Florida Keys - Day 5 - (Tuesday) - Miami and vicinity

Today was a trip to Miami. We had scheduled to go on a water tour of the Biscayne Harbor and the Miami water front. We wanted to see where CSI Miami got all that footage of canals with buildings and homes. Well, we got to see some of it.
The first stop was at the Islamordia Restaurant and Bakery for breakfast. The chef/owner originally went to school for cake decoration and ended up in the Keys. Breakfast was great and the pastries looked even better. We ate breakfast here yesterday, so it rated pretty high to get a second visit.
In Miami, the tour take of from the the harbor behind the Bayside Marketplace. This happened to also be where the Hard Rock Cafe is located. We visited it a couple years ago when we were last in Miami.

The Island Queen Tour Boat (sister of the above Island Lady) took us out of the harbor and into the Atlantic side of Miami.

We traveled along the Port of Miami,

then passed Fisher Island (only access is by boat), around the tip of the Port (Dodge Island), past the Coast Guard Station, and under the MacArthur Causeway. From there we went around Star Island (home to the "Stars"),

Hibiscus and Palm Islands,

back under the MacArthur Causeway and back to the harbor.

We got a look at some of the South Beach area - reachable by boat or causeways.

On the way past Star Island we got a view of the Flagler Memorial which is located on a man made island in Biscayne Bay.

From here it was off for shopping at Saw Grass Mills Outlet Mall. Everything looks just a short ways away on a map. From the Bayside Marketplace to Saw Grass Mills Outlet Mall was about 45 miles. North to Ft. Lauderdale, then west to the edge of the Everglades Wildlife Management Area (gators). After spending a few hours and dollars at the mall (this time we did not have to buy another suitcase) we headed back to the Keys. Dinner was in Key Largo at The Fish House where we had an excellent dinner with great service. Then "home" to the hotel, ending another day in paradise.

Florida Keys - Key Largo - Day 4

Key Largo and points between there and Marathon were the order of this day. Breakfast was at the Islamorada Restaurant and Bakery.

This turned into one of Deb's favorite places for breakfast. While in Islamorada, we checked out the Hurricane Memorial.

In 1935 a devastating hurricane came through the area. Key West though not touch was cut off from the mainland when the Flagler Railroad was destroyed. Hundreds of people lost there lives and there was massive destruction. At the memorial is a tomb with the remains of many people. A very solemn place for sure.
From there it was on up toward Key Largo. We found that driving through the Florida Keys, as everywhere that we have travelled, you find those strange and unique items along the road. This is one of then.

Kind of like the marker at the Southern Most Point in Key West, I had to wait a little in order to get this shot that had no people in the picture. I don't think that I would want to meet this guy in a dark alley - much less underwater.
Continuing our drive toward Key Largo, we found this - probably what you could call paradise - it is a nice little fixer upper - didn't see any for sale signs.

I looked on Google Earth to find exactly where I saw this, and am was not the only one intrigued with it. There are probably a half dozen photos of this house.

In Key Largo we found the display of the Humphrey Bogart - African Queen. Sheltered and hard to photograph well, this is the boat from the movie.

We returned to the Hotel a little early, so I figured that I would just walk around by the hotel and take some photos. Along the side of the hotel is this nice wooden walkway along one of the many inlets in the area.

As I past by the hotel swimming pool, I heard a rustling in the bushes along side it and turned around to find this little monster.

This "little" guy is about five (5) feet long. Iguanas are indigenous to the Florida area and just in my little walk I saw four. All of them about this size.

Next door to the hotel is a restaurant that advertises that it is a Tiki Bar. We decided after seeing Tiki Bars advertised that it had to have a "thatched" roof to be a Tiki Bar.

And, we saw our fair share of birds. Like this one who seemed to pose for pictures.

We made one more trip up to Key Largo a couple days later and did a little more exploring. Tomorrow it is off to Miami for a boat tour and shopping at Sawgrass Mills Mall.

Florida Keys - Day 3 (Sunday) - Key West

Today was a Key West Day - we arrived there about 10AM after stopping on Big Pine Key for breakfast at the Cracked Egg Cafe.

In Key West we got an on the street parking place just off the south end of Duval Street. All day parking was about $15, but it was convenient to where we planned to spend most of the day - on and around Duval Street.
Of course first we had to go to the southernmost point of the continental US. This was Sunday (remember the boat races were going on) and the marker was mobbed. I did get a few pictures, but not without people in them - no idea who they are - but some might stumble on to their picture in this blog.

Interesting fact, at the southernmost point, you are 90 miles from Cuba and 123 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart. In the Keys, the large discount retailer is K-Mart.

We walked up Duval Street a ways and decided to take the Conch (pronounced conk) train tour of Key West. The train just looks like a train, actually a tractor designed like an train engine pulling several passenger cars all on rubber tires.

The Train Station is right across from a Denny's which does not really look like a Denny's.

The train took us through Key West with a very good narration of the history. The tour went through the historic section of town pointing out the different architecture and the how they were different and how they arrived in Key West.

We also passed by the building where Pan American Airlines started. Kelly's Carribean Bar and Grill stands at this location now. The owner is actor Kelly McGillis.

It also stopped at the Flagler Train Station,

and Mallory Square. Mallory Square is known for it's sunset gatherings.

In the same are as Mallory Square is the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden. This is a very unique area with sculptures of many of the famous in Key West's history. You get the sense that there are a lot of people watching you.

We had plans to have dinner with a business associate of mine and her husband from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, who just happened to be in Key West at the same time. We had exchanged text messages and as of the mid afternoon had no real meeting destination in mind. Then on one of the tour stops, I was taking pictures when low and behold, here came Sherry and her husband Mike on a scooter. Now we knew they were in town. They did not know we were on a tour, there were probably more than five thousand people (or so it seemed) in town all in the same area, and we run into them by chance. After a short visit, we continued our tour with plans to meet on the north end of Duval Street for dinner. Since we needed to meet our friends for drinks at the Island Dogs Bar,

and then had dinner reservations at Two Friends Patio, we were not able to see the sunset or the festivities at Mallory Square.

After a fantastic dinner, Deb and I walked back down Duval street to where we parked the car, and Mike & Sherry rode their scooter back to their hotel, which happened to be on the same street where we had parked. You see some interesting things on Duval Street.

This was taken looking into one of the galleries along Duval Street.

We had lots of walking, lots of sun and lots of great food. We will be back.