Day 13

day 13, alchua, florida, to naples, florida, 374 miles.
FROM OLIVIA:
I'm gonna be first today since i set the computer up. and i'm just all-around better.. haha well the day started out shaky.. very very shaky. THERE WAS NO STARBUCKS! ANYWHERE! i was about to like die i was so tired.. all i needed was a chai or latte to make it better.. but no. it was not meant to be.. dad even called jean in lake forest park and had her google starbucks in the area we were in.. nothing. so it was hot it was sunny it was nice.. but not for long. we got in the worst storm i have EVER SEEN! i'm sure that dad will go into full detail about everything.. so i'm not worried. :) YAY! haha i'm gonna go see if my friends have decided to talk to me again...BYE!
FROM SCOTT:
it was a big day. big sun, big rain, big beach resorts, big bridge, big boat party. wow.
definitely a day of contrasts. first the weather. started out normal, then a little rain, then lots of sun. sunny in particular on the beach north of sarasota on the gulf coast. that's quite a place. liv and i came close to deciding to sell the car, buy a little boat and just stay. white sand beaches, and she waded in the surf. warm water, blue sky. nice. we spent so much time on the beach roads that at some point in the sarasota area we headed back to the freeway to make up some time. that's when we hit one of the heaviest thundershowers i've ever experienced. we just pulled in behind someone and hoped they stayed on the road. it was raining so hard everyone was going about 10 mph. huge rain. and it lasted a long time. we stopped at a rest area and ran from the car to the covered area and still got drenched. we also got to see the bridge over the bay at st. petersburg -- beautiful. and there were people at stoplights on the highway hawking copies of the sunday st. petersburg paper. oh, back to the beach. in one area, it was like lake washington for the seafair hydro races. boats all tied up together, everyone partying. at another place, a little island, folks had put the noses of their boats on the beach and were picnicing and partying. wow. quite a place. lots of old money, too. really ritzy (enough to make medina on lake washington look cheap) condo developments and houses that went on for miles. a high point came about mid-morning. liv was suffering from sleep deprivation, and there was no starbucks nearby, no specialty coffee spots of any kind. she finally googled starbucks on her phone and found one that turned to be a couple of miles ahead on the road we were on. turned out it was in a mall, which satisfied another of her deprivations, and next to the mall was a boston market. when she was little, she enjoyed food at the boston market in woodinville. but it went away years ago. so today she had a boston market lunch, something from starbucks, a little mall time. when we arrived at the mall, she was kinda grouchy, grumpy, listless, barely awake. when we left, the was definitely ready to party.
TOMORROW: naples, florida, to key west. ahh...