January 18-23, 2016
Southern Florida
After a short trip to the Mayo and several weeks of recuperation we were finally ready and able to get out and check off a few items from our Florida bucket list. We decided to take the car and do a short trip to southern Florida and see the Everglades, Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Keys.
The first day we drove south on I-75 to Tampa and took I-275 out over the bay.
We got off the interstate and took Hwy 41 south thru Bradenton, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, Cape Coral and over to Naples where we stopped for the night. The next day we headed east thru Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades. Our plan was to stop at the Everglades Safari Park for an Air Boat ride and see the wildlife (gators!!!!) but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. It was very cool, windy, and rainy so we decided to skip it. We stopped for the night at a hotel on the southwest side of Miami. Wednesday we headed south to the Keys. We were surprised that the route wasn't miles of bridges over the ocean as the movies portray, but instead mostly roads over land with short sections of bridges. The longest bridge being Seven Mile Bridge. We guessed that was where the movie True Lies was filmed.
Can't you just see a big van hanging over the that edge waiting for a Pelican to land on it ;>)
The drive thru Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, and all the various Keys took about 3 hours. The drive down into the Historic District of Key West was a little tight. The roads are narrow and crowded but very quaint, similar to Charleston and Savannah. We finally reached our destination the Westin Hotel on the northwest side of the island.
We didn't have an ocean view but the view was nice.
The hotel had an upper and lower deck/patio area with full bar and restaurant service on each level. This afforded us a great location to view the nightly sunset celebration (yes, they celebrate that every night).
While we were here we spent a day riding the Old Town Trolley. The driver's are very entertaining and provide a lot of information about the history of the town and people. We also use it as a way to get around town as there are 13 stops and you can get on and off whenever you like. We took the trolley to the "Southernmost" point and took the standard tourist pic.
From this point Cuba is 98 miles away (even though the marker says 90). That is an example of some of the info you get from the trolley. There are a lot of good restaurants, interesting houses, a lot of history, and beautiful views, but the night is all about the bars. There are bars on every corner with live music and entertainers. We were brave enough to go to a well known bar called Sloppy Joe's. We took a table right up front and had a great seat for the raunchy musicians performing there. We ordered their signature Sloppy Joe sandwich and were less than impressed...but it was quite an experience for us.
We had a great time in Key West and loved the hotel and all the facilities. We also enjoyed the cruise ships that docked out front.
Nothing like spending the evening drinking Mai Tai's and watching the sunset celebration and the cruise ships departing....what a great time.
The next day we left Key West and headed back towards Miami. When we hit the mainland a storm front came through and we were in very heavy rain all the way to Port St Lucie, where we stopped for the night. Saturday morning we got up and made the 3 hour drive back to Silver Springs. It was a short trip and it flew by quickly but we will never forget the fantastic time we had in the Keys.
