January 12, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

We woke up this morning and quickly packed up to head north. Don’t be surprised but we ended up missing the hotel breakfast but we did manage to finagle some orange juice before hitting the road.  It is quite a drive to Key West and we enjoyed the leisurely drive back up the keys.

We stopped once for breakfast at Burger King but they were out of biscuits and since it is hard to have a sausage biscuit with out a biscuit, we passed and drove on.  A bit later we picked up lunch at McDonalds on the road.  We ate as we drove and drove and drove.  Seriously, it doesn't look that far on the map but we never went really fast.  We did enjoy the trip though while trying to listen to church both hours but all of the power lines near us distorted most of what we heard.  We eventually found something to listen to on the drive and were soon back to Miami.

The first thing we did was to drive by our hotel (much more on that later) and then we found where tonight’s Segway tour left from.  Next was a quick drive by the beach and wow, there are lots and lots of people along South Beach.  This is a pretty happening place.  Then we checked into our hotel-it is a different little place….

Our hotel tonight is one of the less expensive ones around here.  It was built in the 40s and very eclectic (doesn't that sound like a nice word?)  It reminds me of going to Mexico and staying at an old lady’s house.  Words can’t really describe it but I will try to take some pictures of the place.  And we are in the smallest little room-the lady asked if we wanted 2 beds and we probably should have taken them since the bed we are sitting on now is more like a large twin! Ha!

After settling in to our room, we headed out for the night. We had a 6'o'clock segway tour but had plenty of time before that to explore. Man oh man was there a lot to see! So much so that when I am finished with the blog I will have to wash Robby's eyes out! He, he! We saw flags on the beach representing certain groups of people and in my personal opinion there should have been flags warning you of men wearing speedos!

We did walk on the beach some and then sat to watch folks go past. It was pretty interesting to say the least. After a while, we started to look for supper. Every restaurant that we passed was full with people eating inside, outside and every where else. We finally found a perfect spot for us-a pizza by the slice place. The pizza slices were crazy huge-like one of the pizza's couldn't even fit in my oven. The pizza was delicious and hit the spot.

Then it was time for our tour. We found the bike/segway shop. We were a bit early but we were the only ones who had scheduled the tour so we were able to leave early. First we picked out helmets and made sure they fit-that was easy enough. Then we had a segway lesson-Robby did very well on his lesson. I managed mine and it really didn't take too long to become comfortable with them.

Well, there was that one time when my segway did try to kill me. I could not get it to slow down-I would try to lean back to slow down and the handle bars kept coming toward me. Eeek! It took a second but I was able to get things under control without having to use my helmet!

So back to our tour-we went everywhere-down alleys, on sidewalks, down the middle of streets, through a park, through grass, by the dock, through crowds of people, down a hill, crossing streets at a crosswalk-you wouldn't believe. At first, I was a bit nervous having to dodge cars and people but our guide was good and since we were the only 2 behind him things were alright.

We did learn a lot about Miami Beach and art deco architecture. Always makes me wish that I knew more about things-like architecture. We did see the famed Versace Mansion that is supposedly the 3rd most famous home in the US (after the White House and the tie for second place Graceland and Hemingway's Key West home) When you start looking at the architecture here (and stop gawking at the people), it is really beautiful.

Robby guesses that we went at least 6 miles on the tour. We went to the bottom of South Beach and then even up near our hotel. We did see the Lincoln Road Mall which is 2 and a half miles of restaurants and the Espanola Way which was a street with spanish restaurants.

We so enjoyed the segway tour but our feet were a bit tired from just standing for so long. Now by the end, I was still gripping my little handle bars tightly but Robby was mimicking our guide waving his hands in the air. So after our tour, we did make our way back to Espanola way to grab some gelato-before the walk back to the hotel.

Our hotel was pretty close so soon we were inside drinking our cokes from the fridge and watching Downton Abby. It has been a pretty perfect (and adventurous) day.