangroves, and the Florida Keys could be the same place.

Keys Drinking Culture

People in the Keys do seem to drink a lot. Locals do as well as visitors, a great number of them in their fifties and older. And this is a place where you can drink in abundance.

Cailin and I have driven all the way down from Orlando, a six-hour drive. It’s time to start our night at Ciao Hound, near Islamorada, a brand new Italian restaurant.

We start with prosciutto-wrapped shrimp and vegetables, then move on to heartier fare, a local beer, a sparkling water. It’s like heaven after a long day of driving. (Also, dogs have their own fancy dining area and menu here!)

Next we’re led back to the Tiki Bar behind the restaurant, torches flaming in welcome.

Cailin opts for their signature drink, a strawberry daiquiri and piña colada hybrid with a floater shot of rum on top. I’m driving that night, so I order a mojito and sip it slowly. Made with key lime-infused rum, I think that this is the best mojito I’ve ever tasted.

Didn’t you say the same thing about the mojitos at that salsa club in Cartagena, Kate?

I might have.

“Get off your phones!” the bartender yells at us. “You’re on vacation!”

Cailin and I stiffen. The reaction is to respond, “We’re working,” but that’s problematic. Sure, we don’t have to snap and Instagram and Facebook every moment of the trip, but we know our readers and our readers would love these pretty drinks. And most people would kill to do what we do for work, so to draw attention to what we do seems to be rude at best.

Where is the happy medium? Seven years into professional travel blogging, I haven’t found it yet.

We do at least put our phones away and walk over to the dance floor. A cover band is blasting “Beat It” while the intoxicated jump up and down, updating Michael Jackson’s iconic 80s dance moves with some modern twerking.

Cailin and I pose for snaps with a giant monster truck parked nearby and drive to our hotel.

Later on, we read about Snappers, a brunch spot in Key Largo with a make-your-own-Bloody-Mary bar. Might as well start the day right!

Reservations are necessary at this restaurant, I hear, and I make the requisite phone call, despite having developed a fear for calling strangers on the telephone in the age of texting.

Now — a brunch place with mandatory reservations sounds like it might be fancy or formal. Not whatsoever in the Keys. We dine outside underneath Samuel Adams-branded umbrellas, watching locals jet ski their way up and down the waterways.

The Bloody Mary bar is worth the hype. We’re each given a glass filled with vodka, ice, and a single shrimp, then are led to a table covered with bottles of juices, sauces, and accoutrements. Cailin is thrilled to discover that they have clamato juice and she can make a Caesar, Canada’s answer to the Bloody Mary. (Me: “So you’re saying there are clams in your tomato juice?”) I fill mine with pickles and peperoncinis and enough horseradish to clear my sinuses for the next month, then only drink a quarter of it because I’m still driving, after all.

The Keys has such a strong drinking culture, yet it’s a place where you can’t get by without a car. What did people do before Uber?!

Sunset Time

One night we head to Lorelei, a popular waterfront bar and restaurant in Islamorada. It’s a prime sunset spot, famous for its giant mermaid painted on the side of the road.

The drinks at Lorelei are terrific — Cailin and I both get key lime coladas. The food is meh. The key lime pie is an abomination. But that’s fine — the band consists of several men in their fifties playing covers of Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers songs.

People are dancing and partying until the band grinds to a halt and gives a speech talking about why we need to support our troops. (My non-American friends are always surprised to see this when they visit the States. It’s not common in other countries to talk this much about the military.) The band then transitions into a 3 Doors Down medley.

“3 Doors Down was one of few bands who actually played at the inauguration,” I tell Cailin.

Monroe County, home of the Keys, narrowly voted for Trump in the 2016 election.

We don’t talk about politics with any locals on this trip.

The sun goes down and everyone jumps up with their phone to photograph it.

“This is it. I love this,” says a white-haired man snapping shots with his Android, the brightness of the sun blowing out the rest of the sky.

“It’s great,” I agree.

“I know! I live here!” he exclaims, swaying in place to the band.

It’s something that I had missed for quite some time. American exuberance. Going up to strangers and starting a conversation for no reason at all. Less common in urban areas and the northeast but present throughout the nation, especially in this very American vacation destination.

It happens again on the trip. At a souvenir shop, I take of a picture of a bumper sticker reading SURRENDER THE BOOTY to text to my bud Jeremy, knowing he’ll love it. (Best left unexplained.)

A sixty-something woman sees me taking the photo and grabs my arm. “That’s my–” and she starts laughing so hard that she can’t get the words out. “That’s my — my — husband’s nickname!” She collapses in laughter; I tentatively join in before edging away.

