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sarahmichiganTuesday
A friend was nice enough to get up early on New Year's Day to drive through lots of slippery snow and delivered us in plenty of time to Detroit Metro airport. We were delayed by de-icing and ended up missing our connection in Atlanta because there had only been 45 minutes between when our flight arrived and the connection went out. We were guaranteed a flight out at 4:18 but told we could try to fly out standby on the 11:02, 1:06 or 3 p.m. flights. The 11:02 was packed and we didn't get on, but did get on the 1:06 p.m. flight and ended up in Ft. Lauderdale in mid-afternoon. We rented a car and drove up the Oceanfront Drive in pouring rain to our hotel, the fanciest Travelodge I had seen to date. They're generally pretty utilitarian looking, but ours had that Spanish/Caribbean look that most of Florida's architecture has, and lots of beautiful landscaping, terraces for having breakfast, and a pool. The rain tapered off, and it was warm (72 degrees) and humid, so we switched into shorts and went looking for dinner.
We stopped at the Winn/Dixie supermarket and got beer & bagged salad and had a veggie & cheese sub made fresh at their deli. It was stuffed full of probably a third of a pound of three different kinds of cheeses, plus a ton of veggie, including roasted red peppers and cucumbers, so full that they squirted out when we tried to eat them. Seriously, one of the best veggie & cheese subs I've had in my life. We cut through the lobby of the resort across the street to get to their beach access. The desk clerk at our hotel said we probably wouldn't have any problems, but if anybody questioned us, we should just tell them we wanted to check out the beach front Tiki Bar. We were later to learn that every damn 20 miles or less there's a "World Famous Tiki Bar." It was past sunset, but still a little light out and plenty warm as we walked with our feet in the Atlantic ocean and watched the sandpipers running toward the waves and then away from the waves, peeping all the time. Why has nobody ever told me how freaking cute sandpipers are?!
Came back to the hotel, and I took a swim in their pool, we watched "Legally Blonde" on the TV, and looked at the weather forecast. It was supposed to be cool and windy all over south Florida, so we figured instead of dealing with cool and windy in Ft. Lauderdale, at least we would see something unique and would go explore the Florida Keys the next day.
Wednesday
Wednesday morning, it was about 48 degrees when we went out to the terrace where they serve the continental breakfast. We layered up and started out on South 1, a slow but scenic route through the heart of Lauderdale and its suburbs and Miami and it's 'burbs. Eventually, south of Miami, we'd had enough of Palm trees and strip clubs, so we cut over to the toll road and took that down to Florida City. We passed by the Everglades National park and got to see lots of mangrove swamp. It's cool for about 2 minutes and then it gets a bit boring. Finally, got to Key Largo.
It was cool (low 60s) and windy even that far south, so most of our trip was a car tour. We kept remarking on the strange color of the water, especially on the Gulf Side. I kept remarking that you never see that "Seafoam green" from crayon boxes as a color of bodies of water in real life, but that was the color of the water that day. Our first major stop, besides the Visitor's Bureau, was Harry Harris Beach on Key Largo. You can see Jeff by a palm tree here. This also gives you and idea how windy it was that day.
I kept saying that I wanted to eat somewhere they'd have authentic local food, either Cuban or seafood. I didn't want to eat at a local chain. After a couple of misses (one place was closed, another had a long line of people waiting to be served), we ended up on Grassy Key at The Wreck and Galley Restaurant. I think they had some people call off work, because it was a zoo. The manager was serving food herself, and people were ignoring the sign-up list and were just seating themselves as tables became free. We ended up eating at the bar. The fries were mediocre but the blackened mahi I had was delicious, and J. enjoyed his tuna steak sandwich as well. The bathroom was out of toilet paper and they had a roll of paper towel set on their dirty floor instead. I sure got the authentic local experience there!
It was next to a "Dolphin Research Center" where you pay $20 jut to get in and touch a dolphin's head and upwards of $100 to go swimming with the dolphins. This was all out of our budget, and it was a bit cool for water adventures anyway, so we never got past the gift shop. We continued on, stopping occasionally take some photos. We kept seeing hawks and pelicans, but I never got any really good shots. One of the cooler parts was the Seven Mile Bridge. The new bridge runs right next to the old bridge. You can tell why they stopped using the old bridge; it got really old, and it's full of gaps, like this one here. Part of the bridge still is intact, and it runs out to a really small isolated key that has a few houses on it, which can be seen here (sorry, not a great photo). You can see that just by the electrical pole, there's another gap in the bridge. No access from that side!
