Florida is the first state we’ve visited where it felt like we were in another country. The tree and plant community is comprised of all kinds of exotic subtropical and succulent sorts and the animal kingdom is equally outlandish. Pelicans, aardvarks, storks and alligators are some of the identifiable oddballs. I can only imagine what made noises that sounded like a ball-peen hammer hitting a lead pipe every night at one campsite. The diversity extends into the insect realm too, an unfortunate product being “biting midges.” These bad boys are small enough to slip through screens and rude enough to ignore bug sprays. Their bites are almost on par with a fire ant’s and on top of that, they fly. Oww!

Our experience in Cocoa Beach was curious. It began with a jaunt to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, sort of a beachy version of Bass Pro Shops. Two stories of surf gear and garb open 24 hours a day. I was mesmerized by all the shiny colors when one of their associates reeled me in with an offer of free money: 75 bucks to sit and listen to a 90-minute Ron Jon resort timeshare spiel. Hmmmm, ok. So off we went, and although we emerged 240 minutes (!) later, most of it was actually spent shootin’ the breeze with Shannon. She’s about our age, amiable and chatty as all get out. It felt like we’d gone to some Rent-A-Friend outfit, with the absence of any of our own in the area. Toward the end of the deal, the big-gun managers came in to investigate our lack of interest in the timeshare and kept pelting us with cheaper and cheaper offers. The first guy was only sort of a dork, but the second one was a certified maroon. I guess we figured it’d be like that. We left with what has been our only income in the past four months—and we earned it.

There’s the most remarkable little place in Homestead simply called the Fruit and Spice Park. It’s a tropical botanical garden where they give you a map of the grounds describing each of the plants and you just walk around and eat the fruits and see the trees. We munched on egg fruit (sweet potato meets banana, but simultaneously drier and silkier), coconut, prickly pear, persimmon, avocado and star fruit, among others. They had 100 varieties of citrus, 80 varieties of bananas and 40 varieties of grapes, but of course everything isn’t in season at the same time, so we didn’t eat all of those.

The Florida Keys are a 110-mile string of tiny islands off the tip of the state, linked by a single road entailing 42 bridges. Rather than using addresses, restaurants and bars specify their location based on mile markers. Squid Row? MM 81.9. Mangrove Mama’s? MM 20.0. It’s a neat system but the trouble comes from the fact that the markers are small and fairly imperceptible. If you miss one, it’s at least a mile before you get another shot at it. We managed to locate a couple of the food joints we sought out, though, and were rewarded with some toothsome fish sandwiches on Marathon Key and bona fide key lime pie on Sugarloaf Key.

The end of the line is Key West. This is the most touristy Key of the bunch, but it still manages to have exceptional character. There’s lots of things to do, see and eat here, and the town was bustling with people even though it’s technically off-season. After squeezing the truck into the nearest parking spot thirteen blocks away, Holly and I headed to cobble stoned Mallory Square on the waterfront to watch the sun set. It’s at this time of day that street performers gather here as well, to entertain scores of vacationers. We saw a motley assortment of jugglers and drummers and tightrope walkers, but we were completely blown away by a seemingly insane little French man, Dominique, and his “flying house cats.” This guy has ordinary cats that he’s trained to open latched cages, weave between his legs while he walks, catch flying meat with their paws and jump through a flaming hoop! They inspired us to incorporate trick time into Storm and Kaw-Liga’s day, but it's not going so well.

I can’t say it wasn’t odd celebrating Thanksgiving in 80 degree weather, but my doubts of it feeling like a holiday were dismissed when we arrived in Fort Myers. Our old friends Marianne and Andrea and our new friends Susie and Bo had an impressive spread that would choke a horse. There were three turkeys, countless traditional sides and eight pies, all verifiably superb. It was a lot of fun and it set the formula for the following days: friends + food + drink = fun. Our new buds Mike and Joe entered the scene too, and everyone courted us like they were putting to bed a high-profile business deal. We spent a day on Susie and Bo’s new boat “Blue Bayou” (twin 200 hp outboards!) touring the islands of Sanibel and Captiva and then landing on Cabbage Key to grab a “cheeseburger in paradise.” Everybody, including Megan, Taylor and Angie, couldn’t have been cooler to us and they made it harder to leave than it already was. Thanks y’all.