Unforgettable Florida Tour

May be I am making this my habit,  whenever snow attacks in long lonely winter, escape to Florida. 

No wonder people talk about weather that much, it's not that they do not have anything else to talk about, it deserves to be a topic. Now I do realize weather can affect people's psychology to what extent, the barren trees and snow covered ground just make me more depressed, and a sunny beach has to be the hide-out from this. Living in the tropic I never had the time to appreciate the virtue of it, better late than never, vamos a ir a Florida ! 

I was not so interested in visiting Disney's theme parks at first, still I had nothing to loose as my friends were with me,  even in Bangladesh I never visited Fantasy kingdom or any other theme park, never rode in roller coaster, but Epcot is a bit different. The world showcase part was ok, but  Soarin' and Mission: Space just blew my mind away , it was worth it, and the day ended with their spectacular illumination show, best fire/lighting/laser show I've ever seen.


Then our wearied team started for Miami, I felt bad about myself as I could not contribute in the driving part. South Beach was windy and cold, I could not stay there for long. The bus ride to Bayfront park was my highlight of the day. It was simply hillarious :D Another new year's eve on Miami, and this time revisiting the places I have been last time, and dinner in the same restaurant at Lincoln Mall, the adventure of finding out the places from my memory augmented the thrill of discovering new ones. Next destination Everglades. Anhinga trail and Flamingo park, boat ride and bird / alligator watching.  Everglades was more thrilling the last time I visited, nothing much to add on this except for the football match played by the boys. The breathtaking wonders were yet to come this time.

The last time I visited Florida I had zero experience on swimming, after coming back I took some swimming lessons so that I do not have to regret the next time, and yes, no regret this time ! I am not a good swimmer yet, but at least I can say I swam in the Atlantic ( just near the shore , but still it is an ocean ) and parasailed , ( yahoooo... ) and saw real wild dolphins swimming just several feet away from us which was beyond the expectation.

And finally the sunset ...  my minuscule brain could not figure out the relation between the sun disappearing into the ocean and the nothingness appearing inside me; the color, the vastness, the sound of mild waves breaking against the rocks, the breeze and the seagulls, the lighthouse in the background, the strangers near us playing guitars - the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Moments like this make me wish for another life, a life where I am a poet or a painter; and then I console myself saying that may be Rabindranath Tagore has already described this in one of his works, I just have to find that and quote. 

From Orlando to Miami to Everglades to Key Largo to Key West and finally back to College Park, at least this time Maryland welcomed me back with a sunny day and not-so-cold temperature.  May God give me strngth to survive another semester .  

[ P.S. on this tour we were talking about Cliches time and again, in this post  I tried to use as much cliches as I could remember. ]
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Our tour summary :

Orlando - Disney Epcot : 1 day
Miami  - South Beach , Lincoln mall, Bayfront park fire works, Key Biscayne Light house : 2
Everglades - Anhinga trail ,  Flemingo state park boat ride: 1
Pegion Key - island tour, Bahia Honda beach: 1
Key West - parasailing , Mallory square, Light house , Taylor beach;  Key Largo - coral reef park : 1