The trip

I was hoping to go overseas this summer to meet up with a friend who was planning to travel around the world. We were talking about meeting in Greece. But economic times being what they are, I had to scale back and that meant dropping the trip.

But I hadn't been on a vacation since April 2008 (discounting my helping a friend put up a fabulous backsplash in his new kitchen over a three-day weekend...fun, but not exactly relaxing). So, thinking of some domestic options, my thoughts turned to people living within driving distance who I might not otherwise see. Sam came to mind in Florida. Wanting a partner in crime, I turned to Josh...of course. Because if I need a partner in crime, who better to call?!

We began plotting. Josh finished his first year of med school the week before Memorial Day weekend and Sam was free around the same time. After some ceremonial arm twisting, our visit to Sam in Vero Beach, Fla. turned into a group trip to Key West.

Josh and I stayed in St. Augustine the first night - splitting a room that was kept cheap thanks to William Shatner and his friends at Priceline. (For dinner, we also ate gator tail. Very good - with marmalade sauce for dipping.)

Gator tail courtesy of The Oasis Deck and Restaurant in St. Augustine Beach. Also, a power truck followed us to the restaurant.

One problem. It was POURING rain. Josh's Mom called, worried that she was seeing the forecast and that there was "rotation."

We arrived in St. Augustine and switched on the Weather Channel and checked the local news stations. We saw the "rotation" and that the entire state of Florida was colored dark green, indicating rain for most of our visit. Rainfall records had been broken. Streets were flooded. Reporters stood in various intersections in rain gear in water up to their thighs. They were handing out free sandbags in Jacksonville. The flooding warning was extended into the next day. And that "rotation" was stalled over the state and planning to dump rain the entire time, according to the orange newscasters on TV.

Resolved to our fate, we were not going to let it get us down. Yes, we were planning to stay in tents, but we were going to Key West on vacation and damnit, we were going to have fun.

The second day, we sprinted south to pick up Sam and move it on down to Key West. It was rainy and overcast most of the way. Gratefully, there were also peeks of blue and occasionally sunshine to make us cautiously optimistic. We didn't want to jinx it by talking about it, but we had big smiles on our faces as we got into the Keys.

We made it to Boyd's Key West Campground (which is actually on Stock Island, a short distance from Key West), while there was still a little daylight to put up our tents and then head into downtown for dinner and drinks. It was windy, but there was no rain.

Photo: A moth landed on my window at the campsite. Sam shot the photo so it would look like some amazing moment when a moth just happened in front of the camera. I like the photo because it also shows how windy it was when we arrived...note the palm trees.)

After meandering our way downtown, we found parking at the Post Office and walked to Duval Street. We walked aimlessly trying to decide where to eat and lucked into Rhumba's - an outdoor cafe with AMAZING Cuban food and a waitress with a thick accent. We ate Cuban roast pork with general rice and chucka. At least, that's what I heard. It was Cuban roast pork with yellow rice and yucca. I did understand mojito! All were awesome.

But the wind was picking up and bolts of lightning were joining the stormy party above our heads, so we decided to call it a (relatively) early night and head back to the campsite.

We stayed up for several more hours talking and enjoying the quiet of our site (the throngs of people were expected to arrive the next day, according to one of the office staffers). We listened to the wind and watched the crazy lightning. Both Sam and Josh began wishing they had brought their camera gear. My little camera wasn't going to accomplish what they wanted to shoot.

When we finally headed to bed (or tents) it was overcast, very windy with some lightning, but otherwise seemingly OK. Our rain flies attached to the two tents, we drifted off to sleep.

At about 3:30 a.m., I awoke to this:

The heavy rain began falling about 20 minutes later. I considered pulling the camera out again, but decided I was just too damn tired to shoot another video (that would probably be too dark to show the tent rattling in the wind anyway). So, I went to sleep. Until I felt a little drip of rain. The wind was pulling at the rain fly near my head and the water was starting to flick in at me. I finally had to switch and put my feet near the water. My tent, Josh and I were otherwise dry. Sam, on the other hand, had a lot more water eeking into his tent. By morning he had a wet pillow. Ew.

But we survived. And...that was the end of the rain for us in Key West. It was sunny, breezy and dry (well, as dry as the humidity-ridden town could possibly be) the rest of our visit!