Road Trip Part Deux - The Drive Up

I would have updated this sooner, but I couldn't get my photos offloaded. We had another long drive up to Flagler Beach, with a bit of drama around Ft. Pierce that I'm pretty happy to put behind me (seriously, we seem to be a bit jinxed lately), stopped at the supermarket for dinner ingredients, and pulled up to the Flagler Beach Hotel 7 1/2 hours later. They had pretty decent rates ($75 for a small), were close to the beach, and were convenient to where Michael had to interview (down HWY 100 for 20 minutes). Peggy, the manager, has been there for over a decade and has the process down. You even know your room and door-lock code before you get there.

Note if you're coming to Flagler Beach, a # of h/motels (including this one) show you staring at the beach from your room. Yeah, no. When you step outside your room, you can look down toward the beach and see it, but it's not quite as advertised. This if fine, though, because in Flagler you can't build directly on the beach. That means there's beach, busy road (A1A), and then houses/businesses. Who wants to be directly on the busy road? So all was good.

Once we pulled in and got out of the car, we were inundated by flying, black insects. Hey! These weren't here last time! They're called love bugs, or kissing bugs, because they're always getting busy. Yep.

He got caught in a downpour too.

They don't bite, so it wasn't really a big deal, but they were inches thick in some places. Once in the room, we turned into ice cubes (our sunglasses fogged up), so we immediately turned off the a/c (it had been set to 76, and it made us realize how incredibly inefficient our Key West a/c is, particularly in an uninsulated, 1940s home). We also opened the window to let the cold air out (I put on a pair of socks, and Michael borrowed my second pair). Don't you shake your heads at us; the floor tile was freezing! 

While we waited for the room to heat up, we headed down to the beach and were surprised to see orangish sand. Again - it was not like that just a couple of weeks ago. Weird! 

I haven't thought of a tide in eons, but Flagler certainly has one. If we end up there, I'm going to have to start keeping track again so I can get a good run on the beach (I like this source). We had a few waves too, although the surfers were a little too optimistic. As I stood there, I felt an overwhelming feeling of space!

Speaking of stretching out, what a great temp overnight. We went to bed embarrassingly early, but we had no a/c, no ceiling fan, and a sheet. We were able to touch pinkies and not break out into a sweat. Over the pool pump, we were even able to hear the waves hitting the beach. And rain. Zzzzzzzzzz.

A funny side note - the place has the exact same platform bed we have at home (even with drawers underneath), only queen sized. I'm so used to the space of the king, that I almost fell off the bed a few times. 

Next up - the whole reason we were there: The interview...