Category: Living in Florida

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Staying in Key West

Last month we headed back down to Key West with our friends Ben and Maria.  Our first stop was Robbie’s of Islamorada of course. It never disappoints and is a must see. This time the pelicans were in full force when we were trying to feed the tarpon.

We stayed three nights at the Opal Resort in downtown Key West which was walking distance to most restaurants and shops. Our room was fantastic and as you can see our ocean view was blocked by a cruise ship.  Luckily, it left that evening.

Our first night in Key West

Since this was the first time Ben and Maria have been to Key West we had to hit all of the famous restaurants and bars. We grabbed dinner at Sloppy Joe’s and had drinks at Dirty Harry’s and Captain Tony’s Saloon. What we didn’t know, was the history behind Captain Tony’s which we learned the following night on our haunted pub crawl.

Be sure to look for our Boating Journey sticker!

We were there December 1st and the entire town was decked out for the holidays!

Southern Most Point

The next morning the four of us headed towards the southernmost point, an attraction none of us have been to before. If you recall, the four of us have been to the easternmost point on Saint Croix, so this was cool that we got to do this together. Word of caution though, there will typically be a line for photo opportunities.

The Cable Hut

The walk there was fun and entertaining.

We had to stop at the Green Parrot for a cocktail and then had a wonderful lunch at the First Flight Brewery, located in original Pan Am Office.

Shipwreck Museum

Later that day, Scott and I decided to check out the Shipwreck Museum. The museum offers a rich history of the shipwrecks and the wreckers that would salvage the goods off of the boats. There were hundreds of shipwrecks outside of Key West, due to the shallow reefs. The story goes, that “wreckers” would flash lights to deceive captains and then the ships would run aground. The wreckers would then steal the goods off of the ships.

The view from the very top lookout was amazing and I had no idea there were that many boats in the Harbor.

Haunted Pub Crawl in Key West

That evening we watched another amazing sunset and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Bruschetta Francesca. All of the pasta was handmaid and it was amazing.

After dinner we were pleasantly surprised by a bicycle parade. The bikes were all lit up and people had on costumes.

From there we headed to our haunted pub crawl. Key West is also known as bone island if you want to know the story there you have to do the pub crawl. Our tour guide was fantastic he wouldn’t allow us to film but I did get some cool pictures of each of the houses he took us to. 

The story behind Captain Tony was he had a wife and a lover and the wife ended up killing the lover. Her tombstone is actually in the bar itself. The wife was then hung by the town hanging tree and that tree is still growing inside Captain Tony’s Saloon. During the building’s construction, while removing old flooring, workers discovered the skeletal remains of several people. They kept one of the skeleton’s and it sits behind the bar.

Our guide walked us to more haunted houses and shared each of their stories. Let’s just say, Key West is one of the most haunted cities in the US!

Snorkeling in Key West

The following day we had a snorkel trip scheduled with Fury Water Adventures and we headed out to Archer Key. Unfortunately it was extremely choppy and the current didn’t make for pleasant snorkeling so we cut that portion of the trip short.

The boat was loaded with paddle boards, noodles and kayaks. In addition, this was the first excursion, that put out breakfast bites of fruit and pastries.

Next we headed to a sandbar called Woman Key and while we had a good time, it wasn’t nearly as warm as it was in Duck Key. On top of that we did see sea urchins and we were barefoot so that made us a little uneasy walking through the sand and rocks. They did provide beer and sparkling wine for us at the sand bar.

Our captain and first mate of the boat were fantastic and lunch was the best we have ever had on an excursion. They offered salad, fried chicken, pasta and a veggie platter! Amazing.

Fort Zachary in Key West

We got back early in the day and so Scott and I decided to walk to Fort Zachary just about a mile and a 1/2 from the hotel. Along the way, we walked through the Truman Annex, a gorgeous neighborhood. The first weather bureau is located here too.

This Fort was fully surrounded by Confederate territory yet it was maintained by the Union during the Civil War. In 1971 it became a National State Park.

