On to Key Largo!

After venturing out to the Biltmore, walking up and down the Miracle Mile and getting caught in a wicked thunderstorm (OK, so I got caught in the storm and had to have my lovely wife come pick me up at the bookstore) we woke up bright and early the next day, the Fourth of July, and headed to Key Largo.

It took about an hour to reach Key Largo from Bill and Ginny's place (who were so sweet to allow us to spend our vacation in their home). It would have taken less time if I wasn't chasing a cup of coffee and if there wasn't construction on the only road into the Keys (US 1).

Because the four lane road was down to two lanes (one each way) and the road was packed with holiday travelers, the trip took a little while longer than we thought.

The ride was, however, beautiful. As you hit a bridge all of a sudden there is nothing but ocean on either side.

We reached the motel, a lovely little place Lisa dug up online. It had a small dock for fishing and boating. There was a tiny beach to slip into the water and go for a dip (on the Gulf of Mexico side or "Bay" side as they call it). The room wasn't big but it was air conditioned, with cable TV, a mini fridge, queen size bed and an excellent shower. It was just what we wanted.

We found a nice place to eat lunch (thank you again Lonley Planet guide!), did some shopping, enjoyed the hammock at the motel and headed out for dinner at the Fish House (another good idea from the guide!).

The Fish House is, believe it or not, one of the handful of restaurants that continues to serve locally caught fresh fish every night. While I discovered they have excellent jerk chicken, Lisa reports everything she tried from the lobster bisque to the entree were out of this world tasty. The menu even gives those adventurous sorts the option of: "You hook it, we'll cook it."

We grabbed dessert at another sea side restaurant and managed to get caught in the traffic along the one road that connects the place (US 1) as people filed out of the local park after the Fourth of July fireworks.

We didn't stay up too late. We had a big day coming up. We were headed for Key West.

The beautiful Biltmore

After our day at the Fruit & Spice Park we headed back into civilization. We decided to pal around the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. It, shall we say, is fabulous. We'd like to one day have the good fortune to actually spend a night (or a few) in this national landmark. It's an incredible structure that was built in 1926 in 10 months for $10 million. It has the largest continuous pool in the continental United States. The place is said to be haunted by the ghost of one of Al Capone's victims as he was often a frequent quest at the place and, legend goes, whacked somebody right there in the posh resort.

It was amazing to walk through, incredible to look at and stunning to think it's been standing for the better part of 83 years.

If you're so inclined there is a highly rated golf course, restaurant and bar on the premises. Plus it has its own Culinary Academy for all you chefs.

For a look at this marvelous place click HERE.

Our fruity day trip

If you're ever in Miami and have a hankering for something exotic, we highly recommend the Fruit & Spice Farm. Located about a half an hour south of the city of Miami, the Fruit & Spice Park is exactly that, a fruit and spice park.

They grow all kinds of fruit from all over the globe on the premises. For about $10 each, you can either walk through the park or, at certain times of the day, take a guided tour. We missed the tour by 20 minutes (I was chasing a fresh cup of coffee) so we decided to hoof it through the park, which was actually quite enjoyable.

Before we set off on the concrete path through the park, we were allowed to sample some of the different fruits they grow at the park. There was dragon fruit, coconut, banana, plantains and something called ice cream fruit which was fuzzy but actually kind of had a creamy taste to it like ice cream.

They tell you that anything that hits the ground and you know what it is, you can eat. You can't go picking things off the tree and you can't go eating something if you're not sure what it is (did you know that unless cashew nuts are roasted they are poisonous?).

We meandered through the park, snapping photos and enjoying the late morning steam bath that was the weather.

I did drag Lisa to the back of the park, off the beaten path, to the mango grove but it was totally worth it...at least that's what I kept telling myself.

They even had a section of poisonous plants that were behind a fence. We did, however, see an adventurous rabbit nibbling on the grass back there.

To see more photos of this lovely place click HERE

A day at the (South) Beach

We spent our second full day in the city on the southern part of Miami Beach, AKA South Beach. The locals call it the "Billion Dollar Sandbar." We called it the home of the most obnoxious hosts and hostessess you could possibly imagine.

The eastern side of Ocean Drive (the main drag just off the beach) is loaded with hotels, bars and restaurants. Most of the places have large umbellas or awnings to keep the sun out and misters blowing cool, moist air on those that walk down the sidewalk. The only charge for this? Every time you pass a business there is someone trying to hand you a menu and asking you to check out their "specials." It was the most unbelievably annoying thing you could imagine. Then again, with so many foriegners walking the streets, you could say nothing, give a quizical look and move on and they'd go right on hawking their wares to some other poor schlub. And, we agreed, it beat walking in the record breaking heat with the sun beating down on us.

