LittleJoe

Vacation in Floriday Keys

Shirley and I took this past week as vacation, and popped down to the beautiful Florida Keys. Pics are posted on Flickr. We decided that Key West was not really for us, but we were only there for a quick day trip. Most of the time we spent in the Marathon area, which is halfway between Key Largo and Key West. It was exactly a 6.5 hour drive from home, including a couple of stops. We stayed at Hawks Cay on a deal we booked through TravelZoo (thank you Howard & Michelle for telling us about that site!). This meant that we paid about half of the posted "rack rate".

The good part was almost everything :) ...perfect weather, great scenery, wonderful food, plenty to do and learn in the area.

The bad part was that the confirmation we were emailed from Hawks Cay stated that we had "Ocean View". They lied. None of the townhouses have an ocean view (unless one or two have a partial view). And they couldn't even find our reservation! I showed them the email (via the BlackBerry), showing that it was from them, booked weeks ago. First they tried to put us in a unit with a view of a narrow canal with other buildings on the other side. We complained and asked for what we were promised. They tried to move us a few doors down (same view) and after being a bit more assertive, they put us in a unit with a nice water view...just not the "ocean view" that the confirmation had listed. Oh well ...Caveat emptor. I'll post a fuller review on Travel Advisor at some point.

Hawks Cay IS a beautiful resort. But it is my feeling that they exaggerate (at best) some of their description. But after the initial disappointment and anger, we calmed ourselves down and did have a truly wonderful time :)

Still off caffeine - mostly :)

During the past month or so, I've consumed a total of about 2 full cups of caffeinated coffee. I had originally stopped drinking real coffee because I thought perhaps I was having PVCs brought on by too much caffeine (even though I typically had only 2 cups of coffee a day, and never more than 3). Well, increasing my dosage of CoQ10 seems to have done the trick. Normally I take 200mg of CoQ10 each day, and I upped that to 400mg for a couple of weeks. And there's been no more of the "fluttery" kind of sensation that I'd had. I've also had a cup (or partial cup) of real coffee a couple of times when I was dragging in the afternoon, with no ill effects.

Since I've found a very nice decaf coffee - Seattle's Best Organic 'Twilight' Swiss water process whole bean - I've decided to stick with this decaf for most of my coffee drinking. I like the taste, but usually do not really 'need' the caffeine. And once in a while, if I do feel that I need to bathe my heart in a little adrenaline, then I'll grab a cup of REAL coffee :)