Key West Holiday Parade

Once again we enjoyed a beautiful sunset at the hotel and then headed off to another amazing dinner this time at the A and B Marina.

Being in key Western the holidays we have no idea what to expect but they had decorated the whole town beautifully. That evening we got another surprise with the town parade for the holidays. It was the perfect ending of a fantastic weekend in Key West.

We are glad we finally stayed in Key West. This allowed us to learn about its’ history and enjoy live music and libations. The nightly parades were a bonus and it helped to kick off the holiday season.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our blog and vlog (see video below), as we have more boating adventures to come. Follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #boatingjourney.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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Shore Excursions on our Royal Caribbean Cruise

In our last blog, Scott and I decided to hop on a Royal Caribbean Cruise for the weekend and head to the Bahamas. The cruise left on Friday and arrived in Nassau, Bahamas the following morning. We booked two shore excursions before we left.

Originally, we had booked an excursion to Pearl Island, but sadly it was cancelled at the last minute. We were able to book a snorkeling trip via the Royal Caribbean excursion app. Our ticket instructed us to meet at the dock at 8:30am for a 9am departure. We ended up waiting on the dock with about 75 people until 9:15am, when our guide finally guided us to the catamaran. This snorkeling trip cost $69/pp and it included an open bar, but no food. You ad the option to pay $64/pp and pay for your drinks on the boat – but why would anyone do that? The trip was scheduled for a 9am departure with a 1:30pm return. (Already we are late).

Snorkeling Excursion

Our catamaran cruised down Nassau Harbor for about fifteen minutes. At one point, their sister catamaran pulled up next to us to toss some snorkeling gear. That vessel looked a bit sketchy!

Soon, we had arrived at our snorkeling spot. We were surprised that we didn’t really leave mainland or the area.

Scott and I didn’t use our fins and it was a good thing. It was so incredible crowded on this excursion, that we would have kicked everyone in the face. The water was a bit cooler, but that is expected. We saw lots of fish, but after 30 minutes we were done. There were just too many people.

At one point a local pulled up in a sketchy skiff and was selling fresh coconuts. For $5 he would cut the top off and give you a straw!

Overall, we were disappointed in this excursion (which is rare for us to say). They had only one bartender and most of the guests were paying for their drinks and to ring someone up took time. We barely got two drinks in. Next thing you know, they were returning back to the ship after an hour.

Since the excursion was supposed to last until 1:30pm, they cruised past the ships and then back around to waste time. We were still back before 1pm.

Our Last Night in Nassau

Scott and I still had a half a day to spend on the ship when we got back. We tried laying out, but the music was blaring and kids were screaming. We then decided to go hang out at the pool bar, but it was closed. So we ended the day playing putt putt golf and walking the ship.

All four ships were leaving at sunset and we were the third one out. The ship would sail to Coco Cay (very slowly) over night for our third day of excursions.

For dinner, we at the the Chop House steak restaurant and enjoyed a fantastic bottle of Northstar wine from Washington.

Good Morning Coco Cay

We woke up around 6:30am to enjoy the sunrise at Coco Cay. This is Royal Caribbean’s private island that offers all kinds of activities.

While Coco Cay is included as part of your cruise, not everything on the island is free. In fact that water park, beach club, cabanas are all extra. We decided to book the beach club at $79/pp. This would give us an open bar (with our beverage package) and complimentary lunch and beach chairs. We were told we could disembark at 7:30am, but we ended up waiting until 8:15am before they let us off the ship. Once off, you walk the dock and follow the signs to the Beach Club.

After a fifteen minute walk, we found the beach club!

Scott and I grabbed a couple of beach chairs (there are not many chairs by the pool) and spent the day relaxing in the sun.

There were so many birds on our beach and they were trying to find the shade.

Lunch on Coco Cay

They recommend that you make lunch reservations as soon as you arrive to the club. This turned out to be a smart move. Lunch is included with the beach club and as we were looking over the menu, deciding if we wanted a starter, a bento box showed up! Turns out, they bring you EACH starter in the bento box! If you look at the menu, you’ll see that steak and lobster was an option. Unfortunately, we didn’t want that much food while playing in the sea.

