Life in the tangle.
With the placid waters of Crandon Park in our minds, we set out for Key Largo. We imagined beaches of white sand and azure water, something like the Bahamas.
Instead, we found small, rocky beaches couched between banks of mangroves. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Key Largo, FL”
Using a suburb of Miami as our base of operations, we headed out for a day to experience one of the city’s beaches.
Google Maps provided options, and we sifted through all the nude beaches, nude gay beaches, party beaches, and others to find the most “family friendly” choice. We aimed for relaxation and wanted to experience a tropical beach without distraction. Maybe do some worldbuilding for the book and whatnot.
Crandon Park fit the bill, and it delivered. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Crandon Park, Miami, FL”
Miami jarred me. For the first time in my life, I felt like a minority. And I loved it.
In Brooklyn and certain parts of Philadelphia–my most memorable experiences outside the bounds of middle class, white culture–I had no problem speaking English with the people that live there.
The fact of my whiteness in a sea of non-whiteness was easy to contextualize at those times. They were temporary excursions from my normal life into another place and culture, a protrusion from the bubble that bounds my ordinary pale-skinned life, a tendril that would soon snap back into place as I returned to Lancaster or Wyomissing. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Miami, FL”
We left Jacksonville feeling that we’d escaped an ordeal. Our spirits brightened at the thought of leaving that sleazy drug house, of forgetting the farce at St. Augustine, of finding beaches stocked with fossils.
Vague goals swam through our heads as we traveled down I-95. We wanted to see at least one popular beach and inspect Stuart, because Coastal Living told us it’s charming. How long these stops would take, or what exactly we’d do at each, didn’t matter to us. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: East Coast Florida Stops”
Our stay in Jacksonville was the rough patch of our trip. It was the foul-up that had to happen, since few real-world plans unfold the way they were formulated.
When we crossed the border from Georgia to Florida, we felt giddy. This stretch of the trip was the culmination of months of planning and waiting, waiting and planning. The sunset washed the palms orange. The streets were clean, and the buildings were clearly filled with well-moneyed inhabitants. Beautiful. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Stay in Jacksonville, FL”
Between Charleston and Jacksonville, we stopped in for a day at Savannah, Georgia. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we found an artsy, progressive city in the process of appropriating its more . . . conservative past.
We spent most of our time in and around Forsyth Park. There, children played in a fountain near what used to be a fort. A gay couple snuggled in a hammock strung between two live oaks. An African American gentleman DJed for the public, throwing in his steel drum skills as he liked, only a few hundred yards from a Confederate memorial statue. Across the street from a Spanish-American War memorial sat a health food store that sources its products from all over the world. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Savannah, GA”
In my post about One Tree Hill Sites in Wilmington, I mentioned that we met a man walking his dog outside of “Peyton’s” house. I didn’t tell the whole story about him. I won’t tell it now, either, but I will share the advice he gave us about Charleston. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Charleston, SC”
The two best things about Myrtle Beach were 1) fossilized shark teeth and 2) two-dimensional Paula Deen.
The transition from Wilmington to Myrtle Beach was rough. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Myrtle Beach, SC”
Successful relationships involve compromise. One such compromise we’ve made on this trip revolves around Melissa’s love for One Tree Hill. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: One Tree Hill Sites in Wilmington, NC”
Our second day in Wilmington was overcast, with impending rain later in the day, so we headed to a spot repeatedly recommended by locals: Airlie Gardens. It reminded us of Longwood Gardens back home, but with less human traffic and more Southern charm. The grounds were shaped as a private garden in the late 1800s for the Pembroke Jones family, who lived in Airlie Manson at the time. That mansion no longer exists; in its place sits a picturesque landscape of the South’s subtropical foliage. Continue reading “Road Trip 2017: Airlie Gardens, Wilmington, NC”