On our way to the Florida Keys, we decided to stop about halfway and spend a couple of days in St. Augustine, FL. We loved viewing the oldest city in the nation as we stayed on Vilano Beach. I could not get over the number of shells on the beach. Paul thought that it was amazing; I, however, did not like the fact that it hurt to walk on those shells. So, I actually missed the pretty white and SOFT beaches of the gulf. The old town had a homey feel, and we really enjoyed seeing a pirate ship with "real" pirates, graduating from the oldest wooden school house, viewing the old gate and fort, and eating a wonderful dinner at the A1A ale house on the balcony overlooking the street at night with the horse-drawn carriages.
After a couple days there, we moved and made our way across the 7 MILE BRIDGE to the Keys. The drive there was very scenic, and our few days in Key West were beautiful. We were not aware that Key West is like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and one trip down Duval St. was enough for us. Between the drag queens (including the old man in the rhinestone bra sitting on the curb) and the extremely intoxicated people, we preferred our little slice of heaven back at our resort, the Casa Marina. The Casa Marina resort was absolutely wonderful!! We enjoyed a few mornings and evenings listening to the water and enjoying the ocean view from our gently swinging hammock as the pool boys served fruit water, watermelon, popsicles, frozen towels, and more! Talk about relaxing - we definitely were not used to people doing stuff for us, but it was nice for a few days. We were also able to see the Southernmost point and take pictures at mile marker 0. It was weird to think that we were only 90 miles from Cuba. We went as far south as Paul can go without having to go through debriefing with the government, and it was a blast. Nevertheless, in light of the "party scene",ridiculous amount of money we had to pay for parking everyday, and the fact that the gulf has MUCH better seafood, we would probably choose one of the other Keys should we ever return. Although, we do have our eye on the Chico Lodge and Spa in Islamorado. We might have to make a trip back to the keys just for that!
More excitement was still to come as we made our way from the Keys to Orlando! On our way to Orlando, though, we stopped at what has become the #1 seafood restaurant on my list - Dixie Crossroads. I had never had "rock shrimp" before, but let me tell you - If you ever have the chance to try some, do it! They are called rock shrimp because their shell is rock hard; however, they open them up and serve them where they kind of look like miniature lobster tails, and they taste just like lobster AND A LOT CHEAPER! We LOVED it! Then, we made our way to Orlando and spent the next day at Sea World. We had so much fun riding the two rollercoasters there and adding those to our list. We also got great video of some spectacular dolphin, sea lion, and whale shows. Last but not least, my favorite part, we took a behind the scenes tour where I got to play with PENGUINS FOR 45 MINUTES!!!! Yes, this was definitely the highlight for me, and Paul had to admit that those penguins were pretty cute. At the end of the day, the bottom fell out of the sky, we ran all the way across the park with our dinner while getting drenched, and hopped a shuttle back to our hotel looking like drowned rats -- but we had a GREAT TRIP!!
I hope you enjoyed! More posts coming soon! Until then...
No comments:
Post a Comment