Life is a Highway.....

So where'd we last leave off? Aaah, yes Thursday evening. Friday is kind of a short day, so we went to play mini golf up in Dania Beach, had a few minutes for...what else? SKEE BALLL! Then down to lower Miami Beach were we spent time with the inlaws. Saturday night we visited with a cousin in North Miami, went to get a quick bite and a mojito for me (that glass was HUUUUUGE!), and well, I don't remember much else about that night!

Sunday was great. It was very windy, but we went down to the beach with some books and diet cokes. MBB didn't last that long, but after three hours I met him near the empty pool area (it was windy and cool, but the water is heated), and he went swimming. After a little while we'd had enough sun, and sunday being sunday we watched some football, went to dinner and watched more football. It was a real vacation day. Lazy, and relaxed. I don't like to do too much on a sunday since places tend to be crowded, since everyone is off. So this was just a perfect day. For me anyway.

Monday, we (gasp!) got up early (relatively!), got some provisions and headed down to Key Largo. It's about 85 miles from where we were staying, and we took the highway down Florida City and US 1 into Key Largo. The plan was to go Snorkeling and one of the boats that have set tours, but a) we got down there a little too late (I guess we didn't get up early enough!) b) many of the snorkeling boats didn't go out because they didn't have enough people c) we realized that the only way for us to go snorkeling comfortably would be with a private boat, and we had done that once before, and didn't want to spend the money.

So we went back to John Pennekamp State Park, where we had (luckily, once we realized it wasn't really for us)missed a boat by minutes. It's not like we parked and saw we missed the boat, as soon as we pulled in you stop to pay to enter the park, and the ranger suggested we try one of the other places on US-1 that had later tours. That's when we found out that no one was really in Key Largo today who wanted to snorkel (or as MBB likes to say Shnorkel), so we made our way back to JPSP, paid our lovely state park price of 6 bucks, and went to rent kayaks.

The canoe/Kayak trail in this park is a very placid mangrove creek. The water is salt water, obviously, since it is off the ocean, and we took a double- sit- on- top Kayak. We saw a cute little crab, and the mangroves themselves I found fascinating. They don't seem to be rooted in the bottom, the roots just float in the water. they're think in many places, and create their own islands in other. We saw some really nice birds in stunning colors, and hopefully didn't scare them too badly as I had difficulty with the whole right goes left and left goes right thing. MBB was none too pleased, but then we got into a groove it was a really nice time.

The whole way down we saw sign for a place called Sandal Outlet, and a little note, like a burst on the side that said "T-shirts 3 for $10." You all know about MBB and t-shirts, so needless to say we found the Sandal Outlet. What a scam! The place that advertises literally EVERY MILE once you get into Key Largo that they have 3 for $10 LIED!!!! It's a big store with lots of Sandals and t-shirts. So I asked if all the t-shirts were 3 for ten. Nope. Only the ones in the back corner. Ok, not bad. THERE WAS ONE! 1! UNO! Round clothing rack that had a bunch of ugly t-shirts on it, and the sign on top of it said "3 for $10.99." I was so annoyed we left. Even though we didn't look at everything there. I was so offended and annoyed! Boo Sandal Outlet! BOOOOO!

We decided to drive home via Card Sound Road instead of US-1 which gets you to the same point at Florida City, but you can drive faster and you see more water along the way. We opted to take US-1 the whole way back, which was nice, but it literally doubled the trip. But, we were in a convertible roadster with temperatures between 77 and 74 so how could we complain. I was heartened to see that not every store along the way was a national chain store, and there were some local private businesses still in existence.

Tomorrow it's back to frigid temperatures, so we're going roof down in the car tonight, even if it hits 60!

See you all soon in the wintry northeast. BRRRR!