Day 20, 21 & 22 - Madeira beach

As most of you might have realized we are safely back in Sweden by now. We just couldn't find the time to maintain the blog while on the trip. However I will do my best to finish this as soon as possible starting today with Madeira beach.

After our fantastic manatee swim in crystal river we decided we wanted sun! With no set plan where to go we checked the weather forecast and decided to go just as far south so that we would avoid the bad weather. M who after 5 years on the passenger side of our road trip is an excellent map reader scouted out an area while I started driving. After consulting our travel guide book as well she directed me towards an area outside St Petersburg, a set of beaches on an island just off the west coast of Florida. We arrived after only a few hours of driving on the top part of the island. After driving south until we found an area that we liked we ended up in Madeira beach. Just so happened that we spotted a motel that M had looked up on the internet the day before, the Surfs Inn. We knew already that it was slightly over our budget but it sat right on the beach and I was sick of driving so we took it. Our room was clean with a huge fridge and fully equipped kitchen. It also had the ocean right outside our window and a pool area where we spent most of the time. The ocean was so close that we could sit in the more comfortable beach chairs by our pool and just run down for a swim in the ocean. Also this kept the sand out of our cocktails!

Our first day we spent by the pool doing absolutely nothing. A road trip can be a pretty hectic adventure so it was awesome to just stretch out by the pool with a nice cold one and take the occasional dip in the ocean whenever you got to hot. As the sun set(and man is that a beautiful thing to see on the west coast) we made it down to a local hot spot called Screwie Louie's with a huge outdoor patio. This was low season so a part from a few locals it was just us in the bar which just added to the relaxing feeling I loved so much about Madeira beach.

One of my favorite parts was that since we had the fully equipped kitchen I could finally indulge in my wet american dream of grocery shopping. The one thing that still differs the U.S from the rest of the world is the abundance of items to choose from. We cooked up a feast every day in Madeira beach and as a vegetarian I found a new love in the product tofurkey. Amazing stuff!

We had originally booked two nights in Madeira but we just loved it so much that we extended the stay with another night. The second night we met some new neighbors. Two couples from Orlando that come back to the Surfs Inn every summer. We ended up chatting the night away with these guys. One couple had lived in Key West for 15 years and really got us excited that we were going there. The other couple was a brit from liverpool and his wife whom we had met while working in Florida, so now they both lived here. Best company ever and even though separated in age we felt really at home with these guys. The south is truly a friendly and hospital place to be.

 The last two days were pretty much us hanging by the pool all day, taking a siesta and then hanging out with our neighbors all night. This was just a great relaxing time. One night we took our sun chairs down to the ocean and watched the sunset with the waves washing over our feet. It was gorgeous and we got some great photos of it. That's all from Madeira beach, next up Sanibel Island!