We only got as far as Bahia Key and decided not to push on to Key West since it would have put us back at the hotel really late, and we had an early flight back home the next day. On the way back, we stopped at Anne's Beach, which is on Lower Metacumbe, part of the Islamorada chain of keys. We got to see lots of wading egrets. You can see here that we were there at sunset. I think the people in this picture are dressed in white on purpose so as not to startle the egrets when they waded out near them.
Also on the way back, we stopped at a Wild Bird Sanctuary, which is basically just somebody's house on a salt marsh and a bunch of cages for rehabilitating hawks, owls, pelicans, egrets and herons. The pelican just above the sign in this photo is a statue, but all the other ones (including the ones on the roof) are all real, wild egrets and pelicans. In this photo, it looks like there's only the one pelican in the middle, but you can also see the butt of a second one in the lower right. I tried not to get to close to scare them, but they were pretty fearless. In fact, one of these guys followed us around, probably thinking he was getting a hand-out.
We got back to the hotel after picking up some food and dropping off the film for processing around 7:30 p.m. after having left our hotel about 9 that morning. A lot of driving (with SCARY drivers), but it was fun and educational. They had signs in the Keys saying they had many fatalities in 2007 and so to drive safely. I have an idea why this is so; there's little traffic control on the keys in terms of lights to regulate traffic flow, and the lanes are narrow, without much in the way of passing lanes. If you want to turn left or get into busy traffic, you basically need to dart out in front of people. At first, we were freaking out about it, but eventually, we had to drive a little crazy, too, to get in and out of anywhere.
Thursday
We only got about 5 hours of sleep, interrupted by college party kids screaming and slamming doors next door. Woke up at 3:15 a.m. to take the rental car back and go through security for our 5:40 a.m. flight. Got back into Detroit a little late, but not much, and the same kind friend picked us up. Had to shovel out the driveway when we returned. I was gifted with a lovely cold that I'm still fighting off today. Yesterday, between the beginnings of a cold and the sleep deprivation, I felt pretty much like hell, but I got 12 hours of sleep last night and lots of liquids, and while I still feel sick, I'm not quite as wiped as I was yesterday.
We managed to go on vacation in what was probably the coldest week of the whole year, a week when the orange farmer's were panicking about frost. But I still had a good time, and at least I got to go walk barefoot in the Atlantic one day and explore the Keys another day.
On today's agenda- vegging.
A friend was nice enough to get up early on New Year's Day to drive through lots of slippery snow and delivered us in plenty of time to Detroit Metro airport. We were delayed by de-icing and ended up missing our connection in Atlanta because there had only been 45 minutes between when our flight arrived and the connection went out. We were guaranteed a flight out at 4:18 but told we could try to fly out standby on the 11:02, 1:06 or 3 p.m. flights. The 11:02 was packed and we didn't get on, but did get on the 1:06 p.m. flight and ended up in Ft. Lauderdale in mid-afternoon. We rented a car and drove up the Oceanfront Drive in pouring rain to our hotel, the fanciest Travelodge I had seen to date. They're generally pretty utilitarian looking, but ours had that Spanish/Caribbean look that most of Florida's architecture has, and lots of beautiful landscaping, terraces for having breakfast, and a pool. The rain tapered off, and it was warm (72 degrees) and humid, so we switched into shorts and went looking for dinner.
We stopped at the Winn/Dixie supermarket and got beer & bagged salad and had a veggie & cheese sub made fresh at their deli. It was stuffed full of probably a third of a pound of three different kinds of cheeses, plus a ton of veggie, including roasted red peppers and cucumbers, so full that they squirted out when we tried to eat them. Seriously, one of the best veggie & cheese subs I've had in my life. We cut through the lobby of the resort across the street to get to their beach access. The desk clerk at our hotel said we probably wouldn't have any problems, but if anybody questioned us, we should just tell them we wanted to check out the beach front Tiki Bar. We were later to learn that every damn 20 miles or less there's a "World Famous Tiki Bar." It was past sunset, but still a little light out and plenty warm as we walked with our feet in the Atlantic ocean and watched the sandpipers running toward the waves and then away from the waves, peeping all the time. Why has nobody ever told me how freaking cute sandpipers are?!
Came back to the hotel, and I took a swim in their pool, we watched "Legally Blonde" on the TV, and looked at the weather forecast. It was supposed to be cool and windy all over south Florida, so we figured instead of dealing with cool and windy in Ft. Lauderdale, at least we would see something unique and would go explore the Florida Keys the next day.
Wednesday
Wednesday morning, it was about 48 degrees when we went out to the terrace where they serve the continental breakfast. We layered up and started out on South 1, a slow but scenic route through the heart of Lauderdale and its suburbs and Miami and it's 'burbs. Eventually, south of Miami, we'd had enough of Palm trees and strip clubs, so we cut over to the toll road and took that down to Florida City. We passed by the Everglades National park and got to see lots of mangrove swamp. It's cool for about 2 minutes and then it gets a bit boring. Finally, got to Key Largo.
