Having the previous night equipped with internet in our hotel room, Katie and I looked up the best beaches to hunt for sharks teeth and were prepared to leave early in the morning to see what the ocean had brought in during the night. From what we could find it sounded like Englewood Beach was our best bet. When we arrived around 10 a.m. the beach was already full of people, though not near capacity, there was plenty of parking as well as room to stake out some prime beach reality. We spent the better part of 4 hours walking up and down the beach, finding shark teeth with varying success as we tested and tried different methods of finding them. By 2 p.m. though our bag was full of sharks teeth, our stomachs were nearly empty. Also we were both feeling the sun, especially me since I didn't put on any sun block in the morning, so we headed back to CJ where we ate a hearty meal of peanut butter and granola as we headed north to try our luck at Venice beach, the self proclaimed Shark Tooth Capital of the World, about 15 miles to the north. We spent roughly an hour in Venice and only found a handful of teeth. It was amazing that only 15 miles of shoreline to the south we had such luck while here it was barren. With the few hours of daylight we had left, we again headed south to Englewood where we searched for more sharks teeth while watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico while dolphins swam about 20 yards off shore. It was a perfect end to a relaxing day. Katie and I had both developed an affinity for collecting things while on the road... from rocks, to coasters, beer glasses, and wild flowers, adding sharks teeth to the list seemed a natural progression and we were more than happy, in fact a little obsessed, at the prospect of finding more. Once the night set in, we headed to Sarasota where we visited the Sarasota Brewing Co, a cozy, hole in the wall bar, filled mostly with locals whose mugs were hanging from the ceiling. We had a great dinner and then set off to find a rest area to bed down at for the night.
Over the next week or so, we would play a fun game of back and forth between Orlando and the Tampa area, visiting Tampa / Sarasota 3 times and Orlando twice. Both Katie and I had friends that lived in the Orlando area and because of varying schedules we had time to waste in between our visits and decided to explore the coast. Anyway, when we woke in the morning on Friday we had no idea where the day would take us, so naturally we went back to Englewood beach to collect more sharks teeth while we thought things over. We both dropped some calls in to our friends on the way to the beach and spent the morning waiting for some responses. Finally we heard from Geoff, a friend of mine since high school, around noon and made plans to get together the following day. After some driving, an evening spent at a Starbuck and the movies, we pulled over at a rest area for the night about 2 hrs outside of Orlando. In the morning we picked up Geoff from his place and headed straight for the disc golf course. After about 12 vicious holes of discing and 2o minutes under a pavilion waiting out a sudden downpour, we threw the discs in the van and headed for some food. Geoff took us to, hands down, the best BBQ joint I have ever been to, 4 Rivers Smokehouse. When we got there, at around 2 p.m. the line was out the door and into the street. Geoff told us it was like this every day, all the time... we would soon find out why. I won't go into the details, but it was easily one of the most memorable meals of the whole trip and the first time I discovered the glorious creation known as "burnt ends." After we stuffed our faces full of this delicious food, we headed back to Geoff's place where we hung out for a bit and worked off our food coma's. Geoff showed us around downtown Orlando and took us to a couple bars while we waited for his girlfriend Christina to get off work. At night we headed to a mini golf course in the middle of the giant tourist trap that is Orlando for a rousing game of putt putt. We bought the 36 hole deal, but only had enough time to play 18 before the place closed for the night. Though we probably shouldn't have eaten for another 48 hours, Geoff wanted to show off the finer parts of Orlando's cuisine, so we headed to an amazing Mexican restaurant to and finished off the night with some food and margaritas. On Sunday morning, after Geoff took us out to a fine meal at the local Chick-fil-A where he knew 90% of the staff on a first name basis, we all went to finish up the other 18 holes of mini golf from the night before. This time, we decided to fish for alligators after finishing up the round. For only a couple bucks you can rent a stick with a plastic pin on it, which you attach hot dogs to and dangle them in front of baby alligators corralled at the front of the course. A bit childish, maybe, but fun nonetheless. Once the gators got the last of our dogs, we parted ways with Geoff and Christina and headed back toward Tampa.
After a few hours driving we were back on the East coast of Florida. Daylight was already beginning to fade while our appetites were on the rise. We again headed to Sarasota, where Geoff had recommended to us a place he had seen on one of those TV food shows - Munchies Cafe. This being the most intriguing prospect on our plate we decided to make the trip and try out the food. Though the place is known for their huge "fat sandwiches" in which they pile every type of deep fried food imaginable into a heaping sandwich, Katie and I couldn't even bring ourselves to split one. We ordered appetizers instead and while we were waiting for our food to be ready, we walked around the small restaurant and noticed a large board of Polaroid photos with people covered in sauce, many crying, and others puking. Then we noticed the guy from Man vs Food scattered amidst the photos and finally the connection hit. We looked a little closer at the menu and found out the real reason the restaurant was famous, their Fire In Your Hole Challenge. Since Katie is adverse to eating any meat off the bone, we generally just skip over the wing section and never even noticed the challenge. My curiosity peaked, I asked the guy behind the counter if there was a way to order only a few wings just to try the sauce, it was a no go... He said the only way to try it was to take the challenge. As our food was almost ready and I was nervous to take on such an endeavor, I decided to bow out of the challenge despite Katie's taunting. After our meal, we spent the night blending in with the suburbanites of Sarasota by spending some time at a Starbucks before going to the movies, then regaining some of our vagabond street-cred, found an unassuming spot to park CJ for the night and crawled in the back to bed.
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