Advertisement
Published: January 30th 2015
Had a great sleep at the Grand Magnolia Suites and Ballroom, such a beautiful old home with all themed rooms and a huge ballroom, excellent spot for weddings etc and Evelyn prepared us some coffee and breakfast which was great. Then hit the road again heading for Perry in Florida. After arriving in Pensacola decided to go south there as well and do the coast, but after going 100 miles and it took us three hours, decided to head back up to the highway, the coast road really wasn't the coast, just slowly going through loads of small places and traffic lights, nothing like the picturesque Gulf of Mexico coast road from the day before. Weather improving all the time too, sunny days, cool nights. Perry a very sleepy little town and after booking into our modest little motel we found a great smoked pit BBQ place, John had the ribs and I had chicken, delicious! Very much a local hangout! Lovely little Motel and owners were Indian (young couple) place was absolutely spotless and had more ammenities than some other places we have stayed. Its very interesting what bang for your buck you get at all these different accommodation places.
Left Perry around 9.30a.m. after breaky at the local diner, typical diner breaky and tasted great - push onto Osprey which is south of Tampa and Sarasota on the West Coast of Florida, we have already done about 3,500 kilometres. Now starting to look like Florida, lots of palm trees, gated communities on golf courses etc etc Booked into Bentley's Boutique Hotel, a great little spot. Decided to stay at the hotel for their happy hour and have our evening meal, met some lovely people at the Tiki Bar, a couple from Michigan who were staying in the RV park nearby and came for the $2 tacos and a lovely guy, Paul, and his partner who were down in Florida looking for a place to buy, he is a Brooklyn cop and retiring shortly, they want to escape New York.
28.1.2015
Set off around 9.30a.m. for the 4 1/2 hrs drive to Miami. Have a gorgeous little apartment in North Beach, on Miami Beach, booked through AirBNB, mama and papa live upstairs and daughter next door, we have the downstairs of the condo, an old Miami complex but a beautiful reno, spotless and very modern. The accom around
"THE FAT COW" MIAMI BEACH
Great place walking distancehere was outrageous but pleasantly surprised with our condo for around $180 night. Our host Cissa recommended "Las Vacas Gordas" (translated "the fat cow") - a few hundred yard walk from our condo, we shared a Rollada, a skirt steak rolled into a big roll, amazing! With a side of steamed veges we were set, Chimichurri on the side and some lovely home baked rolls, looked after by Esmarelda, a gorgeous gal from Colombia, a very swish joint, but only cost us $121 including a bottle of wine and a yummy Lavazza coffee, probably the best coffee we have had in 8 days,(except for Suzy and Blakes) still can't get used to this American coffee. Plan to have a day in Miami tomorrow and then head down to The Keys on Friday and drive back to Fort Lauderdale for our last night in the US before boarding the ship on the 31st for 7 weeks.
29.1.2015 Miami Beach
Had breaky at Cachito Bakery and Coffee, best empanadas we have every had and coffee was also excellent - John had some sort of gorgonzola toasted sandwich and said that was delicious as well. Had a two hour walk around
LOVELY RESTAURANT
Argentinian wine and steak, notice the cow hide upholstery! Miami Beach taking in the sites - so very Art Deco - loads of old buildings in this area where we are on a little island near North Beach. Had a mani, did all the washing and dried it - got supplies from supermarket - so quite a relaxing and catch up day today. Dinner tonight at Sawadee a gorgeous little Thai place just a few metres up he road from where we are staying, spicy basil duck, pad thai, rice, soft shell crab for starter, a nice bottle of red and we are all set. Everybody here speaks Spanish, wish I had of brushed up on some Spanish. Looking at the US$ to AUD today, won't be back to the US for a while 76 something, thats nearly 25% extra you are paying here for things. Bought a few bottles of wine today at the local supermarket, bought a bottle of 19 crimes (a Baileys Bundarra Wine) , Dad you will know what I am talking about, the winery where Dad used to work makes this wine, 12.99 a lot cheaper here than in AUS.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.254s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 33; qc: 100; dbt: 0.0853s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
