Miami to Key West and back to Homestead
The pelican that kept bothering us and bit Derek on the butt
Enjoying a fresh fruit smoothie at the bar
Feeding the locals
The attraction is trying to get the tarpon to eat out of your hand - without taking it off
We stopped along the road side to experience the emerald water for ourselves
Big storm on the horizon as we head towards Key West
Some of the wild chickens that roam the streets of Key West
We took US-1 until we could go no farther
Thursday June 4, 2009
We woke up looking forward to our drive to Key West. We were lucky to have mostly clear skies so we could enjoy the view of the emerald water from US-1. We had read about Robbie's Marina in Islamorada and made our first stop there. We had a great time. We couldn't believe all the huge tarpon just swimming around the docks. It's a lot of fun because not only do you get to have fun feeding the fish yourself, but you also get to see all the other people having fun feeding the fish as well. Some people are braver than others and let the tarpon come out of the water and engulf their hand while taking the bait fish. It was a nice relaxing atmosphere. We bellied up to the bar and had some delicious smoothies.
We got back in the car for a short while before we couldn't stand watching all the beautiful water go by any longer and just had to pull over and get in it. There was a young newlywed couple who had the same thought and were swimming nearby.
As we headed south to Key West we could see huge storms rising on the horizon. It's so flat that you can see forever. We kept thinking that we would be getting close to storm any minute, but we made it all the way to Key West without a drop.
In Key West we drove around and saw the native wild chickens that run around everywhere. We visited the Southern Most Point monument and cruised around the tourist parts of town. There were lots of people out and about for the evening. We were surprised that the party area stretched for so many blocks. There seemed to be a lot going on across multiple sections of the town.
Being a suburbanite, lack of parking is really irritating and there was a definite lack of parking. After searching around for a while we finally gave up and parked in a store parking lot that was obviously closed, but had lots of intimidating tow signs. Thankfully, we were not towed.
We had dinner at a local favorite dive, B.O's Fish Wagon. It was low key and the fresh fish sandwiches were delicious. After dinner we walked across the street to Pepe's for some yummy key lime pie. You can't go to Key West and not have key lime pie. After pie, we walked to the water front, got some ice cream, and strolled as we took in some of the local flavor. We learned about pan handling and other sights and sounds you don't see at Disney World.
We contemplated staying in Key West for the night, but knew we were running out of days on our trip and we wanted to tour the Everglades the next day. Helen decided she would take the wheel and power us back to the mainland. Remember those big storms in the distance that I mentioned as we were driving to Key West? Well, they hit with bad intentions on our drive back. The rain was coming so hard that our wipers couldn't keep up and it was dark - very dark as Helen made her way across all the long bridge expanses. At some point she yelled over the pounding rain, "I changed my mind." We tried to stop in Islamorada, but no one came to the desk at the Hampton Inn, so we got back in the van and kept on trucking.
We finally made it back to the mainland and stayed at a hotel in Homestead.
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