Long live whimsy, and long live the undeveloped, pristine, natural Florida.
Big Fire® finally sent me to Florida. And even better, I made it to Gainesville, FL, home to the oh so legendary, better than great, home of the SWAMP
, University of Florida, where my Dad graduated college and where I got to spend so many weekends as a teenager attending UF football and volleyball games, tailgatin’ and selling homemade Gator jewelry to drunk college kids.
Gainesville is not *undeveloped* but it does neighbor my absolute most favorite small town in the world, Cedar Key. So naturally I spent my days off in the quiet fishing town exploring every nook and cranny on the island. The drive from Gainesville takes a little over an hour and has you driving right through Florida’s thick forests and beachy scrub where you get a welcome reminder that some things don’t have to change.
It may come as a surprise to a lot of people to find out that I am quite introverted. Often times on my days off I can go the entire day without talking to a single person, in person. I am a huge fan of grabbing dinner by myself and kind of vegging out in a corner, people watching. But introversion was impossible in Cedar Key.
It started during lunch where I grabbed some chicken sliders from a scratch kitchen and sat by the fishing pier on Dock Street when a couple sat next to me and started making out. She was no older than 30 and he was no older than 60. And then a third lady, probably also nearing 60, came in and joined ‘em. I was avoiding eye contact when all of the sudden the last to join started asking me questions about everything in the world. None of the 3 were sober. I decided to give in and just started chatting with them, and I guess I’m glad I did. They were a weird “homeless throuple” as they called themselves, but so friendly and I ended up laughing so hard with them. The older lady was a boat captain and motorcycle gypsy, the other 2 were kind of gothy motorcycle/minivan people and just went with the flow and stayed in cheap motels and ate good cheap food and fooled around in public. They said goodbye to me and the 2 gals kissed me on the top of my head.
Turns out they were 3 units down from me at my cheap motel. I saw them making out and smoking ciggies every time I walked to my room, but they never noticed me and I was so thankful.
😬
I spent that afternoon at a tiki bar not far from historic downtown Cedar Key. When I bought my FL townhouse I decided my whimsy present to myself would be a collection of authentic tiki mugs and have since become obsessed. I have a whole Pinterest page going for my future home tiki setup and am probably driving my friends nuts with pictures of my new bar gear. So now when I see a sign that says “Tiki Bar” I am no more than a moth to the flame. And this was perfect. Every inch of the property was packed with personality and framed by beautiful marshy bayou views and a perfect sunset, complete with a glimmering disco ball.
Later that night, I snagged one of the last tables at a restaurant next door to my motel. Two guys walked up with all of their travel gear, sweaty and out of breath asking for a table. I invited them to take mine, as I was originally only there for a drink, but they asked if they could join me instead. It wasn’t a day built to keep to myself apparently, so I said yes and quickly found out they were also pilots. The two had just landed in Cedar Key after leaving Detroit in a Cessna 182 earlier that day and hiked into town with all of their gear. We all ate clams and drank beer and piña coladas, chatted about airplanes and flying and said adios.
My second day was dominated by looking at properties I’ve been stalking on Zillow for YEARS and taking pictures of every for sale sign on the island. I saw cracker houses, stilt houses, some sketchy houses and quite a few houses that had been destroyed by repeated blows by hurricanes in 2024. I even toured a couple of the houses with a real estate agent. Little seeds being planted.
In my perfect world Ty and I would have a 1 bedroom cracker house on a marsh and a dock with a little aluminum boat and seaplane and I would magically be good at painting and all of the animals would come nap next to me as I laid in the grass and painted them 😃 I am painfully yearning for a much more simple life (although I consistently pile on the most complicated life scenarios and purchases known to man) and hope I can find my way there some day.
I am so thankful to the people out there maintaining the old ways, the ones not installing grey laminate floors and the ones keeping things simple and interesting.
⚓︎