Florida - Part 1

It has taken me forever to sit down and write about Florida and arriving in Puerto Rico, so I am sending out an apology for those who have been asking about the blog. SORRY!! I have been caught up in the game of life but I promise the intent has been there.  I need to sit and write, so here I go!!!

Hello Florida!!  Leaving Mexico was a hard thing to do for us, it has been home to use for just over 3 months and it is a country we just love.  Heading to Florida had it's own special element of excitement though because it is our "friend" month. Nothing is more exciting that getting to see familiar faces who warm our hearts!!  The flight in from Cancun was uneventful and we successfully navigated the Miami airport, the sky tram and made it to the car rental place. After some smooth negotiating Doug got us a car for the 3 weeks we were in Florida for a much lower price than what was quoted to us, so awesome! My Polish Leprechaun strikes again! lol  It was getting dark, we were hungry and we had no hotel booked but we now had transportation.  Felt amazing to be able to move around a place with our own car and not depend on a bus, taxi or by walking!  Felt like a life of luxury! Doug had not drove a car since November so driving again was weird for him at first but it only took a bit to get used to. We eventually made our way out of Miami and found a hotel in Homestead for the night.  We had many laughs along the way as we were finding it hard to adjust to life in a place where people spoke English.  We were still speaking Spanish to everyone, the Subway lady gave us some weird looks as did many others! Haha  It has been many many months since we have been in an English speaking country!  We also found our food choices difficult because we have been eating so differently in all of our other countries and at a very different price!  This wasn't something we expected, so the challenge was very surprising to us, we didn't realize how much we had changed! Our destination was to make it to Key West the following day, March 2, but we didn't want to drive straight there.  The drive through the Florida Keys is an experience in it's self, something we wanted the kids to see and enjoy so we wanted to drive in the daylight. It is pretty cool how all of the islands are connected by the one highway that takes you as far south in the US as possible, 27 miles from Key Largo to Key West. The Florida Keys are made up of over 1700 islands but only 43 of them are connected via bridges.

A stop along the way is at Robbie's Marina in Islamorada, it is a great place for some entertainment!  The have a restaurant on the water but at the bait shop you can purchase buckets of fish and then you can go out onto the dock to feed the Tarpon fish that come in to shore.  We thought this was something the kids would love to do and to see, so we made the stop!

 Turns out the tide was low that day so it would have been really hard for the kids to feed them, they would have had to lay on the dock on their stomachs to get the food close enough to the fish so we didn't purchase any buckets.  The guy in the bait shop didn't think it was a good idea but he invited us out onto the docks, without paying, just to watch other adults do it, such a nice guy!  So thankful we went out because it was really cool to watch and to see how huge the Tarpons were, crazy big!! The area was so neat to walk around and to see, lots of little shops and cool things to checkout. Loved it

The days drive down to Key West was really great! We saw some cool cars, did a bit of shopping and enjoyed seeing all of the islands.  We pulled into KW just before dark and started looking for a hotel, big mistake!! We were pretty naïve to think we would just "find" a hotel on the fly and within our price range!! Wow, things in Florida have sure changed over the years.  We went to the same hotel that Doug and I stayed in 2 summers ago, just a little motel with a small pool, nothing fancy.  That hotel is now $275 a night where we paid $89 last time we were there.  We drove around for almost 2 hours going in and out of hotels looking for a place to stay. They were either full, or all around the $275 and up price range. Sheraton wanted $750 a night but was willing to give a deal for $650, no thanks!!!  These rates were in US dollar prices, so by the time we did the exchange to Canadian funds it was ridiculous. So crazy!! It was 9:30 at night and we were done! Our options were to sleep in our car or drive back up the coast to a different island in hopes of finding a cheaper hotel. One last stop just down from Duval street we finally found a hotel with one room left and since it was past 9:00pm he gave us a "deal," we were so tired so regardless of the not so ideal price, we took it!  He let us swim that night, even though it was closed, we got a free breakfast, free parking, free drink coupons and he let us stay there all the next day even after checkout.  Not too bad in the end!

 We woke the next morning and we were out the door, we had one day to fully explore the island before we were to head out.  We didn't want to face the hotel problem again and seeing it was a Friday it would have been even worse!  First stop was down to the monument at the Southermost Point in the US, we were only 90 miles to Cuba.  It is the one of the most popular thing to do in KW so we went before the crowds came.  Pretty cool place to stop at and to see! Kids enjoyed discovering all of the roosters and chickens on the streets, I forgot that KW had them everywhere!  Funny to hear them off the farm!  From there we enjoyed a drive around town, we went to Higgs Beach to walk the dock and we also helped a local fisherman clean out his nets. Kids loved it!  Throwing minnows up to the seagulls were a highlight for them, small things in life! ;)