We did manage to find a place that came highly recommended by the travel guide Lonley Planet (which if you're going anywhere we recommend you pick up a guide, it never steared us wrong) and Lisa was able to enjoy a gargantuan serving of snow crab legs for half off the regular price. Not too shabby. Too bad their beer special and burger weren't all that great. But hey, half off a plate of snow crab is no small feat.

It was an incredible scene as we watched people from all walks of life, all different nations taking in the SoBe (as they call it). We heard at least 10 different languages from English and Spanish (the main ones) to German, Swedish and maybe even some Arabic.

We took a ton of photos, most of them are of the buildings along the strip. We also threw in a couple of us enjoying lunch at the News Cafe (what do you want, I'm a news guy!). The food wasn't great, the service was OK and the tip was included. It would appear that Miami has taken to including a 15% gratuity on ALL of its checks. While annoying, most of the servers we encountered were friendly and effective.

Click HERE to see the gallery. I recommend watching it as a slide show (upper right corner of the page).

Baseball, rain and campers

Our first full day in Miami and what do I want to do?

Check out a baseball game of course!

I talked Lisa into catching an afternoon game at Landshark Stadium to watch the Florida Marlins play the Washington Nationals (the worst team in pro baseball).

We arrived early enough that there were literally a dozen cars in the parking lot. If not for the people drinking by the car next to us, we would have been the only ones in the parking lot. As we approached the stadium a kind gentlemen told us our umbrella (purchased that morning) was not allowed in the stadium. It's Florida, it rains almost every day in the summer but our umbrella was not allowed.

We walked back to the car (a short walk) lathered up our sunscreen (you can't bring in open bottles of anything either), returned to the ticket office and purchased two of the cheapest tickets we could find.

As we walked into the stadium, which was built for the Miami Dolphins pro football team, we noticed there were a lot of kids in matching T-shirts running around. We didn't think much of it.

After we found our seats we noticed the stadium was quite empty, save for the dozens upon dozens of kids in matching T-shirts.

Then the PA spoke up and we were alerted.

It was Camp Day. Every kiddie camp from South Florida was coming to the game. The attendance for the game was about 27,000 and I'm going to guess about 20,000 of them were boys and girls ages 4-14 in matching T-shirts, screaming their bloody heads off and clogging up the lines at the concession stand.

The game itself was rather drab despite some decent players on both teams. Lisa and I agreed to cut out before the 7th inning to avoid the early part of rush hour traffic. I had hoped to pop into the gift shop to purchase a specific Marlins hat (I like the logo, sue me). As we walked toward the gift shop the sky opened up and a massive storm soaked the area. We were free from the rain since we were in the concourse...but then again, in retrospect, maybe the rain would have been the best option.

Thousands of campers and their guardians flooded the concourse in an effort to stay dry. What had been the most open part of the stadium turned into a traffic nightmare. There were thousands of them. Some going one way, some going the other way and some not going any which way.

We eventually found the gift shop and they had run out of the type of hat I wanted.

The rain finally let up and we were able to return to our car but not before I snapped the above photo of bus upon bus in the parking lot waiting to take a load of wet, smelly, sugary children back home.
The Marlins won the game (or so I was told after we left).

Our lovely little rental

We decided we wanted to rent a car to get around Miami and the Keys. We settled on a full size car since I wasn't that interested in tearing up the town in a tuna can on wheels. So Lisa booked us one Hotwire.com. We didn't know what we were getting nor who we were getting it from but upon arriving at Budget, we were fortunate enough to be the proud drivers of this little number, a Toyota Matrix. It's a four door hatchback with plenty of room to spare. The AC worked (which was fantastic) and one of the ammenities was a thermometer in the dashboard (which was routinely showing 90-105 on our trip). It handled like a dream, didn't guzzle gas and was comfortable, served us well and was cherry red (the first time I've driven a bright red car). I must say, we thoroughly enjoyed the Matrix experience.

Welcome to our website!

Hi everyone,

Lisa and I would like to thank you for dropping by our blog to see what's happening in our life. We're going to start off with our recent 7 days and 7 nights in Miami and the Florida Keys. We returned last night despite our better judgement. It was such an excellent vacation that Lisa and I (okay, mostly I) would happily leave the day to day stress of life behind to sit on a beach, sip a cold beer and enjoy the multicultural melting pot that is Miami and the Keys.
Alas, not everyone can be Ernest Hemmingway.
In the future this will be the best place to see pictures and get updates of what and how we're doing.
Without further ado, let us delve into the nuttiness that was our recent vacation.

Love,
Lisa & David