Our day on Coco Cay was the best part of the trip. We spent the day relaxing, unwinding and not having a worry in the world.

The Third and Final Night of the Cruise

For our final night, we made reservations at Giovanni’s, the Italian Restaurant. We love Italian food and Italy was where we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, the food was just okay. It was cold when it arrived and we were too tired to send it back. The wine, however, was fantastic! Always one of our favorites. Keep in mind, if you order a bottle of wine, that is NOT part of the beverage package.

The cruise ship left Coco Cay in the evening and we awoke at 5:30am in Fort Lauderdale. Scott and I carried our own bags, so we were able to disembark at 6:15am and be to work by 8am. We are glad we tried cruising and this was a nice quick weekend. After this trip, we don’t think we would do another cruise, as it is just not our style of travel that we prefer.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our blog and vlog (see video below), as we have more boating adventures to come. Follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #boatingjourney.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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Our First Time on a Cruise Ship

Scott and I decided to spend Thanksgiving weekend cruising to the Bahamas on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship. This was our first time on a major cruise ship. Back in 2019, we did take the Star Clipper ship through the Leeward Islands, but it only held 135 people. Not having cruised before, we had no idea what to expect or if we would like it. We booked a balcony room and added the unlimited beverage package.

This trip departed from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Friday at 4:30pm and headed to Nassau, Bahamas (arriving in the morning.) Ironically, that is only about a 120 nm trip, so the cruise ship must have traveled at a very slow speed through the night. The second night it traveled to Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay and then headed back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night, arriving at 5:30am (just in time for us to go to work).

Pre-departure Preparations

About a week before our departure, Royal Caribbean had us download their app and the app included our daily planner (by the hour), a map and shore excursions. During this time, you also select your boarding time, which starts as early as 12pm. Since this was all new to us, we decided to book the first window, so we could explore the cruise ship for a few hours before we left port.

About a month before we left, we booked two excursions including a day at Pearl Island in Nassau and the Beach Club in Coco Cay. Unfortunately two days before we left , Pearl Island was cancelled. Luckily, we found a snorkeling trip at the last minute.

The ship did not require any kind of testing and in fact, you don’t need a passport. You can use your state ID and birth certificate.

Departure Day

Port Everglades is about 20 minutes from our home, so we planned on taking Uber around 11:15am, just to give us plenty of time. Well, it’s a good thing we did. Scott entered the Royal Caribbean address on our ticket for the Uber driver and it took us to their corporate office! Soon we realized we didn’t know what terminal we were leaving from and you have to tell the guard at the gate what terminal you are traveling too. Luckily, when we told him “Liberty of the Seas”, he knew what terminal we needed. We were shocked to see that no where on our app or ticket, does it tell us what terminal.

There was a bit of a traffic jam leading to terminal 29 and finally we arrived at the ship around 11:45am. We hopped out of the Uber and instantly a porter grabbed our bags and hauled them off. God, I hope we see our luggage again! (You do have the option to carry on your own bags as well).

Going through security and customs

Scott and I followed the crowd into the welcome building (hoping we were headed the right way). If you want more details about all of this, be sure to watch our YouTube video (link below).

We’re not sure if it is normally packed with people, but when we went through security, we walked through the entire building in less than 15 minutes.

As soon as you board the cruise ship, you must go to your muster station and show the attendant that you took the safety course. After we checked off our muster station, we then headed up to the 11th deck to get our beverage package bracelets (per our app). However, when we got up there, we learned we didn’t need any bracelets.

By now it was 12:30pm and we couldn’t check into our room until 1pm, so we decided to walk around the ship and get the lay of the land.

kid’s pool
putt putt golf
the bridge and helicopter pad
flow rider

We were also starving, but unfortunately none of the restaurants were open except a pizza by the slice restaurant. (Seemed odd to us….) There were plenty of bars that were open though. While we were enjoying a slice of pizza, the server offered us a dining package at 40% off. Confused, we asked “what is that?!”. Turns out, if you want to eat anywhere except the buffet or main dining room, you have to pay extra. Since it was 40% off, we caved in and bought it. We also made our dinner reservations (Steak Restaurant and Italian Restaurant) for the next two evenings.

