While I am still relaxed...

Still in Florida at the moment, at the tail end of a much needed vacation. We fly home tomorrow night. Meaning we still have the rest of today and much of tomorrow to soak up the sun and stare at the ocean.

This morning we saw five manatees lolling about near the shoreline. Mind you, we are 31 stories up, so it wasn't that close, but they were right there below us, and a zoom lens captured them easily enough. Great way to start the day.

This afternoon, we watched an enourmous storm cloud approach, dump sheets of rain, and then roll out to sea.

Now, P is napping and I (not a napper) am contemplating whether or not it is cool enough for an evening jog. Methinks I'll wait another 45 or so, then run up along the ocean, maybe to a state park I've been wanting to check out. It's about 3 miles from here, making it a good round trip distance. Cherry Blossom race is in three weeks (give or take), and I have been a little lax in the training department. Not that I haven't been running (Mr. Satan A. Chilles, I did make sure to put in a 4 miler at sub-10. I think it was around 9:48 pace. Painful in the heat, but painful in a good way), I just haven't been as planful in the distance department. Then again, I am on vacation.

It's been a happily active vacation, with lots of lolling about in between. I've run along the ocean here in Laudy, the streets in Key West, and a treadmill when it got too damn hot. Minus the treadmill part, it's a great way to see lots of small details that are easily overlooked when passing in a car. In Key West it provided a great way to survey the land and get a mental map.

Aside from the running, we've been on a number of small adventures, eaten some amazing food, eaten some greasy but tasty food, spent time with dolphins (not in a creepy Sea World way; just watched them from a boat), snorkeled with the fish and coral, watched cruise ships take off from the balcony of our fantastic borrowed apartment (for which I am grateful), drank lattes and read nonfiction, enjoyed stone crab season, watched pelicans fish, taken in plenty of sunsets, marveled at the number of blues that the ocean can create, and ignored the urge to have any sort of agenda.

If I was to walk to the balcony right now, the sun would be shining and the ocean would still be out there, in fifty shades of blue. Insane. It's so pretty that it makes me wonder why Florida, on the whole, is so tacky.

I admit I miss our cats, but it will be hard to leave this brief respite in paradise.

At home I hear we're getting snow.