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Published: January 9th 2015
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Today we move from our "home Sweet Home" down to Key Largo. It's been a great stay here in Hollywood and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend this place to anyone - price, location, safety, comfort - it has it all.
Packed and left by 9am. We headed down to Miami but this time we took the US1 instead of the freeway. A much better way to drive down. It may have traffic lights but it doesn't have the traffic jams of the freeway. We made it downtown Miami much quicker travelling this route.
Headed to Little Havana which is a neighbourhood of Miami. Home to many Cuban immigrant residents, as well as many residents from Central and South America. Little Havana is named after Havana, Which is the capital and largest city in Cuba.
We watched Cuban men playing dominos in Little Havana's famous Máximo Gómez Park. Dominos is a popular game in Cuban culture and the park is famous for its many domino players who meet daily in the park.
Hispanic culture permeates everything in Little Havana - colorful murals, monuments to heroes past and present, cigar rollers deep at work amidst Little Havana's ever-present aroma
of Cuban coffee. These scenes of daily life in Little Havana play out amidst a backdrop of traditional Cuban and Afro-Cuban music, storefronts, unique art galleries and quaint typical restaurants.
Geoff wanted to head back to the South Beach area to visit a well known Tattoo Store on Washington Drive. Driving along Ocean Drive is a nightmare any time of the day or night but we managed to find a carpark in an undercover carpark - 13th Street and just a short walk from the Tattoo store. "Miami Ink" has been a television series for a few years but the show is now based in NYC. The artists that are portrayed in the series have relocated to New York - there is only 1 of the original artists left in the Miami store.
Souvenir t shirts were in order for the visit along with photographs and a chat to the artists working in the store.
Before leaving the Miami area we took a drive to Coral Gables to see the Venetian Pool. Venetian Pool, opened in 1924 as "Venetian Casino," was created from an old coral rock quarry which was abandoned in 1921. The pool is situated
on 4 acres and is named after the Mediterranean city of Venice, Italy. The pool includes a Venetian style bridge and classic mooring posts.
The pool ranges in depth from four feet to depths of over eight feet near the grand waterfall. There is a kids pool near the lifeguard station; the station is atop a bridge leading out to an island with two full size palm trees on it. There is a sandy sunning area for sunbathers and a cafe area that is commonly used for weddings and receptions. A walking path surrounds the whole complex.
The 820,000 gallon pool is fed with spring water from an underground aquifer. In the spring and summer seasons, the pool is filled and drained daily! Unfortunately the pool is currently closed for renovations and will not reopen until the summer of 2015. Still it was good to walk around outside perimeter and learn a bit about the history of the place.
Around 2pm we started the journey down to Key Largo. It was an 85km trip from Miami. We stopped at a Walmart store and stocked up with a few groceries and arrived at our vacation cottage rental around
5.30pm.
Once again we found the booked accomodation to be just as advertised and an absolute steal at $85 a night. We are here for 4 nights and will be hiring a Harley Davidson for a couple of days to drive the florida keys.
The cottage is fully self contained and has everything we need. It is clean and very cozy...can't believe our luck..researching you holiday thoroughly really pays off.
Weather today has been quite cool. We needed to wear a jumper as the breeze was chilly. Minimum temperatures last night went down to 12c and tonight the expected low is 17c...even the locals are complaining about the cold!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Miami
So much fun and so little time.