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Published: July 22nd 2023
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Episode 2 of our little US tour. First was the United flight from Las Vegas all the way to Fort Lauderdale. Bad news, Las Vegas airport has very very few airport lounges, they prefer to keep the space for slot machines, I'm not kidding! Good news, United has one of those few lounges. So a little wine glass before our midnight flight and we are on our way...for a very short night. LAS to IAH (Houston) is a mere three hours flight...so not easy to get any decent night sleep here. Houston airport is supposed to be huge...but the lounge was next door to the gate...and to our next gate for the 2 hours flight to Fort Lauderdale, we never really walk around. Nice breakfast at 6am before it was time to finish the night on the next flight next door from the lounge!
The aim for the coming few days... some beach time on the Miami area beaches, some solid shopping at Sawgrass Mills, sourcing some Peruvian grocery and finally...the road and stay in Key West! The drive to Key West is so special that I never did it any other way than driving a Mustang Convertible! This time
is no exception! I've stopped counting, I believe this must be at least my fourth visit to the Keys!
Got on time in FLL, picked up the Mustang, drove to the hotel next to the shopping Mecca of Sawgrass Mills, some grocery shopping at the local Publix...and priority... finishing our short night in a good bed and shower late morning-early afternoon!
Being on holidays on a regular basis required some homework not to go too often over the budget. This trip, Hilton is helping greatly with solid discounted nights...and dinners! Next rule, if you like lovely clothes, make sure you only shop during sales or at serious outlets. Issue with outlets, most of them in the world are simply crap...beside the one at Miami Sawgrass, and the ones next to London and New York....so this is the reason of the fist beeline! Shopping Florida, done!
Tonight we are staying at the Hilton Diplomat in Hollywood Florida! Expectations as the hotel has around 1,000 rooms. Well, I was very wrong...warm welcome and VIP treatment were indeed experienced! The idea was to have lunch at Five Guys...park the car at the hotel and not move till next late morning!
Tonight, we are celebrating our third wedding anniversary! I know times fly! The original idea was to do it during our next stop...coming very soon...but timing was not on our side in term of schedule, mainly due to flights availability...so here we are...wife in her gorgeous wedding dress and some solid bubbles on a superb balcony! Next year, plans are already in place and we hope to be able to finalize the bookings in the coming weeks! If only!
I've stay multiple times in South Beach, and my last visit with Tanya was back in between few Carribean Islands on a cold January 2018! We are not huge fan of South Beach....it's one of those human zoo...bad service, too expensive, too full of itself... but regardless of this, it's always an interesting anthropologic dive! Today, we were not sure how early our room would be ready...so we first stop in a Peruvian grocery shop on the way...than drove all the way south to ...South Beach! Didn't bother to even park the car, it was all about enjoying the drive...good music, sunny day...and obviously roof down!
Next morning, it's the drive...that famous one! You may have followed our 42
days driving trip in a Blue Mustang all around the States. This was back in the summer of 2017... I know times fly! We never made it down here! So here we are... the 4-5 hours down to Key West...a night in Key West...and the drive back up next day to Fort Lauderdale ready for our next adventure!
You may have heard that the price of hotels have gone mad in the States! This is more than true...and sadly, no employee rate available anywhere close to Key West for our date! A simple 3 stars hotel around here is close to 400usd a night! Good I still have my back-up Marriott top card. So we ended with a complimentary stay, don't ask! Therefore, tonight it's not luxury, but at least we don't have the feeling of a complete rip-off! I have to admit, for me it's the drive to Key West that is special, not so Key West itself. To top it up, the crowds around here are clearly not those people we love to be surrounded by. I finally did the drive to Key West with my lovely wife...and we can now go/move next stop to Paradise!
We have been super lucky the last few days as the weather is really playing between gorgeous sun times...and some solid showers! The drive up and down was done all the way with the roof down! We drove back the car to FLL...stay in a very not inspiring hotel next to the airport...and next morning...flight to paradise...blog is coming soon!
Hope you enjoy the pictures below. Fun fact...I'm not done with Florida in 2023! Travel safe!!
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