Oooh, I was so stoked when I woke up this morning! Today I was going to do something I've wanted to do forever! I mean, living in Florida, by beaches, I always saw these ginormous parachutes near the beach, and I always wanted to do that! So, yup... today I was going to finally go parasailing!
We were up and out of the hotel by 8 or so. I decided to go ahead and wear my 'bathing suit' so I didn't have to change later (though it was only gym shorts and a running tee). We hit a local RaceTrac for some morning caffeine and found the "Welcome to Florida City" sign, in a pretty janky part of town. Florida City, while hardly known about at all, is best known for being the southernmost municipality in mainland Florida. It's basically just a suburb of Miami...
(You too can find this awesome sign at 90 NE 3rd Street, Florida City 33034)
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| Full view of the sign without our giant heads in the way |
Our trip today included heading down to Key Largo and Islamorada. Hubby isn't a fan of bridges, but thought he'd be able to handle this much (especially after checking out all the bridges on Google Maps). When planning the trip originally, he didn't think he'd be able to make it all the way down to Key West; Seven-Mile Bridge was way too much for him to think about.
Pretty much as soon as we get onto US-1, he's freaking out, though. If you've never traveled through this area, US-1 is a two-lane road (one lane in each direction), and you have to go over what appeared a relatively long bridge (when we looked it up on Google Maps). Once we got to the coast, though, it seemed like it was more regular road over very flat swampy land - no bridge in sight. But Hubby, letting his fear of bridges freak him out, keeps waiting for a huge bridge to appear... And to make matters worse, people are driving like absolute idiots! Driving way too fast, then slamming on their brakes, then speeding up again, then more brake slamming. Hubby was freaking out because he didn't want to get stuck on the bridge with this stop-and-go traffic; I was freaking out because I didn't want to deal with stop-and-go traffic and a neurotic passenger! Luckily, he chilled out a bit when he jokingly said it "was probably some tourist up at the front of the line stopping to take pictures every five minutes."
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| Imagine these people, but with cameras |
It turned out there was a small fender bender (gee, could the stop-and-go traffic have been the culprit?) and the speeding idiots would see the cop lights and slam on their brakes. Imagine 10 miles of this... ugh!
Once we made it over to Key Largo, he did much better. Traffic was still heavy, and still crazy, but at least he wasn't freaking out about bridges anymore. I'd planned to stop for breakfast, but we never did (do we ever, really?) We did pit stop at the Islamorada Visitor Center for a few photos before heading to Sundance Watersports at Robbie's for my parasailing!
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| Islamorada Visitor Center |
He had the option to ride in the boat but not fly (parasail), but because he also isn't a fan of being in open water, he was operating under the rule of "All or Nothing" - he either came and flew with me, or didn't come at all. He'd been trying to decide all day, and decided to stay in the car. Oh, well! Maybe next time he'll be more adventurous. I grabbed the GoPro and my other gear and headed in to find the operator... only to be told that parasailing trips where cancelled!!!
Seriously!!!!???!!! Yep! Apparently, the boat was broken, so there would be no parasailing today. I asked the operator for some suggestions of other parasail operators nearby, and he said I should go to Chico's "a few miles that way" (I thought he pointed south, but apparently he pointed north), or go to Sundowner's (apparently in Key Largo; we'd already passed it). I thanked him and we headed south, looking for Chico's. We never found it, and later discovered why... It was NORTH, also in Key Largo, and it was "Cheeca's," not Chico's.
But we kept going south anyway, and I started taking bets internally on how far we could make it before he freaked out about all the bridges. Every time we got to a bridge, I'd wait for him to say something, and he never did. But then... a mile before Seven-Mile Bridge, he says "Oh, shit, it's that big bridge!" By this point, there wasn't a really good place for me to turn around quickly (and safely, without getting rear-ended), so I just told him to bear down and enjoy the ride!
All I could think, the entire time I was driving, was holy shit, this is so pretty! and I sure do wish I could take pictures... but he gets nervous when I do that on bridges he's unfamiliar with (I drive with one hand and shoot with the other), so I respected his phobia and kept my hands at 10 and 2. I did spot Fred the Tree and his pretty little tree girlfriend (I got a crappy photo on the way back). Once on the other side of the bridge, Hubby relaxed a bit and I was proud of him. He did good.
Once we crossed, I think he decided it was time for a mission - he began talking about getting lunch on Key West! We settled in for another hour's drive and enjoyed the views while talking about nothing, making various innuendos, and giggling like idiots.
Since I honestly didn't think he'd make it to Key West, I was unfamiliar with the area. We followed US-1 to the area near Key West Bight Marina and paid to park on Caroline Street. In my defense, I saw water and got confused... we ended up on the Northern part of the island, instead of the Southern part. Rather than waste that five bucks we paid for parking, we just walked along pretty much all of Duval Street, about 2.6 miles round trip.
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| On the plus side, we got a free walking tour of Key West! |
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| We saw what looked to be the cutest, tiniest Circle K ever |
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| There must have been 50 people in line for a photo at the buoy |
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| We're even more south than they are! We're behind the buoy! |
On the way back, I thought we'd stop in some of the gift shops to pick up a magnet or tee-shirt, but all of them had "Masks Required" signs (ugh), and when we decided to enter one maskless, we were hassled within a minute. She hollered at us from her perch behind the counter, so I simply said I didn't have one, said thank you and left.
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| Finally found a Key West Chicken on the way back to the car |
Hot, disgusting, sweaty, and chafed by the time we got back to the car, we tried to figure out what to do for lunch. Logic would dictate we go to a local seafood joint and enjoy all the bounties of the sea, but of course we didn't.
First we drove back north along A1A (beachfront avenue!) around the other side of the island, then came back and ate like stoners at Sonic. Yeah, really. Sometimes you just want to snarf on tots and Blasts. While we waited for our food, I got half-naked in the backseat and changed out of my bathing suit bottoms and into normal shorts. I don't know if Hubby was more entertained by the fact that I had the balls to do it, or that I was able to do it in such an awkward space!
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| Sometimes you just need Dr. Pepper and a Cherry Slush! |
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| Key West Momma Chicken and Bebe Chickens! |
Sated, full of cheeseburgers and ice cream, we headed back up US-1 to mainland Florida. We stopped in a Tom Thumb convenience store (not impressed) and picked up a "Mile 0" magnet, because at this point, most of the roadside gift shops were closed for the day.
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| We plan on it! |
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| Random photo |
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| Random Photo before we go over that bridge over there |
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| Fred! |
We took the Turnpike up to Dandee Donuts in Margate, and splurged on a half-dozen donuts. I got the following:
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| Vanilla Cream (4 Stars, very tasty) Vanilla Frosted Yeast Ring (2 Stars, icing was hard) Sugar Twisty (4 Stars, would be better fresh {I ate next day}) Sour Cream Glazed (2 Stars, was told it tasted like "funnel cake".... it didn't) Hubby got the Double Chocolate, Oreo, and Strawberry Sprinkle |
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| They are massive! |
Tired, and ready to crash, we checked in to our hotel in Homestead, tweeted for a little bit while we ate some donuts, and then hit the hay.
Tomorrow wraps up our Florida Adventure, and we'll head inland through some of the less touristy parts of my state, before heading home.
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