Key West 2012

We left at noon headed towards Chattanooga.  The van is loaded and squatted down in the back - we didn't leave much at home. There are no stores in Florida, you know.

First stop in Tiftonia to meet Denise and Christi for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Bellies full, we headed down I-24 at 3:45 (we lost 2 hours with DST and Eastern time zone) toward Chattanooga and on to Atlanta.

We survived Atlanta - why is it they change the name of I-75 to Hwy 401 for 5 miles through Atlanta?  It must a joke on the tourists coming through.  

Fueled up at 6:00 pm and drove on to Macon Fairfield Inn for the evening.

We left hotel around 8:00 this morning and first stop was at the Florida Welcome Center around 11:00. We got the free juice, took the standard "Welcome to Florida" photo, swapped drivers and headed South.

We picked up I-10 around 11:30 towards Jacksonville. Gwen and Patsy finished watching "In Her Shoes" chick flick so we stopped for gas in MacClenny, Fl -$3.77/gal

Around 12:45 we picked up 295 South around Jacksonville. We crossed intracoastal waterway at 1:00 and took a shortcut on Old St Augustine Rod over to infamous I-95 towards St Augustine. We arrived in Old St Augustine around 1:30.

We had lunch at Cafe de Hidalgo and did the tourist walk/shopping in old town. It was pretty crowded with a lot of bikers up from Daytona Bike Week.

We strolled over to the fort for a pic and headed back to the swagger wagon. We left St Augustine on Hwy 1 at 4:00 and drove to our hotel in Palm Coast, FL.

We drove over to Palm Coast and Flagler Beach to take in the Atlantic.  We searched for places to eat along the beach but most places were taken up by the bikers.  We came back to Palm Coast and ate at Steak and Shake. 

We left hotel in Palm Coast at 8:15. I-95 was pretty boring - a straight, flat concrete road. We stopped at a rest area at 10:00 - took a pic of Sammy climbing a palm tree. At 11:00 we stopped for gas - $3.86/gal and GPS routed us over to Florida turnpike. We're not sure why - it paralleled I-95 where we could see cars driving over there for free.  I think it is because commuters take I-95 and turnpike is less crowded.

We arrived at Courtyard Miami Beach around 1:00 and checked in.  We had lunch at the hotel's Tiki Bar overlooking the Atlantic  - great food and a warm ocean breeze.  After lunch we walked down to the beach and stuck our toes in the water and then headed back to the rooms around 3:30 for a rest. 

We left for dinner at 5:30 and drove down to Art Deco district in South Beach.  After cruising in the Swagger Wagon from 5th street to 16th street on Ocean Drive we parked the car and walked back down to the district for dinner.  We ate at the Pelican and walked back up Ocean Drive after dark taking in the sites and sounds.

The Art Dec district does have beautiful lights at night, the old 1930-1940 buildings painted in blues, greens and pinks.   

We checked out of the Courtyard at 8:00 and valet brought van around at 8:15. We drove across causeway, 395 and picked up 95 S until it ended on Hwy 1. We took 836 to 821 South turnpike towards Florida City. While on 821 a Coral Gables police car pulled up beside us and rolled down his window and asked what part of Rutherford County we lived in. He was from Murfreesboro and went to MTSU - small world. We drove through South Miami (where Gwen made her infamous statement "Stuff is everywhere"). We drove onto Florida City on Highway 1 and headed south towards Key Largo. 

There was a major accident at Mile Marker (MM) 99 in Key Largo so we stopped and had breakfast at Doc's Diner.  Doc's is famous for Doc's Feast that includes eggs, grits, gravy, biscuits, french toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon and ham for 4-5 people.  Of course we ordered that.

Traffic cleared up so we headed south on Hwy 1 (also known as Overseas Highway) towards Key West.  We drove through Islamorada, Marathon (location of 7-mile bridge), Big Pine key and then arrived in Key West.

We checked into our hotel and drove up Duval Street (Duval runs north and south from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico) over to the furthermost southernmost point in the US (157 miles from Miami and 90 miles from Cuba).  The line to take the photo in front of the buoy was not too long - about 15 minutes.  

We went to dinner at 5:30 and then headed down to Mallory Square to watch the sunset with 10,000 other people.  We were lucky enough to find a parking place - just needed enough change to feed the parking meter that gave you 4 minutes for every dime you feed it.  Pooling all of our change we came up with enough to last 2 hours.
Sunset was beautiful - it is a big deal to watch the sunset - there are singers, unicycles, fire acts, bushman (who jumps in front of people to scare them), jugglers and acts of all kinds. Afterwards, we walked back up Duval Street (kind of like Bourbon Street in New Orleans), bought a couple of souvenirs and then headed home.  By the way the pic at Capt Tony's - people were trying to throw coins in the fish's mouth.

Here we are in our second day in Key West.  We had a later than normal breakfast and picked up some tickets for the Trolley Tour of Key West (hop on, hop off) although it was raining.  The trolley picked us up at 9:30 (rain comes and goes here).  Our first stop was at a hotel to pick up other passengers.  These old people took forever to get on the trolley, argued and changed seats several times (some were wet from rain).  We were cracking up laughing at them until we realized we  were like them.

After a short ride through new town, we got off in upper Duval and walked 2 blocks to Ernest Hemingway's house.  It did not look too exciting so we opted to take a pic and walk on.

It started raining again so we slipped into a store where they sold Kai-Kai sandals.  The guy there was a real salesman - Gwen and Patsy both bought a pair and got a free bag to carry them in.

