Weekend travels (summer 2014)- Miami and Key West

During the weekend, we decided to go to Miami and then to Key West.  The road to Miami through the everglades was interesting again, since a thunderstorm earlier that afternoon had started a few brush fires. These are pretty common in south Florida and the road even has permanent signs warning of smoke and fog, but in addition to a few columns of smoke in the distance, we were able to see the flames of one of the fires. Undeterred, we continued our trip towards Miami, which didn't strike Yifat as a place she would want to be very much, especially as we are still watching Dexter hack and slash his way across Miami!  However, we went to Miami Beach, which DID seem really nice, with a very vibrant strip of restaurants and bars by a pretty beach.  We also had a wonderful dinner at Havanah 1957 located on the famous Espanola Way.

Joy stands next to the welcome sign at the entrance to Espanola Way

From Miami, we headed to Key West, stopping at Library Beach behind the Monroe County Library in Islamorada for a dip. We stopped at the Lions Lair swimwear outlet to buy a swimsuit for Yifat, which came in handy for the rest of the trip! The drive down highway 1 over the keys was beautiful and relaxing. The water was brilliant blue with a patchwork of greens and tans indicating rocks, sand bars and other underwater features. Boats, ranging from small ski-doos to luxurious yachts bobbed merrily in the gentle waves. There were several short bridges and a few long ones.

When we got to Key West, we ate delicious Caribbean food at Mo's Restaurant and looked for a hotel. Doug had assumed that like most of Florida during the summer, it would not be hard to find a hotel on Key West. However, we came to find that Key West, really is a special place and all of the hotels in town were full! We finally managed to find one hotel that was probably having trouble with their reservation system because the front desk had a room even though their booking desk could not book it for us, so we headed to the Fairfield Inn after lunch and secured the last room in Key West in person! It was a nice hotel with a beautiful pool and a sumptious breakfast buffet. We paid a lot more than we usually pay for hotel rooms ($250), but from looking around, I gather that we would have paid about the same price to stay at a dump.

After a nap, we headed out to Duval Street just as a thunderstorm hit the island. If you have not been to South Florida in the summer, then you may not know that daily thunderstorms are a regular feature around here. So we were not deterred by the rain. In fact, Doug dropped Yifat and the kids off at the Bull and Whistle Bar which had a live band and looked for a place to park. By the time he had found a place to park, the rain was nearly over. We wandered down Duval street which reminded Yifat of Bourbon street in New Orleans. We just had to take a picture in front of Captain Tony's the bar featured in Jimmy Buffet's "Last Mango in Paris".

Captain Tony's in Key West

We walked over to the sunset pier to enjoy a drink and watch the sunset.

The sunset from the pier. To the left you may be able to make out the receding storm clouds.

After dark, we wandered back down Duval street which was starting to exhibit a little bit more of the "crazy" that it is so famous for. We had dinner at Margaritaville, which featured some great live music.

The next day, we purchased day passes on the "City View Trolley" from Groupon and set off, criss crossing Key West several times. 

We saw a lot of cool places, including Southernmost point, swimming at Higg's Beach and viewing the tropical gardens at Martello Tower. We had lunch at the very unlikely Falafel King and were pleasantly surprised to find some of the best falafels this side of the Haifa bus terminal! The little hole in the wall restaurant is owned by an Israeli and in addition to serving authentic, tasty falafel kebab and bourekas, they even had Bamba, the Israeli snack that Charlie loved so much as a baby! 

Our most anticipated destination that day was Hemingway's house. However, our tour guide on the trolley managed to change our minds. Now, we would still have gone to his house if we had the time, but at the end of the day, we only had time to do the Hemingway house or Truman's little white house. We talked to the guide and he made a pretty good case for the little white house. And it was really interesting and thought provoking, a nice piece of American history. The picture that the tour guide painted of Hemingway's house was not flattering. A nice, but not spectacular house. An author whose art we should admire a lot more than his lifestyle (especially on Key West). No air conditioning, and semi-feral cats everywhere! The tour guide did tell one funny story about Hemingway. He said that the common wisdom is that Hemingway bought his house, right next to the lighthouse because that way he could always find his way home at night as he stumbled back from the bar on Duval street. 

Truman's little white house was indeed very interesting. He was a simple man from humble beginnings who rose to power and made some of the most pivotal decisions in world history. The atomic bomb, the Marshall plan, the beginnings of the cold war. It's easy to see why he needed a place in Key West to relax.

We drove back across the keys, part of the way through a thunderstorm and then back across the Everglades to make it back to Fort Myers on Sunday night. It was a fun, relaxing trip!