THE LO-O-O-ONG JOURNEY HOME

As Karl and I are assuming our couch postitions, he on his and me on mine, watching Deadliest Catch it came to mind that I have not written about my wacky journey home from Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas. Think it's the site of the fishing boat.The trip with my Flip Flop girlfriends was great...once I could hear after the flight over. The ear ache never left me but at least I could hear. BUT, then I started worrying about having to fly home. Just didn't think I could stand the pain again. So, to make a very long story short, here goes......

Karl flies over on the plane flying in to take "us" home. "Us" minus me
Girls leave on plane
Karl spends Saturday on beach in Green Turtle (thank you Roy)
We go to bed early and get up at 4:30 Sunday morning
Roy picks us up in his boat at 5:15 to take across the sound to Treasure Cay( in the rain)to meet the taxi
6:00 AM we're in the taxi
Taxi ride for one hour (and $100) to the ferry dock in Mount Haven
Board the "ferry"($100).....when I say ferry picture Ernest Hemingway open fishing boat. Three wooden benches. On the middle bench are 5 little Bahamian children. The other two benches housed Karl & me and local Bahamians heading to Freeport for Father's Day church-on-the-grounds festivities
Fishing boat ride to Freeport one hour.
Arrive in Freeport Board "bus"($40)...not a bus, really a 10 passenger van
Bus ride one hour
Stop at 3 churches and 4 houses to let the Bahamians off
Arrive at Straw market at 10 AM with bags
Next leg is cruise ship which doesn't leave until 6:00 PM
Spend a very hot day at Straw Market in Freeport
Crash under the coconut trees at a resort and sleep awhile
Get hair braided and ripped of for a tune of $58
Take shuttle ($20) from resort to Discovery Cruise Ship ($300) at 4:00
Had to be checked in by 4:30
On smelly ship by 4:45
This is the same cruise that Kristopher and his frat brothers took for Spring Break
Discovery Cruise Line is definitely okay for drunk college kids
Cruise ship leaves port at 6. Time on ship is yet another story
Ship arrives Ft. Lauderdale at 11;00
Get rental car at 12:00 ($80)
Arrive at Hampton Inn Ft. Lauderdale at 1:00 ($112)
Leave for Gainsville at 9 the next morning
Stop at the Villages in Lake County for pizza lunch
Arrive in Gainsville at airport to turn in car and get Karl's truck at 6:30
Head for Susan's house to get my car
Arrive at Susan's house at 8:00
Toured Gainsville for a very long time for Susan's house must have disappeared!
Headed for Tallahassee around 8;30...raining pretty hard
I took the back roads, drove 50 mph in the pouring rain
Arrived home one hour after Karl about midnight
A lo-o-o-o-o-ng journey home
And yes, this is the short version of the story. Enjoy the pictures....in reverse order



Ft. Lauderdale in the distance

a very tired Karl

Pretending I'm on the Titanic

Bo Derrick LOL

Under the coconut trees

Waking up from a nap

Still napping

Bus ride to Straw market

Arrived at Ferry Dock in Freeport

Fun With My Wacky Friends

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted my thoughts and daily ups and downs. And you may notice that I've changed my blog title from CrazyLady thoughts to WackyLady Thoughts. The word crazy drove me crazy. People can interpret that word in numerous different ways. I didn't mean for it to portray me as mentally ill. The crazy in the title simply meant wackyand wild and if I want to wear short, shorts at my age I'm going to crazy. So, to clarify things crazy is now wacky.

I just returned from my yearly journey with my childhood girlfriends. A group of 9 of us all grew up together in Lake City, Florida. This summer 7 of us made our trip to Green Turtle Cay in Abaco, Bahamas. We are proudly known as The Flip Flop Girls. From left to right we are Jane, Jean, Judy, Wacky me, Susan, May and Shirley. This photo was taken on the top deck of the Royhamas. The Royhamas is a fabulous house boat that Judy's husband Roy built. It's complete with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, front deck and top deck. I LOVE IT!

We love being wacky in the Abacos. We cook and eat great food, drink great drinks, read great books see awesome sunsets and float in the beautiful waters at our favorite spots....Gillam Bay and Sand Dollar.