Your room key is also called your “Sea Pass” . This is what you use for the drink package and it also has your main dining room table number on it. We decided we would at least eat in the main dining room our first night. While we were checking out the ship, we decided to hunt for our table.

Turns out that no one showed up for dinner with us and we had the entire table to ourselves. They serve a pre-set menu and I will say, the food must come from a kitchen far away. Don’t expect the food to be hot at all.

Finding our Room

As we walked around the ship, we were trying to figure out where the hallway was to our room. We soon realized, that they keep the doors locked to the hallway until check-in time. At 1:15pm, they made an announcement and the doors opened. Turns out, your room keys are left in a pocket on your door (strange, but okay). When we got to our room, I saw one suitcase, but not the other two. Luckily, Scott found them a ways down the hall.

Our room was bigger than I expected. Since we had only been on the Star Clipper, we didn’t know what to expect. The Star Clipper room barely had room for both of us! LOL.

Finally Leaving for Nassau, Bahamas

We were the last cruise ship to leave Port Everglades. I loved that Scott was able to take this journey with me, so he could see what my cruise to the Bahamas this summer was sort of like. The sunset was amazing and we enjoyed it until it went below the horizon.

Tune in next week, as we take you to the Bahamas and share our excursions with you. As always, thank you for following our blog. Please be sure to subscribe to both our blog and channel (see video below). You can also follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Cheers, Scott and Ally

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The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show 2022

Last month Scott and I attended the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show for the very first time. This is a five day show held at the end of October and while I worked the show, Scott got a chance to tour it.

This show is so large that it’s the largest in-water boat show in the world and includes seven locations. We only visited the Bahia Mar exhibit where I was working. See photo above.

There’s no way I can possibly describe the show in a blog, as it’s just massive and you’ll see I say that over and over in our YouTube episode. The Bahia Mar exhibit included brand new boats and yachts from manufacturers and brokerage yachts and superyachts. Plus, it had huge displays of vendors everywhere you turned. The best part about the electronics tent is they kept it cold as a meat locker. This was a very pleasant treat as it was extremely hot during the show.

Super Yachts Everywhere

They had a super house boat – if that’s what you call it? I wish we would have toured this!

Unlike most shows we have attended, this is a manufacturer show, similar to an auto show. The manufacturers go all out to build massive VIP tents that are actually air conditioned (well, at least Sunseeker was where I was working!).

No matter if you are looking for a center console, a catamaran or a yacht, the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show is where you will find your boat. This has been one of the best things about moving to Fort Lauderdale, is the access to so much boating!

Tour the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show on our YouTube Channel

If you plan on attending the show, give yourself at least three days to cover the show and that’s probably just for Bahia Mar. Scott was there two full days and he barely touched the display. I had displays from one end of the show to the other and over five days I walked 42 miles! We want to thank Informa and the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show for welcoming us as Influencers to the show – it was quite the experience. Until next year!

As always, thank you for following our blog and please be sure to check out our YouTube channel (see video below). Please be sure to subscribe to our channel and follow us on our next adventure. Next week we’ll share more boat tours from the show and later this month we go on our very first cruise! Stay tuned.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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2003 Westship 103′ Sportfish Tour

Scott and I had the rare opportunity to tour a Westship 103′ Sportfish a few weeks ago. Yes, you heard me right! This yacht is 103′ long and there are only two in the world including this one! We have never been on a sportfish before and this tour totally shocked us. This yacht is absolutely stunning and beautiful!

Exterior Tour

Since we have never been deep sea fishing or spent time on a sportfish, we won’t attempt to use the right lingo in the description or tour. This yacht is for sale by OneWater Yacht Group and there is a full detailed description on the listing here.

Right now, the yacht is docked at the owner’s house just north of Fort Lauderdale. Imagine owning a home on the water with space for a 103′ yacht? What I loved immediately are the steps to access the yacht.

