Thanks for the inspiration. We all prefer back-roads over highways and I look forward to exploring some of the gardens/sights you have mentioned. We'll re-think our gypsy plan and perhaps get a central spot to home-base from. I of course had no idea we'd be in the thick of your tourist season, which certainly puts a different swing on things. Clean is good, fancy is unimportant, resorty-hotels is not what we are after. At one point about a year ago I ran across some cottages on-line right on the ocean which for the life of me I can't remember the name of. Nor where they were located, other than perhaps right before the keys. I remember calling the folks and they were very laid back with lots of availability. We ended up not going then and I sure wish I would have put their web site somewhere retrievable, but alas... All I remember is the name was kind of catchy and each cottage was over-themed (too much pink mermaid in one, perhaps starfish in another).