Driving the Florida Keys

Well, here we are in Key West after a two-day sojourn in Islamorada after leaving Ft. Lauderdale. We had been in Key West before, on one-day excursions from cruise ships, but we hadn't ever experienced the drive down the keys. It really is an easy drive down the Florida Turnpike to Homestead and then down US1 (the Trans-Ocean Highway) all the way down to Mile 0, almost at the western end of Key West.

Even though it wasn't a long drive, we decided to break it at Islamorada, south of Key Largo, for a couple of days. In his research, Larry had found a small place called Ocean House. It was rather difficult to find, given that there are hardly any road signs other than mileage markers, and on top of that, the resort was on the Old Highway, not the new one...After a couple of wrong turns, we got there, and were very impressed with what we found:

The guest rooms - we were in the Ocean Dawn Suite
on the lower left end

Ocean House was completely renovated recently and looks it. Lorelelei, the manager, Adrian and all of the staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. Of course, it helped that the only scheduled guests were us and one other couple in the 8 rooms.It was the perfect place to spend a couple of days doing practically nothing, and that's just what we did. Monica took a kayak out a couple of times but much of our time was spent around the pool. Here are a few more photos from the area:

Inside of our room from both sides - quite comfy.

 

The view from a kayak - beach and 'beachfront' areas
near the water, with the pool behind them

This covered cabana was a nice place to get out of the
sun but still be near the pool

On Tuesday we had lunch 'delivered' to our cabana tent by the pool.
Other than to take a dip in the pool and whirlpool we
spent almost all day out there.

After 2 days of doing practically nothing, we got in the car and drove for another 2 hours to get to Key West. We're staying at the Hyatt Key West Resort just near Mallory Square, where everyone goes for the sunsets. We've only been here since about 2:00 this afternoon, but we've already walked the length of Duval St., visited the Southernmost Point marker and walked all the way back to the hotel on Whitehead St (passing Hemingway House and the Truman Annex which we will check out in the next day or so) - managing to get in our 10,000 Fitbit steps.

Driving along US1, the Overseas Highway

Looking towards the west from our balcony. The sun's just a little
too far over for us to see the sunset - the next hotel
is in the way.

Boats anchored in front of a small island right across from us

A couple of the old houses in town

For dinner we checked out Alfonso's, one of the local restaurants no more than a five-minute walk from the hotel, bordering one of the larger marinas in the area.

There are lots of things we'd like to do in the next few days - we'll bring you up to date on them in the next post.