On the stern, you have a large entertainment area plus two very large freezers. Where do they get ice to keep their fish cold you ask? This yacht comes with an ice-maker and an ice crusher!

On the lower deck, you will find all of the space for deep sea fishing, including a custom fishing chair in the center. There is also a live well on the lower level.

The walk arounds are nice and wide, which I love. However, most owners who own a yacht of this size have crew that handle their lines.

On the bow, they are storing a 17′ tender using a heavy duty crane.

Interior Space

You enter the interior, by pressing a button to open the slider doors. The doors open with air pressure and automatically close behind you.

Heading up to the captain’s bridge, you will find a huge helm station with gorgeous captain chairs. The leather of these chairs is as soft as baby skin!

The bridge is also a spot more entertaining. Imagine going fishing, then hanging out up in the bridge watching your favorite football team!

Head back down stairs and you find a beautiful salon and wet bar. This yacht is almost twenty years old, but it doesn’t show it. The soft goods are timeless and this yacht smells great!

If you prefer to dine inside, the dining room has space for six to eight guests. Remember, this is a fishing boat! What fishing boat has a dining room like this? Well, the Westship Sportfish obviously does.

The galley is located next to the dining room and this galley is larger than the one in our apartment!

Sleeping Quarters

Next we head down to the sleeping quarters. Here you will find four staterooms. Two are mirrored with twin beds and forward you will find a VIP stateroom with an island berth.

The master stateroom on this Westship Sportfish has more storage than our apartment too!

Engine Room

There are crew quarters and if you watch the video (see below), Scott will take you on a tour. You access the engine room through the crew quarters. This yacht is powered by twin MAN MTU 16V2000M91 diesel engines with 2000HP. Scott is over 6′ tall and he was able to stand in the engine room!

We hope you liked this tour. For more details, be sure to watch the full YouTube video tour.

As always, thank you for following our blog! Be sure to subscribe to our vlog on YouTube and follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Next week we head to FLIBS (Fort Lauderdale Int’l Boat show) for our first time ever, so tune in next week.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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1996 Hatteras 52′ Tour

Scott and I toured a 1996 Hatteras 52′ Yacht this week that is for sale by Denison Yachting. This yacht is a fantastic liveaboard and it comes with a liveaboard slip. It is moored in the Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood, FL which is about 40 minutes south of us.

Since this yacht is 26 years old, I was expecting it to be run down and stinky. To my surprise, this yacht is in fantastic condition and has no smell at all! Wow, that has to be a first for us. It was nice to tour a Hatteras and see how it should look like. Remember last summer, when we flew to Fort Lauderdale and toured a Hatteras? I still can’t believe that yacht was for sale!

Tour this Hatteras 52′

Normally in my blog, I write about our latest YouTube episode. This time, I decided to keep it short and have you watch the tour on YouTube. Pictures just don’t do it justice. What I loved about this yacht, is that the owner made it very homey. It has couches that you would find in your home, he created an office space and the salon even has a fireplace. That’s exactly what we’re looking for.

You are probably wondering if we are interested in it for ourselves? It’s almost in our budget and comes with a liveaboard slip, so why are we not jumping at the bit you ask? Well, tune in to our channel in the coming weeks, as we will talk about boating in Florida. Insurance, financing and the costs of slips are much different than Seattle and that’s because we are in Hurricane territory. We won’t be buying a boat until at least next Spring after we do our research and figure out what we can afford. Plus our lease isn’t up until April and our plan is not to have a condo and a boat.

If you are interested in this yacht, contact Paul Denton at Denison Yachting. You can find his information and the listing here.

As always, thank you for following our journey. Please be sure to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Tune in next week, as we head to the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD.

Cheers, Scott and Ally

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Exploring Key West & Duck Key

Last month, Scott and I headed back to The Keys and stayed at Duck Key for our friend Jared’s 40th birthday. We met Jared and his family in Seattle when we owned The Wine Alley and became good friends. Our group rented houses in Duck Key near Marathon in The Keys. The trip to Duck Key took us about two and half hours, as we did not run into any traffic this time.

