for reasons unexplained, she loved the monkey man

Today is the engineer's birthday. And while I can't be with him to celebrate, I've been reminiscing about the birthday trip we took last year.

The Florida Keys are all spectacularly beautiful, but one in particular is near and dear to my heart. Bahia Honda is unique in that the entire key is a state park. Which means no tacky tourist places, no high-rises on the beach, and lots of camp sites.

Not to mention the fact that it's a (sub-) tropical paradise.

The water is crystal clear and comes in about a thousand shades of turquoise.

The beaches are white sand (although a little heavy on the seaweed last year, darn hurricanes).

And there's no shortage of shady palms to relax under.

And it's only a short trip over the causeway to Key West if you really need your tourist trap fix. (The shiny new causeway on the left, which doesn't have giant holes in it, I swear.)

It's pretty much the most restful vacation spot ever.

Don't you want to find out for yourself?

i don't care if i'm a guilty pleasure for you

After Dad and I went to Chez Panisse for lunch the other day, we headed off down the street in search of somewhere he had seen some time previously.

The Cheese Board.

The Cheese Board is a collective, owned and operated by local dairy farmers and cheesemakers. Now, I love cheese, and I like to imagine that I've tried a fair few in my time, but I hadn't even heard of 3/4 of the cheeses available here.

After much consultation with one of the cheese experts behind the counter, we got a tellegio, a gran cru, a vasterböttenöst, a bleu d'auvergne, and some buratta. We had them for dinner with a crusty bread and some lovely red wine and it was spectacular. So if you're looking to expand your cheese knowledge, I can't think of a better place to go.

Do it. You'll thank me.