How to Spend Your Days

Now, lest you think that the Keys are only for relaxing and doing little to nothing, you can fill your days with activities here, too.

Cailin and I start at the Florida Keys Brewing Company. It’s filled with all kinds of art, neon growlers and mermaid-tipped taps. The staff couldn’t be friendlier or more warm as they pour us a ring-shaped sampler.

The ingredients here come straight from the Keys — like Iguana Bait, a hibiscus-flavored beer. Go for the flight of 10 beers, featuring the best of what they have at the moment. I’m a big fan of the Coffee Stout and the Hurricane Hole Red.

The brewery is actually part of the Morada Way Arts District, a small collection of galleries and artists’ studios. Like most galleries I’ve seen in Florida, the landscape is the main subject. You won’t find gloomy art here.

For something quirky and different, Robbie’s Marina, just south of Islamorada, features tarpon feeding. you can buy a bucket of small fish and feed them to the huge, biting tarpons penned into the water.

It’s scary enough on its own. It becomes even more terrifying when the pelicans start chasing you, trying to snag the smelly fish for themselves.

Have I mentioned that my two biggest fears are fish and birds?

Despite that, it’s a lot of fun. Stay for lunch at the Hungry Tarpon.

For something more docile, visit the Turtle Hospital in Marathon and learn about the work that they do to save sick and injured turtles around the Keys and beyond.

Many of the turtles have “bubble butts” from damage that keep them floating on the surface. The hospital attaches weights to them to help them swim normally.

Panicking at the thought of being away from my gym for ten days, I look for Zumba classes and find one scheduled at the Cheeca Lodge, a gorgeous luxury property in Islamorada. As I drive onto the property, I grumble at being stuck behind a red SUV driven by a woman having a full-blown conversation with the security guard.

Eventually she leaves and I drive up.

“I’m just here for a Zumba class,” I tell the security guard.

“Oh, that’s your teacher!” she says, pointing to the SUV. I promptly drive after the vehicle to make sure I don’t get lost on the vast property.

Here’s something awkward: I’m literally the only person who showed up for class. That’s never happened before!

We do Zumba one on one, me dancing behind her in an upstairs ballroom. She’s got Pitbull on her playlist, which is my benchmark of a good class.

My teacher’s name is Denise. She’s from Germany. Like many people, she came to the Keys on vacation, considered spending longer, and when a job fell into her lap, it seemed like a sign.

I couldn’t imagine a place less like Germany. Perhaps that’s why she fell in love with it so much.

A Certain Kind of Girl

After several days in the Keys, Cailin poses a question: “There’s a certain kind of girl who lives here, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“They all have that look.”

Immediately, I know what she’s talking about.

The girls around our age work in the brewery and wait tables along the waterfront. They love to fish and go out on the water whenever they can. They’re open and friendly and loud, and they’re not afraid to call you on your bullshit.

These girls are deeply tan, what my family members would call “brown as a berry,” clad in denim shorts and worn tank tops with cheap sunglasses perched on their foreheads. Their hair is pulled back into sensible ponytails or worn down and wild, glinting in the sunlight in several different sun-bleached shades.

Could I live here? is a question that I always ask myself, everywhere I go. Could this be my life?

Living here would mean subverting the vast majority of my life. I could not be less like these girls. And not only  because my uniform is jeans, black tops, and tall black boots, which wouldn’t work for one minute in the Florida Keys.

These girls are interesting. Maybe it’s that they’re so different.

And then there’s the pie.

Key Lime Pie. World-famous, sweet and tart, made from the tiny limes that grow on these islands.

Every restaurant claims the best key lime pie of all. Most of them are lying. But taste is a subjective thing — you never know which one will appeal to you personally. The only thing to do is to taste them all!

If you’re in the mid-Keys, I recommend heading to Ma’s Fish Camp in Islamorada, the Blond Giraffe in Tavernier, or Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen in Key Largo. All of them serve excellent key lime pies.

Where We Stayed — Islander Resort Bayside

Islamorada was the perfect place to base in the Keys, and we stayed at a lovely little town home, the Islander Resort Bayside, for our two nights there.

I can’t tell you what we were more excited about — the fact that it was a two-bedroom apartment and we each got our own room, or that we had a washer and dryer! It was the halfway point of our trip and couldn’t have been better timed on either side!

I loved our little home. It was ideally located in central Islamorada, a short drive (or even a walk) from lots of attractions. There was a pool in the back overlooking the water.

It’s expensive to stay here, with nightly rates starting above $300. The Keys are incredibly expensive, though, and this is a standard price for a property of this quality. That said, you can save money by making use of the kitchen and cooking some of your meals.