After a quick stop off at our hotel to clean up from all of the stinky fish and to check out of our room we then left again to walk the famous Duval St.  We had driven down the night before, a bit of a crazy party place to say the least, but we went and experienced it.  Kids were a little shocked, they haven't been around anything like that before but seeing it was only 7:30 at night when we went so it wasn't too wild. Lots of people out, bands playing and people dressed up. We were surprised by the age of the people there, most of the groups were about 50+, that would explain who can afford to travel there now a days. Not a young crowd at all, or families.  Duval St. is a the famous street in Key West that is 1.25 miles long and runs north and south from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.  Restaurants, bars, stores, art galleries and museums are side by side the whole way, pretty neat place to walk around.  The charm of this place is everywhere, the houses, the décor and all of the unique stands makes it so amazing! We also enjoyed some yummy Key Lime pie that day, the best! Key West is such an unique place and even though it was so expensive, it was still enjoyable.  We found ways to take in the sights and the atmosphere relatively cheap, besides hotel. Always our challenge to stay on budget! We had a feeling Florida was going to kill our budget regardless of how hard we tried and in the few short days we had been there, our feeling was showing to be true.

We loved our time in Key West and were glad we went to let the kids experience it as well but after a full day there we started our drive out just before dinner. Our budget didn't allow us an extended stay there so we drove back to Homestead to spend the night.  Our plans the next morning changed on the fly and we decided to head to Fort Lauderdale instead of Naples.  We needed to be in the Orlando area by Monday afternoon so we decided to drive up the east coast on the way there and then take the west coast back to Miami later in the month.  We were going to cover Florida like no other!! lol  Doug had researched NHL games and there was one in Sunrise that Saturday night, which is where the Florida Panthers play, so that was our destination.  We drove up to that area and we thought it would be a good idea to find the arena and check out ticket prices ahead of time.  As we pulled into the BB&T Center we saw lots of cars everywhere and there were parking attendants showing us where to park. Confused, I wondered if it was an afternoon game and we were just in time, not sure! Turns out it was our lucky day!!  Met a couple in the parking lot who told us that it was the Florida Panther's fan appreciation day and that the Stanley Cup was there too. OMG!! A Canadian hockey fans dream!!  Doug and the boys were so pumped, pretty cool to stumble across a day like that.  That couple we met happened to have an extra parking pass which they gave to Doug, saved $20 on parking too. So nice of them! The kids had fun playing some games, taking shots, winning prizes and seeing the cup. The travelling museum of NHL 100yrs of hockey trailer was also there, another amazing experience for us all.  What a day!

Found ourselves a hotel not too far from the arena, checked in and made our way for a quick dinner before the boys went to the NHL game.  Had an amazing dinner at a place across the street from our hotel and guess what it was, Mexican!!  haha We are out of Mexico for 3 days and that is what we all were craving, we have been altered for life and our Spanish came in handy! Love it!  Doug and the boys had a great night at the Florida Panthers vs Dallas Stars, saw some of their favorite players and enjoyed their favorite game.  Adison and I stayed in to enjoy a girls movie night, great fun for all of us! Our change in plans sure worked out for us, things work in mysterious ways sometimes.

On Sunday morning we slowly made our way out of the hotel after doing some school work before we hit the road, destination for the day was to check out Fort Lauderdale. The main beach road was the highlighted place to see so we thought we should go there, little did we realize it was the US Spring break!!  lol  Oh boy, we were not expecting the gong show we drove through and by.  Doug and I were 20 years too late, but what a party it was!  Good lesson for the kids on what not to do and how to be smart and safe.  It was a cool place to drive around though regardless of the parties, the waterways were amazing as well as the all the cool cars, boats and buildings.  Our boys were in heaven with all of the cars, so many out there and they were very fancy.

Fort Lauderdale was a really good stop off on our trip up to the Orlando area, we definitely came away with a good feel for the area and the city.  We were amazed at how grand and extravagant some of the houses and boats were!  There is a lot of money in that city, wow!! Very easy to get around as well, Maps Me worked like a charm again!  Drove up to a city called Stuart that night to sleep as we didn't want a real long drive the next day. Monday was the day we were to arrive in Kissimmee, also the anticipated friend arrival day!!  The Boehms were touching down in Orlando that Monday afternoon, EEEEEEE!  Before we hit the highway that morning we drove around the area, we were very close to this long beach road that followed along the Atlantic Coast.  It looked like a nice drive through Fort Pierce and it was somewhere new to explore so we made our way there, the drive was beautiful.  We stopped off at a couple beaches but didn't stay long at all, it was a very cold and windy windy day so the beach was not very inviting. I'm sure in warmer weather it would have been a beautiful place to spend time, for us though we kept on driving. Even found an old school McDonalds! lol

The excitement in the car was unreal as we got closer and closer to Kissimmee and it we couldn't believe this day was finally here.  We have missed our family and friends so much on this trip so having a family so dear to us come down to meet up with us with was just amazing.  We were so thankful and happy that we had awesome family time in Mexico back in December and now friends were on their way. Things in their world lined up with ours to make this happen, we knew this was going to be an amazing time together.  Disney was on the agenda for the following 10 days or so and we were so thrilled to think that our kids were getting to experience it with their best friends. I needed my best friend time too!!  Not many people out there get that chance, we were beyond grateful for this opportunity.

Let the fun begin!! ;)

We are all safe, happy and our hearts are full!!

Love from the Steel Family!! XXXXX