Florida Keys and Beyond

After a refreshing nights sleep (actually I would like to say that but with the window air conditioner rattling, a street light shining in our eyes and the waste disposal experts picking up the large bin beside our window at 6 AM, I can't), we ventured forth for the breakfast part of the B&B.

Just at the end of our path is the breakfast bar with all the normal offerings, very fresh with lots of citrus and homemade breads. Tables were arranged around the pool, all very relaxing.

This view from the other side of the pool shows the breakfast bar to the left, tables to the right and more rooms in the old plantation behind. The B&B was once a cigar factory and the various rooms are made up of the old factory, the original plantation home and some of the managers houses. Our room was an managers house just back behind the breakfast bar.

After a relaxing breakfast and a lovely walk around, it was time to head down the main walkway and continue our adventure, much later than we should have. Once we found our car, we drove through old Key West and along the shoreline until the road left the island.

Driving back along the Keys I still took opportunities to stop and check out the old bridges still left standing. The middle section of this old bridge has been removed and the newer bridge is much higher to allow bigger boats to enter from the ocean. You can walk along a lot of the old bridges, but they are closed to traffic.

I pulled off the road to take a picture of the 7 mile bridge. As far as you can see is the bridge with a very high section in the distance just to the left in the picture. The 128 miles of road in the Keys is one lane each way and was very slow driving. It was well past lunch before we got back to the mainland, and well behind schedule I might add. And that was the best part of the drive.

By the time we found a suitable hotel and stopped for the night I was exhausted. The drive after the Keys took us through Miami. We had planned on taking A1A, the scenic route, through Miami but because we were running way late we decided to take the interstate. Big mistake. Just got on it and the traffic stopped. It took us almost 3 hours to cover the 10 miles we needed to go before we could get back onto A1A. By that time all the roads were jammed with commuter traffic and even the scenic route wasn't. The problem we found with A1A was that it was not very commercialized which made for a lovely drive but hard to find accommodations. We finally found a great hotel in West Palm Beach. By that time, I didn't even care that we bought our first house for the amount of one nights stay here (a slight exaggeration, but not much).

But, oh it felt good to get out of the car and the traffic and sit and unwind a bit. I would recommend the drive along the eastern seaboard along A1A to everyone. Its an absolutely breathtaking drive in places alongside mansions that have to be seen to be believed. We'd have to liquidate all our funds just to buy the front gate on some of these places. It makes for a wonderful drive though. I would recommend avoiding Miami (for heavens sake, avoid Miami). But I'm off the road and starting to breath normally again.

The hotel had a great seafood menu so I broke one of my rules about never eating in the hotel I'm staying at (actually I was just sick of driving). We had a great meal with a nice merlot; it was very relaxing. Brad, our son, called to wish me a Happy Birthday, which was great. I've always struggled to remember special occasions, its a relief to know your son has more class than you do; there's hope for the next generation, isn't there. We had a great nights sleep. I got up, made coffee in the room and went for a walk. Even finding a hot tub we didn't know about couldn't spoil the moment.

Just past the hot tub was the beach. Not nearly as warm but still a beautiful beach with no one around. I would have been tempted to stay at this lovely spot another day but, the kids are expecting some inheritance I'm sure. We breakfasted on some fruit we lifted from the B&B and hit the trail for home.

For most of the day we continued north on A1A, absolutely enjoying the ocean view and the mansions. We stopped at a number of roadside parks to stretch our legs but finally we had to turn westward across the middle of Florida and head home. After following the ocean the trip across the middle of Florida is boring and we never even took a picture till we got home. But now we're back and its raining here again. For 3 days we had beautiful weather and I spent my birthday someplace exotic so the trip was worth while.