Naples Pier

Ayk and I headed to the Naples Pier after the zoo. We would have checked out the animals longer, but there was a wedding there that evening. Look, I love animals too, but zoos smell foul. Who gets a whiff of sulfurous swamps and wildebeest dung, and thinks “Now THAT’S what I want wafting through the air while reciting vows.” What a romantic.

The beach was too chilly for swimming, but that didn’t stop us from dipping our toes in the gulf. We stayed on the pier till twilight. People watching should always come with a sunset backdrop.

So long, sun.

Beaches to the left

Beaches to the right

Dutch fisherman (Ayk swears he was Serbian) was kind enough to let me document his fish-gutting process.

It has teeth!

Expert gutter

Open wide

Looking back to the beach

Awkward nighttime flash

“Don’t touch it! It’s an electric eel!” the kid said as the fisherman reeled in his catch. Shocker: this guy wasn't giving off any hertz (baazing!).

Now it’s bait.

Sunset on the pier
 

Playing with perspective

For dinner, Ayk and I went to Café Barcelona. The only reason I’m mentioning this restaurant – not for the forgettable tapas – is because a Big Boyz Bail Bonds pen, ubiquitous in Baltimore restaurants, found its way to Naples. We asked the server, and she wasn’t sure where the pen came from. Guess someone wanted to share a bit of Baltimore with the Sunshine State.

Key West: Bahia Honda

If we had known to make camping reservations a day in advance, this is where we would have stayed: an idyllic, hillbilly-free spot on the water. Camping or no camping, we still deserved a day at the beach before we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale.

Fried hogfish sandwich for lunch.

Aside from a few visitors comparing the beach to Ocean City, the beach was peaceful. 

“Is that a koala in the water?” – Ayk without his glasses

Pelicans diving in the water for fish. 

Walking along the defunct bridge, ruined by a hurricane.

It runs parallel to Route 1.

Drive to Ft. Lauderdale

The near 900-mile drive from New Orleans to Ft. Lauderdale was an exhausting 14 hours. To put that in perspective for you, that’s more than half of the length of the US Gulf of Mexico Coast.  It’s almost as far as Nashville is from Baltimore.

We both dreaded this drive –- especially because we didn’t want to leave New Orleans -- but at least one good thing came out of it: after visiting Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were the only two states that I haven’t visited.  I can finally say I have been to all 50 states!  I definitely deserve those bragging rights after those torturous family road trips.

Pensacola Beaches

We made a pit stop at the Pensacola Beaches.  Ayk said we knew we'd be getting to Ft. Lauderdale late when a park ranger greeted us with “Good afternoon.”

Some of the whitest sands I've seen.

That sand looks just like snow.  We have a picture from South Dakota that looks just like this.

Boredom

We were so bored we resorted to watching Reading Rainbow on my phone.  That was actually the highlight of this leg of the journey – aside from the beach.

And you thought you wouldn't see Ped-radio after our Austin post.  Muwhaha!

For food we went to a Waffle House.  I forgot my camera in the car, but I can assure you that you’re not missing much – aside from indigestion.

At 1 AM we finally reached Ft. Lauderdale.  Ayk’s parents were actually worried, since he hadn’t updated Twitter yet.  This concern was a novel concept to me, considering I had to call both of my parents a day after we started for our road trip to tell them remind them we had left.   Parents.

Where in the world is Karmen? San Diego!

San Diego: Home to a zany news team and mi amiga Noelle; namesake of the globetrotting villain who inspired the name of this blog.

Dinner with Noelle

For dinner we met up with Noelle, another one of my friends I met while studying abroad in Spain.  She couldn’t stay out late that night, so we got dinner in Coronado.  Not-so-funny story: Noelle is a teacher at a school where the other teachers went on strike.  Rather than break her contract, she abstained from protesting.  That means in order to avoid any potential harassment from fellow teachers; she had to wake up early to cross the picket line before the teachers on strike got there.  She said she might go incognito, à la Carmen Sandiego (there's a theme in this post, if you couldn't tell).

Me and Noelle

Mission Beach

We were delayed with our mini tour of San Diego on Friday due to a waterworks problem at Gwendy’s house.  If you've been keeping track, that's three houses Gwendy and Josh have in California.

Unrelated to the waterworks issue, but I was happy to see the Federal Hill couch at Gwendy's.

Outside seating at Gwendy's

Local wildlife

Once we fixed the issue best to our abilities, we headed to Mission Beach, which is only a block away from her place.  It was chilly, to San Diego’s standards, but we walked around anyway.  Anything's better than the -20F in Minnesota.

Saying good-bye to the Pacific.

Attempting to look like Carmen Sandiego with my scarlet jacket.  Since I was missing a fedora, I thought popping my foot would make up for it.  It didn't.

La Jolla

One of the many places that Noelle recommended, La Jolla is an upscale neighborhood with lots of shopping (squeal!).  We had no time to shop, but the best part was the location.  It sits upon the cliffs overlooking the water.  Nearby are sea lions just hanging out on the cliffs next to the crashing waves.  This was our last stop before we headed to Joshua Tree to camp that night.

Sea lions