Goodbye Florida

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This morning, we drove from southern Florida, and arrived mid-afternoon in Savannah, GA, where we are camped for the night, before heading back to VA tomorrow morning.

The weather in Florida was fantastic (84, sunny, and breezy) and our visit with my parents was delightful. Serendipitously, Lois and I interviewed a wonderful person over dinner at PF Changs last night (man, we really love that place). He is based in Miami, and happened to contact us (Zope Corporation) this week, and it all just worked out to meet him in person.

Last year, I forgot my sandals at home, so even though I had shorts with me, I didn’t wear them. I didn’t repeat that mistake this year, and it was great to come from the cold in the North East and just wear shorts for four straight days. I wavered about wearing them today, because I didn’t know what the temperature would be in Savannah.

It worked out perfectly. It was 69 degrees when we got here. Ironically, just two hours later, when we went to dinner, it was down to 60, and felt more like 45-50, and by then, I had put on my pants and a sweatshirt, and everyone was the better for it. 😉

On the recommendation of some friends, we drove downtown to the “Historic District”. We ate dinner at Belfords. Beautiful place, with fantastic food.

Another anomaly on the ride today. Nearly 8 hours in the car today, and we never once turned on the radio, the iPod, the XM satellite, etc. Lois worked for much of the trip (emailing on the Treo, and speaking a fair amount on the phone, including a few interviews), but otherwise, we talked a lot. You’d think that after 26 years together, we’d run out of things to say. You’d think that, but apparently, you’d be wrong. 😉

Last year, for the first time, we used HiltonHHonors points for our stay on the way down, in Florida, and the way back as well. It was a hit last year, so we did it again this year. The only difference is that last year, we only stayed at Hampton Inns. This year, we stayed at the same Hampton Inn near my parents, but we stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn in Daytona Beach, and tonight in Savannah as well. Very nice hotels, and we’ve been treated very nicely by the staff at both HGI’s.

Lois ended up working like a dog on this trip (especially yesterday, where other than joining us for lunch, she was working the laptop at my parent’s apartment non-stop). I just had a great time with my folks and didn’t think about work too much.

One last comment about the temperature. I don’t understand how this works, but most of the time that we drive through Florida, the temperature (according to the thermometer in the car) typically doesn’t vary even one degree, the entire length of I95. It’s a really long stretch, so this simply doesn’t make sense to me. Also, as I noted on my post earlier this week, Savannah was warmer than Daytona was on Monday, and it was a a few degrees warmer again today.