It was cool (low 60s) and windy even that far south, so most of our trip was a car tour. We kept remarking on the strange color of the water, especially on the Gulf Side. I kept remarking that you never see that "Seafoam green" from crayon boxes as a color of bodies of water in real life, but that was the color of the water that day. Our first major stop, besides the Visitor's Bureau, was Harry Harris Beach on Key Largo. You can see Jeff by a palm tree here. This also gives you and idea how windy it was that day.
I kept saying that I wanted to eat somewhere they'd have authentic local food, either Cuban or seafood. I didn't want to eat at a local chain. After a couple of misses (one place was closed, another had a long line of people waiting to be served), we ended up on Grassy Key at The Wreck and Galley Restaurant. I think they had some people call off work, because it was a zoo. The manager was serving food herself, and people were ignoring the sign-up list and were just seating themselves as tables became free. We ended up eating at the bar. The fries were mediocre but the blackened mahi I had was delicious, and J. enjoyed his tuna steak sandwich as well. The bathroom was out of toilet paper and they had a roll of paper towel set on their dirty floor instead. I sure got the authentic local experience there!
It was next to a "Dolphin Research Center" where you pay $20 jut to get in and touch a dolphin's head and upwards of $100 to go swimming with the dolphins. This was all out of our budget, and it was a bit cool for water adventures anyway, so we never got past the gift shop. We continued on, stopping occasionally take some photos. We kept seeing hawks and pelicans, but I never got any really good shots. One of the cooler parts was the Seven Mile Bridge. The new bridge runs right next to the old bridge. You can tell why they stopped using the old bridge; it got really old, and it's full of gaps, like this one here. Part of the bridge still is intact, and it runs out to a really small isolated key that has a few houses on it, which can be seen here (sorry, not a great photo). You can see that just by the electrical pole, there's another gap in the bridge. No access from that side!
We only got as far as Bahia Key and decided not to push on to Key West since it would have put us back at the hotel really late, and we had an early flight back home the next day. On the way back, we stopped at Anne's Beach, which is on Lower Metacumbe, part of the Islamorada chain of keys. We got to see lots of wading egrets. You can see here that we were there at sunset. I think the people in this picture are dressed in white on purpose so as not to startle the egrets when they waded out near them.
Also on the way back, we stopped at a Wild Bird Sanctuary, which is basically just somebody's house on a salt marsh and a bunch of cages for rehabilitating hawks, owls, pelicans, egrets and herons. The pelican just above the sign in this photo is a statue, but all the other ones (including the ones on the roof) are all real, wild egrets and pelicans. In this photo, it looks like there's only the one pelican in the middle, but you can also see the butt of a second one in the lower right. I tried not to get to close to scare them, but they were pretty fearless. In fact, one of these guys followed us around, probably thinking he was getting a hand-out.
We got back to the hotel after picking up some food and dropping off the film for processing around 7:30 p.m. after having left our hotel about 9 that morning. A lot of driving (with SCARY drivers), but it was fun and educational. They had signs in the Keys saying they had many fatalities in 2007 and so to drive safely. I have an idea why this is so; there's little traffic control on the keys in terms of lights to regulate traffic flow, and the lanes are narrow, without much in the way of passing lanes. If you want to turn left or get into busy traffic, you basically need to dart out in front of people. At first, we were freaking out about it, but eventually, we had to drive a little crazy, too, to get in and out of anywhere.
Thursday
We only got about 5 hours of sleep, interrupted by college party kids screaming and slamming doors next door. Woke up at 3:15 a.m. to take the rental car back and go through security for our 5:40 a.m. flight. Got back into Detroit a little late, but not much, and the same kind friend picked us up. Had to shovel out the driveway when we returned. I was gifted with a lovely cold that I'm still fighting off today. Yesterday, between the beginnings of a cold and the sleep deprivation, I felt pretty much like hell, but I got 12 hours of sleep last night and lots of liquids, and while I still feel sick, I'm not quite as wiped as I was yesterday.
We managed to go on vacation in what was probably the coldest week of the whole year, a week when the orange farmer's were panicking about frost. But I still had a good time, and at least I got to go walk barefoot in the Atlantic one day and explore the Keys another day.
On today's agenda- vegging.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:38 pm (UTC)I don't really allow myself future plans right now, but I do daydream about the kinds of vacations I will take when I feel I can comfortably go more than 60 miles from a UM-affiliated hospital.