Since our VRBO wasn’t ready when we arrived, we decided to take our friends to Robbie’s for lunch. If you haven’t been to Robbie’s before, it’s a must see, as it is very eclectic and they have great food.

Scott and I were at Robbie’s in February 2015 when we owned The Wine Alley. There are dollar bills pinned everywhere, so back in 2015 we pinned one up. I searched and searched for our bill, but I couldn’t find it. Let us know if you find it some day!

We just got new stickers, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add ours.

In addition, Robbie’s is known for feeding the Tarpon. Be sure to watch our YouTube episode – this scene is hilarious. You do have to watch out for the pelican when you are handling fish.

Staying in Duck Key

Duck Key is an island on the east side of US 1 and is built much like Fort Lauderdale, with numerous canals.

The townhome that Scott and I rented was part of a large HOA on the island. We had an end unit with a southern view that was fantastic! Surprisingly, the rates were fairly affordable considering it was Labor Day Weekend.

Our backyard was also home to plenty of friendly iguanas.

That evening, our group of thirty headed to the Lazy Days restaurant for dinner. Here we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Having had a sunset view for the past twenty years, we really do miss seeing this every night.

Exploring Key West

The last time Scott and I were in Key West (February 2015), we got a surprising warning on my phone. The weather channel had just issued a freeze warning – their first ever! Great, all we brought with us was shorts, flipflops and tank tops. We barely spent any time in Key West, because we were so cold.

Our group parked in the garage next to the Opal Key resort (where we will be staying in December) and explored the city by foot.

Key West is a very walkable city with lots to see. You can also take a trolly through the city if you didn’t want to walk. If you love museums, shopping, restaurants, bars and live music, this is your place. There is plenty to choose from.

The other cool part about this city is that they have kept all of the historical buildings (and trees) in great condition.

When we return in December, we are planning on doing this ghost tour! If you have done this tour, let us know your thoughts. Also, if there is something we should definitely check out in Key West, let us know that too.

End of US 1

Turns out our group wasn’t that interested in the museums, so we decided to check out a few bars and restaurants. First stop was the Green Parrot.

After enjoying some amazing cocktails at the Green Parrot, it was time for lunch and we headed to the infamous Sloppy Joe’s Restaurant. They have music and yep, the original Slobby Joe is on the menu!

Key West Sights

Everywhere we walked, we came across one cool sight after another. Key West is not short on things to see. Check out his Banyan Tree below!

Key West even has a clothing optional bar and no, we did not visit this one!

We spent about five hours in Key West and then headed back to Duck Key to relax before dinner. The drive from Key West to Duck Key is just over an hour, depending on traffic.

Snorkeling in Duck Key

Our group originally had reserved a 22′ Hurricane bowrider boat, but the rental company screwed up and was overbooked. Time for plan B, and luckily I found Sole’ Watersports at Hawks Cay across from our VRBO. They offer daily snorkeling trips to the reef at Coffins Patch and Grassy Key Sandbar, located about five miles southeast of Duck Key.

The boat was a tourist style pontoon boat and it had a cover for protection from the sun.

The ride was smooth, but by the time we arrived to the reef bad weather was on its’ way. Our group still jumped in to snorkel. Though we saw plenty of fish, the 3′ swells did make it a bit uncomfortable, especially for the kids. In addition, our visibility was pretty limited due to the chop in the water.

Grassy Key Sandbar

We spent about an hour snorkeling and then we headed to Grassy Key Sandbar. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I have only been to a couple of sandbars. Let’s just say, it ended up being an epic day. The kids played, the adults imbibed and we soaked up some much needed sun.

The excursion left at 9am and we returned back to Duck Key around 1pm. We grabbed a quick lunch at Hawks Cay before getting ready for Jared’s 40th birthday party.

Visiting Duck Key

This was such a fun weekend and one we will not forget. We miss our friends and it was awesome seeing everyone. We wrapped up the three day weekend with a wonderful bbq dinner and celebration. Duck Key, we will certainly be back again!