The Takeaway

My time in the Keys feels like a dream. Not in a conventional sense when you can’t believe that you traveled somewhere so beautiful, but more like you just got back from a bizarre destination and you’re still trying to wrap your head around it.

 

Would I want to go back? Would I EVER. I feel like I barely scraped the surface of this destination. Plus, Bloodline has a third (and sadly final) season coming up. I’ll be Keys-crazy once again!

If you’re looking to plan a trip to Florida, I highly recommend the Keys. It’s a far cry from more conventional destinations like Orlando and Miami, and very different from beach destinations, but I think it’s the overall culture and feeling that makes it so interesting. I hope you agree.

Essential Info: While we based two nights in the mid-Keys and two nights in Key West, I recommend spending more time if you can, especially if you’re driving from far away. Budget at least three nights for Key West, possibly even more if you can afford it, and three nights would be great for Islamorada or elsewhere in the mid-Keys as well.

Feeding the tarpons at Robbie’s costs $1 per person and $3 per bucket of fish.

Tours of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon are $22 for adults and $11 for children.

The hourlong Zumba class I took takes place on Saturdays at 10:00 AM at Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada and costs $15. I recommend verifying before you arrive. You must call and book the day before.

The Keys, as you may have noticed, can be shockingly expensive, especially when it comes to accommodation. Rates at the Islander Resort Bayside start at $317. Find more hotels in Islamorada here.

If you’re a Bloodline fan, my friend Andy wrote a guide to the series’ season one filming locations.

Don’t visit the Keys without travel insurance — if you get injured on your trip, it could save your finances and your life. I use and recommend World Nomads.

Many thanks to Florida Keys Tourism and local partners for supporting our trip. We received several comps including accommodation at the Islander Resort Bayside, visits to the Florida Keys Brewing Company and Turtle Hospital, and meals at Ciao Hound and The Hungry Tarpon. Other expenses, including all other meals, activities, car rental and gas, were paid in full by me and Cailin. All opinions, as always, are my own.

Do the Florida Keys look like your kind of destination? Share away!

from Adventurous Kate http://www.adventurouskate.com/welcome-to-the-florida-keys/

Announcing 2017 PL Workshops!

We are once again excited to announce our upcoming workshops later this year and this time we have a few surprises! In addition to the regularly conducted Colorado Fall Colors Workshops, we are adding two more workshops – Jordan Photography Workshop and Death Valley National Park Workshop! Please read below for the full schedule of these workshops and if you would like to participate, please sign up sooner than later, since they fill up pretty quickly.

Below is the full list of our workshops, along with the schedule and links to the appropriate workshop pages.

1) September 24-27, September 29-October 2 2017 – Colorado Fall Colors Workshops

We will be hosting two different Colorado Fall Colors Workshops in 2017. The first one will be tailored for beginner to intermediate-level photographers (September 24-27, 2017), while the second will be for advanced photographers (September 29-October 2, 2017). This will be an intensive, four-day long workshop that I will be teaching in one of the most picturesque locations to photograph in the fall. The price of the workshop is $999 per participant.

For more details about this workshop, please click on the image below:

To register for this workshop, please see our Workshop Registration Page.

2) October 20-31, 2017 – Jordan Photography Workshop

If you want to have an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience photographing one of the most ancient and historic places in the world, I highly recommend that you check out our Jordan Photography Workshop. This 11-day long workshop will take us from Amman (the capital of Jordan) to Petra, Wadi Rum and all the way to the Red Sea! Expect to see and photograph ancient castles, ruins, historic religious sites and vast red deserts, while enjoying some of the tastiest meals Jordan has to offer. The price of the workshop is $4,499 per participant ($1,000 deposit at the time of registration, with the full payment due 90 days before the workshop), which includes all hotel accommodations, meals, all ground transportation, entrance and workshop fees.

For more details about this workshop, please click on the image below:

To register for this workshop, please see our Workshop Registration Page.

3) November 22-25, 2017, January 10-13, 2018 – Death Valley National Park Workshops

We have also added two landscape photography workshops in Death Valley National Park, which we will be conducting from November 22-25, 2017 and January 10-13, 2018. The first workshop in November will be tailored towards beginner to intermediate-level photographers, while the second workshop in January will be designed for advanced photographers who want to take their photography to the next level. The price of the workshop is $999 per participant.

For more details about this workshop, please click on the image below:

To register for this workshop, please see our Workshop Registration Page.

The post Announcing 2017 PL Workshops! appeared first on Photography Life.

from Photography Life https://photographylife.com/announcing-2017-pl-workshops/

Exploring Namibia – Etosha National Park