Southern Florida Escape - Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Keys

Day 1 - Left SLC at 5:15 pm and landed at midnight in Miami, caught the shuttle to the hotel and woke up early for the second day.

Day 2 - Got the rental car and they tried to give us a small car after we paid for a full size and we fixed that with an Infinity Q60, yes it was a sweet ride for the week. We left and went to South Pointe Park, Miami and walked out on the pier and up the beach for a while. We took a few pictures and waded in the water a little. We went to lunch at Scully's Tavern and it it did not disappoint. I think this make 20 Triple D spots we have hit in our travels. After lunch we made our way to the condo. Condo? is a stretch for this place, Ft. Lauderdale Beach Resort and resort is definitely a stretch of the imagination for this place. We checked in and landed on the 9th floor. This place was tagged as a 4 star resort and it is lucky to be a 2 star. A converted hotel, located a block off the beach which was the plus part of this place. The area was the more run down part of Ft. Lauderdale. We made the best of it and realized we only needed to sleep there. AC worked good thank goodness. We went to the beach that afternoon and the water was a nice warm water and the surf was easy. We hung out on the beach for a couple hours and then went back to our room for a quick shower. First of the follies, the shower door fell over on each of us and we had to call maintenance to fix it. We finished up and went down the block the Parrot Tavern a local place with decent food. That evening we sat on the balcony and watched the waves and ship lights turn on.

Day 3 - Sally signed us up for a presentation! 3 hours later for a supposed 1 hour thing we hit the road but had a visa card with $100. Good thing from it though was our presenter told us a lot of things to do in the area. So we followed his advice and bought a ticket on the water taxi for the day. We boarded at the Double Tree Inn and rode it all day. You could get on and off at any stop. We checked some of the areas and then got lunch on Olas Ave. the hot spot for food and entertainment. We found a good place and had lunch on the visa card. This area of Florida is home to the most, biggest and most expensive yachts, Ft. Lauderdale is built on and around canals and homes line them. Each home has a dock and generally has a yacht parked there. We seen Stephen King's old yacht at 176 feet he is having a bigger one built. We seen yacht that spanned 250 feet plus and they were amazing! Most of them are registered in a different country to get around taxes and labor laws. My poor little Fish Steeler wasn't as big as the dingy's these boats use to transfer back and forth with. It was amazing seeing all the boats. We passed by the sand bar gathering spot where boats come in and anchor up all day and party. We seen it early with the tide out and then later with the tide in and it had risen about 4 feet people still partying. We watched the taxi driver's pay the toll to the bridge keepers! We made our way back to the condo and went to the beach again for a while and then out to dinner.

Guide Psycho Paul

Day 4 - Everglades Alligator Farm!! We woke early and headed south to the Everglades and first stop was the alligator farm. Here we rode the Airboat into the everglades and got to see up close and personal a number of alligators and turtles. The boat ride was great! Our driver Psycho Paul made it fun and we got soaked! We toured the rest of the farm and seen the shows they put on with snakes, alligators and feeding time. We ate the food truck, where I had to have....alligator of course, mine was much better than Sally's. We left here and headed farther south into the Everglades National Park, where we got our stamps. We drove to end of the road and stopped at the Flamingo Visitor Center and seen Manatees swimming around in the shallows, that was awesome. From here we drove to the Biscayne National Park and walked out onto the jetty about a quarter mile. Seen some fishers and a lot of small fry fish in the shallows. Got the history of the park and our stamp. We headed south from here looking for dinner. We tried the South Beach spots only to find it packed with people and cars. South Beach is definitely a sight to see, but be prepared to cough up some cash for parking. We didn't stop and headed back toward Ft. Lauderdale. We got something to eat and went to the beach for the evening.

Day 5 - Flamingo Gardens is a local garden and wildlife refuge. We had seen it advertised and decided to give it a shot. We arrived at opening and spent the morning there. We seen a bird show and went on the train tour around the grounds of the 80 acre park. We visited all the sites and the flamingo pool. It was alright and for the kids they had a quite a few things to do and interact with. They had dinosaurs all around the park giving a history of them. From here we found lunch a good spot, Blue Moon Diner off the beaten path and local for sure. Great food and prices. After lunch we headed to the Swap Shop. The Swap Shop is a flea market of all sorts of stuff. It was huge but the prices were not flea market level. The best thing there was we ran into the elders of the are and visited with them for a few minutes, one from Riverton and the other from Farmington. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the condo and spent the evening at the beach.

Capt. Jay

Day 6 - Florida Keys!!  We drove south onto highway 1 and traveled to the end landing in Key West. We woke up early and made it to Key West by 9 am. We spent the day touring and walking around Key West from Duval Street south. We parked at the hotel we were staying in that night and rode the shuttle to the south end of the key. We walked around for a little bit had lunch on the pier and got a couple pictures of Margaritaville and then rented a scooter to go see some of the sights. The scooter was an interesting time for sure, but we made it and have some memories form it. We stopped at Ernest Hemingway's home and the light house and then went to the farthest point south and took a picture. We drove around on the scooter for a couple hours before we decided we better turn it in before we killed ourselves. After that we went back the hotel and got ready for our dinner cruise and fireworks show. It was the 4th of July and we watched the fireworks form the Atlantic Ocean! The dinner cruise was a hoot!! People were drunk getting on the baot and continued to get drunker, there was a party that had renewed their wedding vows on their 20th anniversary and they made the whole trip fun and let us hang out with them. The sunset was great and the fireworks show was splendid! We made our way back to the dock and caught the last shuttle out of old town. We made it back to the hotel and went for a midnight dip in the pool. We didn't scream like Chevy because the water was nice and warm.

Day 7 - We made our way back up the keys this time taking our time and seeing the sights. We stopped at the Green Turtle another Triple D spot and enjoyed a good lunch and then we stopped at the World Wide Sportsman Headquarters in Islamorada. Sally put up with me during this time and let me look for a couple hours and buy a couple things, she even bought a shirt. After that stop we continued on and stopped a couple times to look around and then back up to the condo. We went to the beach again, stopped at the Permanti Brothers shop picked up a pizza for dinner and rested that evening.

Day 8 - We rested and slept in. We didn't have real plans for the day other than to go see the Dolphins Stadium. The Hard Rock Stadium was cool but we couldn't go in, they were renovating it. We did get to go to the team store and get a couple pictures. Neither of us being Dolphins or Canes fans it was cool to see. we tried once again to get into South Beach and have lunch, but were turned away again with no parking available so we went back to the Blue Moon Diner again it was great!  We returned to the condo readied our stuff for departure the next morning went to the beach and finished off the pizza.

Day 9 - We boarded at 7:15 am and were home by 10:30 am in PG. What a great trip! Highlights were definitely the airboat ride and the fireworks for me. I think Sally would also include the Everglades National Park. We won't travel that direction again during the summer months, the weather was great but it was also hot and very humid!! Next summer we are going for the north regions and Canada.