As always, thank you for following our blog. Be sure to subscribe to our Boating Vlog on YouTube (see video below). You can also follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Next week, we’ll take you on a tour of a 1996 Hatteras 52′, so tune in.

Cheers, Scott & Ally

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Reflecting after Hurricane Ian

This has certainly been a heart breaking week in the wake of Hurricane Ian. When Scott and I moved to Florida, we knew that one of the biggest threats would be hurricanes. It wasn’t a matter of “if,” but rather “when” one hits. I have the NOAA hurricane app on my phone and I watch it regularly. On Friday, September 23rd Hurricane Ian was still only a tropical depression.

Preparing for Hurricane Ian

The following morning, Scott and I walked to the beach to watch the sunrise at 5:45am. It was a gorgeous morning and it was hard to believe that such a destructive storm was just a few hundred miles away. As you can see by the image above, we were not sure where it would hit.

We live on the 12th floor and our unit is surrounded by cement buildings. Scott and I were confident, that if a hurricane did hit us, we would actually be pretty safe here. Chances were we would lose power and be stuck on the 12th floor for a few days.

In Seattle, we worried about earthquakes and we had an “earthquake kit”. So when hurricane season arrived, we collected the items we thought we needed. This included plenty of drinking water, breakfast bars, canned protein, nuts, batteries, flashlights, straws that purify water, fans, crackers, jerky and fruit. Hurricane season is not over until mid November, so we still have about seven weeks to go. If we don’t end up using it, we’ll donate the food to the local food bank.

Watching the storm become Hurricane Ian

I drove to work on Monday, September 26th and it was raining a bit, but nothing too major. The weather forecasters did warn us of tropical storms approaching.

By Tuesday, September 27th we knew the west coast of Florida would get hit. My co-workers in Tampa were scrambling to evacuate or secure their homes, as they were going to get a direct hit. In the meantime, Fort Lauderdale started to get doused with torrential rains, thunder and lightening. It was pretty spectacular and frightening at the same time.

Not knowing how large Hurricane Ian would be, our offices decided to close on Wednesday, September 28th, the day it would make landfall. I woke up that morning wondering what we would experience. We had a lot of rain and winds were about 25mph. Living in Seattle, we were used to big wind storms – that was one of our biggest weather threats.

Somber realization

I kept the Weather Channel on throughout the day and as I watched the storm progress, my heart sank for everyone getting a direct hit. No longer was the hurricane heading directly to Tampa , but rather Naples and Fort Myers were now the direct target. My college roommate lives in Naples and I texted her right away. She texted back, with a photo of water streaming down her street and it was still rising. A few hours later, I checked in with her again and sadly, she had a foot of water on her entire first floor. Within just a few hours Fort Myers, Sanibel Island and Naples were destroyed by the storm surge. In many cases, the storm surge from Hurricane Ian was over 12 feet! Everything in its path was destroyed.

photo credit: Bloomberg

What’s hard to fathom is that half of our state is living life as they normally would, grocery shopping, boating, playing at the beach; while the other side is homeless, no power, no food and in many places they have no access to get out. It will take years to recover from this deadly storm and without actually seeing it in person, we have no concept of what they are going through. It is another reminder to never take what you have for granted. If you grumble every day you go to work, be grateful you have a job. If you grumble about traffic, be grateful you have roads and a car to drive in. This storm could have hit us too and while we would have been okay, our community would not have been.

This is truly a biblical event that we will never forget. I pray that hurricane season is over and that these communities can begin the recovery process soon.

Supporting the community after Hurricane Ian

There are many ways people can help in the wake of Hurricane Ian. I work for OneWater Yacht Group and I was extremely proud to learn that our parent company OneWater Marine was providing RVs for those employees who lost their homes. In addition, they launched a relief fund www. hurricanereliefnow.com.

Two other amazing organizations are the Red Cross & Florida Disaster Fund. They both could use your cash donations. While many of us want to drive supplies to the affected areas, we have found out that the area is still inaccessible.

As these communities begin to rebuild, give them your support. When they are ready for us, visit their hotels, restaurants and shops. They will need it.

Thank you for following our blog and journey.

Scott and Ally