Florida Getaway

In June, Bryan & I went on a week long vacation without Colby. Our parents took care of him while we were gone. We wanted to do something big to celebrate both of us being done with school and our upcoming 5 year anniversary. We stayed at the Marriott Beach Place Towers Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Arrived on Sunday and just hung out there. On Monday we drove down to the Florida Keys. Then the rest of the week we spent at the beach in Ft. Lauderdale and shopping around the town. We went on an awesome airboat ride. Then we flew home the following Sunday. (Sorry it is a long post)

HOTEL & AIRPORT:

Eating dinner at the airport in Atlanta, and waiting for our rental car in Fl.

Our rental car, we wish...our real rental. It was a pretty nice Mazda.

Our hotel & the beach in Ft. Lauderdale


our room & the view from it.

Yes, this is the real color of the water. It is the natural color of the drinking water in Florida and it is safe to drink.

THE FLORIDA KEYS:

Map of the keys. So we started out in Ft. Lauderdale and ended up in Key West, the most south of the keys. I put the map in so you would have an idea of where each of the places we stopped at were. We stopped at each of the major islands: Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Lower Keys & Key West.


everglades on the way to Key Largo

Sombrero Beach (Marathon)
This was the first beach we stopped at. It was beautiful. As we came in their were warning signs about the water creatures such as the man of war. I knew I had heard of these, but I forgot that they were one of the most dangerous jellyfish. Luckily, we didn't see any.


this beach was beyond beautiful and so isolated.


Anne's Beach in Islamorada (keys)


This beach was crystal clear, but definitely not for swimming. It was really shallow.

Seven-Mile Bridge (between Marathon & Lower Keys)
Yes, it is a 7-mile long bridge spanning across the ocean. It connects Marathon to the Lower Keys. We walked part way across the old bridge which was originally used for to carry cargo in a train.


walking across the historic bridge

the new bridge (left)

the bridge...

more of the bridge... It was an awesome drive.

Bahia Honda State Park (Lower Keys)
We went snorkeling here. This was as far as we originally planned driving. The water was so clear and the fish we not far off.

An old bridge


Snorkeling


We saw a ton of fish for how close we were to the shore. They were more colorful in person.

The huge fish that swam by our heads. It was somewhere between 1 1/2-2 feet long.

a manta ray by where we were swimming. The water isn't as clear in some areas because of the sea grass below.



Key West
We did not plan on going all the way down to Key West since it would be about a 4 hour drive back to Ft. L., but we were only 30-40 minutes away after we crossed the 7-mile bridge and decided why not. We planned our trip based on the weather, so we went on Monday and that is the day all the cruise ships arrive in Key West. Luckily, the people do not adventure to the other islands. Even though the drive was long there & back it was worth it. It is a once in a lifetime experience to drive down the keys. You can take a boat ride to Key West but I don't think that would be as great of an experience. I would highly recommend driving it at least once. We made many stops on the way to Key West and back. I liked the overall look of Key Largo and how it was not as busy. We just wish we would have made it back in time to snorkel at John Pennecamp State Park. But we did have a great Key Lime Freeze at Mrs. Mac's Kitchen.

what the walkways look like in Key West. You can't really tell but Bryan is walking in this picture.

Having lunch at Paradise Cafe. Bryan got the foot long and it came with a pound of meat. It was on delicious cuban bread.

Higg's Beach, behind Bryan there is a broken down old bridge.

this is what was left of the bridge

This is the Southern Most Point in the Continental U.S.. We wanted to stop to get out to get a picture here, but there was a loooong line, so we just took a picture.


FORT LAUDERDALE ADVENTURES:

Bryan pretending to body surf. There were really no waves. It was more like a warm swimming pool.

Bryan what reading?! This is the first book besides school books I have ever seen him read for enjoyment.

Before we went on vacation, we looked at different places to eat. We found an amazing ice cream place, Jaxon's Ice Cream Parlor. It was the most amazing homemade praline pecan ice cream. We bought it to take home. The ice cream man added 4 extra scoops we he heard we were taking it back with us. We also found a good Mexican Food Cafe, Zona Fresca. It was much better than the mex. restaurant we went too.


WALK across the DRAWBRIDGE:

One night we decided to go on a walk. We started out at the beach and ended up going across this cool drawbridge and intercostal waterway to the fatty neighborhood.

While we were walking the over the intercostal, the drawbridge starting opening. It was pretty cool to stand there and watch it.

This is a view of the intercostal waterway. You can actually take a watertaxi from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami on this waterway. It is just another way to travel. Also the fancy yachts come through her to get to their homes. You can see some of the big homes in the background.


Random pics of the us & the area.

Watching the boat pass through at a park.

AIRBOAT ADVENTURES:
We went to the everglades for an airboat ride at Sawgrass Recreational Park. It was incredible. Bryan said it was like flying on water. We saw about 5 alligators and then went to an animal area after the boat ride.

Waiting for the airboat tour. The fish in the upper right corner looks very similar to a fish we saw while snorkeling in the keys. It was about the same size too.

While standing here waiting for our tour we saw this alligator below.

It was only about 20 feet away.

This airboat held about 20 people. We were lucky to sit in the front row.

Along the way we stopped and this was the alligator next to the boat. Later we stopped and another alligator was right next to the boat.

Bryan sitting by the sign that warns you to not get to close to the water.

Video to come...