Florida Keys 12.2.11

Key West….Key Largo….Marathon….Grassy Key….  Did you know there are over 800 islands in the Florida Keys?!  What a great place.  I’ll definitely be back here – 5 days just isn’t enough time to explore the area and experience it.  And there’s waaayyy too many places claiming to have the ‘world’s best key lime pie’ – I must try them all to decide!  Haha…  And I can't seem to get the 'Cocomo' song out of my head...

We left Miami and cruised down the waterway, stopping for what we had planned for the week in Marathon, which is at the mid-way point in the Keys. 

The bridges were awesome….

We had waited until the last minute to find a campsite in the Keys and found it was incredibly expensive down here – sites were starting at about $60 a night!  That’s a little too rich for our blood (not to mention our budget!) but after some severe searching and lots of phone calls, thought we had scored with a site that was only $30 a night.  We stopped & paid for all week….and then were shown our site, located very close to the highway.  Hmmm…we figured we could still stick it out but after one sleepless night, agreed it was unacceptable and went elsewhere. 

We drove down to Key West, the furthest South Key in the U.S. and made sure to visit the furthest spot South to get our picture taken…

We drove to the end of the road…

We went to Mallory Square for the Sunset celebration…  During the sunset celebration, Mallory Square is packed with vendors & street performers – some good, some amazing, and some just asking for money.  One particular performer was a couple – one on the guitar, one playing the spoons, playing crazy backwoods music.  The only thing good about their act was their dog who if you would hold out a dollar bill, he would come by & take it and drop it in the tip jar.  I guess whatever works!  There was even a Jack Sparrow imitator, who had his moves down great but wasn’t even close in the looks department.  Haha…  Like I said, a carnival/party town feel. 

We sat on the pier and drank foofy drinks, listened to the live music, & watched as the boats went by…

It was gorgeous & crazy.  I thought it had a mardi-gras feel – a party town.  We saw a one-man parade…he was riding down the street on his bicycle that was decked out from head to toe in lights and was blasting the same song over & over again.  And people were walking down the streets with drinks in their hands (my kind of town!)  There were bars upon bars and lots of stores vying for you to spend money.  One place had a guy who was standing outside hollering ‘Everything’s $5 inside’…and when you went inside and were looking, someone came by to tell you that everything was $5.  Like you missed getting by the guy in the first place!  Haha…  The streets & restaurants were packed as there were two cruise ships in town, Disney & Carnival.  Michael and I both laughed as we saw a man buy a case of sodas & a case of beer.  He poured the sodas in the trash & stocked the beer into the soda case, then placed a couple of sodas on top.  Must’ve been off of the cruise ship!  Haha…

Even the seagulls were posing…

Our campsite was located right on the water…haha!  Well, it was located on the water near the mangroves!  And at a whopping $60!!

The next day we spent a few hours just lounging on the beach.  Ahhh….now this is more like it!  :-)

We left & went to a new campground called the Jolly Roger Travel Park where we spent the next 3 nights.  Now this was much more our style.  Our campsite was located right on the seawall and we were rewarded with spectacular sunsets every evening.

And even went swimming…

We kicked back as we’ve been rushing along lately so we did a lot of nothing – meeting fellow campers, reading, and just plain relaxing.  Ahhh…  :-)  If it weren’t so darned expensive to camp down here we would stay the whole next week.  Oh well…we’ll have to come back! 

Heading to Orlando for 2 weeks…

More to follow…

Rene