For the second half of our vacation, we visited the Florida Keys – staying in a great townhome in Islamorada we rented for a week from Homeaway.com.
We rented a car on the second to last day at Disney and drove from Orlando to Islamorada ~ about 5 hours. We looked at several options (flying out of Miami or Key West), but in the end, driving down and back was the least expensive and cleanest option.
The Florida Keys starts in Key Largo at the North and end in Key West, about 110 miles. Everything is based on mile markers (MM), so starting from the south, Key West is a MM 0, and Islamorada is 85. The other large town on the keys is Marathon around mile marker 55.
We stayed at a townhome at Angler’s Reef In Islamorada, a 52 unit facility on the Atlantic side. The house was a two bedroom (very spacious for us) with full kitchen, three baths, and a large living room. The gated complex has a nice pool, a sandy beach, and boat slips. A nice place, but in retrospect we’d wished we’d spent a little more to get a pool front unit with a better view and to be able to hang out at the pool while Kyle was in the house.
On the arrival day, we had a dinner reservation at Lazy Days Restaurant in Islamorada, with a great balcony ocean view table. Deb had mahi-mahi that she said was good, and I had a seafood platter which was so-so. I think Kyle picked a burger.
On day one we took off back north to visit the Everglades. En route to Shark Valley, we stopped at “Robert Is Here” fruit stand in Homestead. This is a good example why I like to do a lot of research for trips. Had I not, we never would have given this place a second look. Not your average fruit stand, they specialize in tropical fruits, so we bought a few to sample back at the townhouse including passion fruit, black sapote, mamey sapote, canistel, and guanabana. We liked the black sapote best, which when ripe is a pretty miserable looking thing, and the pulp is very soft and black, tasting like chocolate pudding …sort of. They are also famous for their fruit shakes which we of course had to try.
We headed off to Shark Valley which is the park headquarters on the northern side of Everglades NP. We took a 2 hr tram ride through the saw grass marsh prairie where we saw many birds and at least 50 crocodiles. We took the tram tour option because of Kyle, but given a choice, would have preferred to do the 15-mile route on bikes.
On day two we took off south past Marathon to visit Bahia Honda state park, touted as one of the best beaches in America. It was ok, and it turns out that award was from 1992, as the beaches we saw were largely covered with seaweed. This is a good time to say that the Florida Keys really has pretty poor “beaches”. Most are rocky shorelines, or weedy shores, or muddy. Because of the offshore reef, there is no surf, and the water depth is very shallow everywhere.
On the way home, there was a big accident on US 1, closing the highway for 3 hours, (there is only one road) so we decided to take a break and stopped for an ice cream cone and while there noticed a place renting kayaks … so we rented a couple for an hour. Paddling the estuary, we stopped to watch a dolphin training facility.
We came back that afternoon and hung out at the great pool at Angler’s Reef.
On day 3, on a whim we decided to take an eco tour with Caribbean Water Sports in Key Largo. This is a 5-passenger Kodiak inflatable with a tour captain. It was a whim because I had researched it on Tripadvisor as the #1 attraction on Key Largo, it is a little spendy at $60 each, so I didn’t think we’d want to do it. It was the highlight of our Keys visit and I am really glad we decided to do it. We spent about 3 hours exploring and learning the history and geography of mangrove forests in the southern portion of the everglades NP, saw many cool birds, fossilized coral reefs, Indian boat trails, and near the end had a close up and personal play time with a jellyfish and a pod of manatees.
little jellyfish
A kestrel
On day 4, we decided to take a break and just hang out at the pool, check out some local shops and hit a beach. My preconception about the Keys is that it would be lined with small funky beach hotels and shops. While there are many funky places, the big towns have large grocery stores, big hotels, and expensive restaurants. It’s nice, but not the mellow funky beach place Jimmy Buffet sings about. Anyway, the beach we went to wasn’t very good, so we came back to the house and hit the pool and played some games.
That night we went to a nice small seaside restaurant called the Hungry Tarpon. Really good fish tacos…our kind of place
Day 5 was planned as an excursion to Key West, a 2-hour drive from our place. It was an ugly day weather-wise, so a nice day for travel. I really enjoyed the drive down and you really get to see all of the keys.
Key West is a lot larger than expected and touristy. We had pre-purchased cheaper tickets online for a tram tour of the town, which really wasn’t necessary – the interesting part is not that big. A big draw is Hemingway house, which Kyle wouldn’t enjoy, so we passed on that. We went to the southernmost point in the US, and walked around the Duvall street and the wharf area.
So here’s what I think the city fathers discussed when laying out Duvall street, the main drag in Key West: “OK guys, so we’re all agreement that the layout of the street will be: a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, Hemingway House, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, a bar, tee shirt shop, then a bar… right?” Perhaps it’s because it’s a cruise ship port, but aside from the great place we ate at for lunch: Lobo’s grill, we really didn’t like Key West very much. Smelly and crowded with a lot of bars and tee shirt shops. I bought a hat.
For Day 6, our last full day in the Keys, we decided to take an excursion up to Key Largo to take the glass bottom boat reef tour at Pennecamp State Park. Most of this park is underwater as it is a big draw for snorkeling and scuba. Since Kyle can’t snorkel, this was a great way to see the reef. The state park was beautiful and the beaches weren’t too bad – certainly the best we saw on the trip. The boat trip takes you out 6 miles to the reef then scoots around looking at the reef area while a narrator described what you were seeing. The best thing we saw was a sea turtle. Kyle really enjoyed the trip.
We were given a free pass to observe at a local swim with the dolphins place, so we did that too. It was pretty cool, but I couldn’t see spending $150 each to do it.
That night we went to another great restaurant in Islamorada, Ma’s Fish House. We both had fish of the day - Deb had grouper and I had hogfish and both were excellent.
The next day, we made the trek back to Orlando and stayed at a hotel one night before we flew back home the next day.
All in all, we really enjoyed seeing the Florida Keys, particularly the Key Largo and Islamorada areas. I think if you did some deep sea fishing, snorkeling, or scuba diving, which is the Key’s claim to fame, you’d get more out of a visit there – but we still had fun, enjoyed the warm weather and stayed busy.
Next blog entry: planning a trip to Walt Disney World
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