After the rain stopped we waited on the next trolley and boarded for a stop in lower Duval. We passed by the end of Route 1 (Mile 0 sign had been stolen).
We had lunch at the Roof Top Cafe - some of us had conch fritters, Cuban sandwich and key lime pie.  We did some more shopping, to include a natural sponge store (Patsy is shown with sponge man).
It was getting warm (81 today) so we headed back to hotel for some rest.
 
Dinner was uneventful -  we went to TGI Fridays.  Did I tell you chickens run free in Key West?  It is a little different to hear a rooster crow while eating in "town".

Today we left Key West and drove north on Overseas Highway through Big Pine Keys, Marathon, Islamorada and Key Largo to Homestead.  We only took a couple of pics - trying to capture the blue and green colors of the water, but the camera just doesn't do it justice.  Even Sammy tried to point out the color and clarity.

At Homestead we turned west and headed into lower part of the Everglades.  At the Coe Visitor Center, we watched an 18 minute video to learn about the Everglades and the ecosystem that defines the park.

We then drove down Main Park Road to the Royal Palm Visitor Center and walked the half mile Anhinga Trail. The first half of the trail was all about the different species of birds (and there are a lot of different kinds - if I had paid more attention during the video I could tell you how many - but here are a few pics). 

About half way through the Royal Palm it began pouring down rain, causing us to scurry to find a shelter.  Rain only lasted 10 minutes so we moved on to find some 'gators. We found several and spent a lot time just watching them lie around. One did open his mouth to show us his tonsils - not sure if he was trying to scare us or it was big yawn.

It was starting to get late (and started raining again), so we decided not to drive on down to the town of Flamingo - visited Pa-hay-okee Overlook and Mahogany Hammock and head to the hotel.  By the way when the elevation of increases, the trees grow and create an island.  The elevation of Mahogany Hammock was 4 feet as compared to the elevation of 3 feet at Pa-hay-okee.  See, I did learn something.

We arrived at our hotel in Miami (Kendall) around 5:00 and had a great dinner at the Bahama Breeze.  Tomorrow we plan on driving Hwy 41 across the Everglades and visit Uncle Phillip in Coral Gables.

We left hotel around 7:45 this morning and headed west on Highway 41 to Everglades' Shark Valley where we had a reservation for a 2 hour tram tour through Everglades.  The tram ride was informative and we enjoyed seeing all the birds, alligators and turtles in their natural habitat rather than in a zoo or alligator farm.  So here are lot of pics - you know birds are my favorite subject to photograph.  In the photos are wood storks, purple gallinule, ibis, white heron, brown pelican, ahingas, adult and baby alligators.  Patsy even held some periphyton.

We left Shark Valley and drove Highway 41 over to Naples.  Naples is made up of some very rich people and the city shows it.  Our goal was to go down and walk the famous Naples pier but there was a St Patrick Day parade in progress.  We were held up in traffic for an hour before we found a way to I-75. 

We got to Ft Meyer and checked into the hotel.  Later we had dinner with Uncle Phillip and Aunt Teresa and then went over to their house in Cape Coral to catch up on old times.

We slept in this morning and had breakfast at the hotel at 8:30 (with all of UMASS's Softball team).  Sammy actually had his photo taken with some of the team members - that Sammy - he likes the girls.   We left the hotel at 9:00 and headed north on US 41 (Tamiami Trail).  We stopped in Punta Gorda and dropped Gwen and Patsy off at the Fisherman's Village (Waterfront Mall) while David and  I visited Muscle Car City.  There were 220 GM muscle cars (Chevy, Olds, Pontiac) and other custom rods (you don't have to look at all the pics).  David was sad when he saw a 67 Chevelle like he used to own.  David and I also met Rick Treworgy, the owner.  Afterwards, we picked up Gwen and Patsy around noon - not much shopping done since the stores do not open until noon on Sundays.

We headed north again and stopped in Venice to have lunch at Sharky's on the pier.  The food was great and the area beautiful. The beach at Venice is known to have sand with a large number of shark teeth so you could see people out panning the sand for the teeth.

After lunch we headed to Siesta Key - so did most of Florida and the US.  The Public Beach lot was full, but we pulled in any way.  There were so many cars waiting on others to leave and give up their spot.  We gave up and left.  We shopped downtown Siesta for an hour and then headed back toward the beach.  We found a back way and paid someone $15 to let us park in his yard.  We walked the beach - picked up shells  and made a sand castle.  You cannot believe the sand at Siesta - it is so fine and is made of  90% quartz.  The sand does not get hot and is cool to walk on.  Pretty cool.  

We left Siesta and drove to Bradenton for the night - just south of Tampa.  We plan to leave early in the morning and make our way north towards Tennessee.

We left Bradenden, FL around 6:45 this morning. It took about an hour to get around Tampa area.  We stopped for first potty break and snack around 8:30. We swapped drivers and drove on toward Ocala. We stopped for gas around 9:30 in Gainesville. Gas price was $3.85 (Sammy helped with the gas).

We crossed into Georgia around 11:00. Goodbye Florida. We filled up with gas about 40 miles from Atlanta around 2:00. We drove through Atlanta without any traffic problem and stopped in Adairsville, 60 miles from Chattanooga, at 3:30 for dinner at Cracker Barrel.   We are always glad to see the Welcome to Tennessee sign. 

Back on road at 4:00, we headed toward north, hoping 5:00 traffic would not be too bad in Chattanooga.  Traffic was actually light and we breezed through Chattanooga.  We made our last rest area stop at the river and the pulled into home at 5:45 CT.  It was 13 hours driving to cover the 720 miles.