road trip recap: key west, fl

We had a lot of fun in Key West.  It was probably the most "vacation-like" of our destinations, which was a treat for us but hard on our bank accounts (oh well).  We stayed at La Pensione Inn, in one of the upstairs rooms that opened out onto the wraparound balcony.  When we first arrived (after our day in the Everglades), we walked around for quite some time looking for a beach without success (we didn't feel like paying to go to the State Park when it was already evening).  Apparently Key West doesn't have sandy beaches anyway--who knew!?  Anyway, we headed back to the inn and I took a dip in the pool, which felt incredibly luxurious in the tropical darkness.  That night we went out on the town, having expensive cocktails on the upstairs porch of a bar I can't remember the name of before wandering up and down (and up and down) Duval Street looking for a satisfactory place to have dinner.  We wound up at the Old Town Mexican Cafe, where we had nachos and a pitcher of sangria (and took the leftover sangria to go in plastic cups--legally, this time!)

The next morning it was time to go snorkeling!  I had been looking forward to snorkeling since I first started planning the trip, so I was rather excited, but first I really wanted to stop and see Hemingway's house, because... I mean, come on, it's Hemingway.  Not worth it.  I don't have any pictures because we were going snorkeling and I didn't want to bring my camera, but I probably wouldn't have photographed much anyway.  The house was SO CROWDED I could barely squeeze through it, and it was really just a bunch of posters from movies made from his books and that sort of thing.  I was really unimpressed, actually.  The only cool thing was the little writing studio in a building in the backyard that looked out over the pool (which, of course, I really wanted to swim in).  Forget the house, I wanted to live in that studio.  It was also the most untouched (or at least looked that way), so you could imagine what it might have looked like when Hemingway was actually writing there.  The day only improved from there, however!  We got to the boat dock super early so just hung out for a while until the trip was scheduled to start.  We hopped onboard and were off into the turquoise blue waters of the Keys!  It was gorgeous.  On our way out to the reef, a group of dolphins came up alongside our boat and played there for a good 15-20 minutes until we had to speed up and leave them behind (the tour guide said that rarely even happens on the boats specifically dedicated to dolphin tours).  We had booked the "double-dip" tour, which meant that we would snorkel in two separate locations, but because we'd been hanging out with the dolphins for so long we ended up just staying in one spot the whole time, which actually was much better (I think).  We saw a shark, two barracudas (scary!), and a whole slew of colorful tropical fish.  At the end (of course after I had used up all of the film), K and I were completely surrounded by a school of little white, black, and yellow tropical fish--it would have been such a good picture!  We headed back on the boat, beers in hand, and basked in the sunny sunshine.

The rest of the day was spent walking around town taking pictures of buildings and roosters and the like, stopping at a cigar shop run by Cuban immigrants (closest thing to actual Cuban cigars), and finally having a yummy dinner (and of course, drinks) on the water at Alonzo's Oyster Bar, followed by gelato and a warm evening stroll back to the inn.  We sat out at the pool for a while and K smoked his cigar, but then the lightning started and the rain fell hard and fast, whipping itself up into a wild tropical thunderstorm.  We retreated to the balcony, but even that didn't provide enough shelter from the wind and rain, so we retired for the night.  Early the next morning we got up and went to the southernmost point of the US for a photo op before commencing our loooong drive back through the keys to the mainland.

road trip recap: everglades national park

We had a long drive from Miami to Key West, but we really wanted to see the Everglades so we decided to spend our morning doing some extra driving. It was well worth it, and ended up being one of our favorite days.  The park was not at all what I expected--I was thinking shadowy mangrove swamps full of alligators, but it was more like what I imagine an African savannah would be.  We stopped first at the Royal Palm visitor's center and walked out just a bit on both of the trails there, where we saw the most hideously ugly one-eyed turtle imaginable (not all of them are hopelessly adorable, apparently).  We turned off to have some lunch at a pond, and witnessed enormous fish jumping several feet out of the water, which made me giddy.  Finally, we drove all the way to the end of the road in Flamingo, FL, where we wandered around the seemingly abandoned (pink!) visitor's center that was like something out of LOST. I got so close to a great blue heron and was just trying to frame my shot when a motorboat went by and scared it half to death so that it flew squawking into the brush. Still, it was enormous and pretty incredible to see that close. HOWEVER, the best was yet to come! I walked over to the little harbor area and there was a manatee! I had been hoping to see one ever since we arrived in Florida, and it was every bit as exciting as I expected.  We hung out for a while and made friends, and then it finally swam away (probably when it realized I didn't have a lettuce treat or anything).

We headed back the way we came, trying to stop a couple of times along the way but ultimately giving in when we were repeatedly attacked by swarms of mosquitoes.  Thus began our long journey through the Florida Keys!

road trip recap: miami, fl (part ii)

After stopping in Miami Beach, we headed back across the river to visit Vizcaya, which was awesome (highly recommended--even more than Biltmore).  We weren't allowed to take photographs inside the mansion, but the gardens and grounds were photogenic enough that it didn't matter.  The inside was completely over-the-top luxury with incredibly ornate and elaborate furnishings and architectural details, and in the center of the house was an open courtyard that I would totally die to have if I lived in a majestic Miami mansion :)  One of the coolest features was definitely the stone ship just off the back terrace, which I was terribly tempted to swim to and probably would have if it hadn't been highly illegal (wanting desperately to swim in forbidden pools was definitely a common problem for me).  We spent the remainder of our afternoon just leisurely strolling through the magnificent gardens, and then stopped for Indian food that night (not exactly Floridian cuisine, but a craving's a craving).

The next day it was off through the Everglades to Key West!