More about our journey (with pictures) tomorrow.......

THE BIG EASY

Me with Amara the Palm Reader. Scary, huh.

Deb & Karl at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen

Karl posing on Frenchman Street

Deb posing on Frenchman Street

Can you guess what this architectural piece is used for?

Anderson Cooper

I've recovered from the drive to New Orleans and back. I hate driving on the interstate. I'm a backrode kind of girl. But in-between the drive was great. Nar'leans is back. The Quarters was packed with tourist. I was so happy to see it. I never get tired of walking around Jackson Square and up and down the streets nearby. Bourbon Street is not my favorite. That's a teeny-bobber, been there done that site.

After dropping Mama off at the house to stay with "Uncle" Charles, a Katrina attic survivor, Karl and I headed to our favorite hotel in the Quarters. The Le Richelieu http://www.lerichelieuhotel.com/ is a well kept secret.

We checked in and headed to our favorite casual spot to eat: The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen http://www.louisianapizzakitchen.com/ located directly across the street from The French Market. Then it was back to the Le Richelieu. We was so tired.

The next morning we picked up Mama and Charles and headed to Whole Foods. Love shopping and eating there. New Orleans has one of the best Whole Foods in the country. After a couple of hours there we headed back to Arabi (St. Bernard Parish) to the house, unloaded the groceries, de mama and de uncle...Who dat? and head back to the quarters and started walking until our dogs were tired. We ended this night by me having my palm read by Amara.. She was born in Egypt. She "could read me like an open book".

The night before we headed home we decided instead of going back to the room and watching Anderson Cooper, we would walk up the street, past Cafe du Monde http://www.cafedumonde.com/

and along the river and watch in person. Of course I had to be the tourist and keep walking past the camera so I'd be on TV. Kristopher was embarrassed because I had my hair in pigtails. It was fun. While there we met a nice couple. His name was Scott Winston. He is the special effects guy for the new HBO Series Treme. You've got to watch Treme. It's all about New Orleans right after Katrina. After leaving Anderson to cope with the oil tragedy without us, we headed back via Cafe Du Monde and had a night cap of beignets and coffee.

So, enjoy the few pictures I took. Plan a trip to New Orleans when the weather is a bit cooler. It is already very hot during the day.

Interesting Stuff

I've finally got the gardening bug. Our eggplants and tomatoes are plentiful. My new herb bed (thanks Karl) is partially planted and the front yard looks beautiful. Strangest thing though. We have cattails growing like crazy amongst the daylilies.....right smack in the middle of the front yard. I read some interesting things about the cattail and the daylily.

Culinary use for Daylilies
Dried golden needles
The flowers of some species are edible and are used in Chinese cuisine. They are sold (fresh or dried) in Asian markets as gum jum or golden needles (金针 in Chinese; pinyin: jīnzhēn) or yellow flower vegetables (黃花菜 in Chinese; pinyin: huánghuācài). They are used in hot and sour soup, daylily soup (金針花湯), Buddha's delight, and moo shu pork. The young green leaves and the tubers of some (but not all[citation needed]) species are also edible. The plant has also been used for medicinal purposes. Care must be used as some species of lilies can be poisonous.
Check out these websites for both:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_cattail.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha

Speaking of Chinese cuisine....Today I had acupuncture on the foot I injured while hiking. Acupuncture. Wow it hurt! Wow it works! Amazing. http://www.yisheng.us/

Just some interesting stuff today.

Just another day in Florida

"If you want to know how much I love you, count the waves."

A Friend Indeed......

"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred." Pooh thought for a little. "How old shall I be then?" "Ninety-nine." Pooh nodded. "I promise," he said.

You Say Tomato I Say Tomahto

Lisa and I were hiking this morning. We were hiking our usual path around Lake Overstreet in Maclay Gardens. She said, "I read your blog.I thought of you when I was driving to Bristol yesterday (she has a lake house). I passed a street sign and the name of the street was Crazy Lady Lane." Hello people...what's the story here.

Does saying "Don't forget to write your blog" mean the same thing has "What did you do today"? Hmmmm.