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Published: December 17th 2009
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Sunsetting in Key WestWednesday night we went to Hoffmans chocolate shop that actually makes their own chocolates. Anyway out the back every year they set up christmas lights around a park area they have. Theyv'e got a huge mimiature train set going. It was nice, but of course the idea is to get you into their shop. So we bought some chocolates and had an ice cream while we were there.
Thursday we got up and got away about 9am. Heading down the turnpike and went around Miami driving south. Stopped at a visitor center in Key Largo, beautiful sunny day on the way down there. We stopped at one of the keys , at a resort but there was no one on the gate so we just drove in and parked up by the sea. Found a nice shady Gazebo to have our lunch under, by a quiet bay. Henry Flagler 1st built a railway line down to Key West in the 1920's as he needed a port to bring all their cargo in from South America. After a couple of good hurricanes went thru, one killed over 400 people. The railway was pulled out and replaced with a road. So all these
little islands are linked by two way bridges. The longest just south of Marathon is 7 miles long. As we are very tropical down here, the water is a beautiful light blue colour, calm as today. They have got houses and hotels all the way around the outside of the islands. Some are about 2-3 miles long , some are probably 1 mile long. We got to our hotel about 3pm and went and jumped in the pool straight away. Crazy as the rest of the country is getting snow at the moment and here we are in 27 degrees and still muggy. Drove down into downtown and walked around there for a bit. Mallory square was the place to be at sunset, there were street performers everywhere doing acrobatic displays to an old guy doing a one man band show. A huge cruise ship was in the harbour for the day and they had catermarans, sail boats , bi-planes all going out at sunset to see the beautiful sunset. Shame because of the cloud we actually got the best view about 1/4 hr before sunset , just before all the boats left shore. We walked down Duvall st where
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Tori at our little bay we had lunch at. it was all happening, bars and restaurants opened out onto the street. Music playing and people just wandering around all over the place. Stopped at an Outback steakhouse for dinner as they really do have awesome meals. Our beds in the hotel are air beds, like a water bed but you can adjust how much air you put in it so you can have it harder or softer. But like a one bladder water bed, Tori nearly hit the roof when I jumped on the bed next to her. LOL
Friday we had breakfast in our rooms, we bought it all down with us. We drove around the south side of the island. Past the Naval and airforce bases, that take up about a 1/4 of the island. Stopped and took our photo at Americas most southern point. Its 90 miles to Cuba from there, The airforce spend millions flying over that stretch of water trying to keep them out from reaching America and getting in. They try and get to America on all sorts of floating devices, I wont call them boats!! One was like a raft with a car motor in the middle and a driveshaft running on
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Bay at the keys. a 45 degree angle down to a prop in the water. They said they pulled off 27 people of it, packed them up and sent them all home to try again another day. Walked around downtown again, There are chooks everywhere down here. They said they tried to get rid of them at one stage but the locals decided to let them stay as they are part of the atmosphere down there. Its a very popular gay and lesbian city but we didn't see as many this time down there. Kylie tried some Key Lime Pie and also some deep fried conch fritters. Saw heaps of Pelicans around the place, they are awesome to watch fishing as they fly up and dive into the water. Stopped and had a look at some of the many house boats down there. Took Mum to Taco Bell for her 1st time to see if it made her sick. We've been eating it for 6 months now!! It started pouring down on our way back around Key Largo, everyone slows down majorly as soon as it rains here. Chris and Leanna took us looking at christmas lights after dinner. There is a street we
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Highway ! down to the keys, going over one of the many bridges. went down last night were everyone in the street does up there houses, its really cool. Then we drove to some other place that Leanna had been told about. Its like nothing I've ever seen. Some guy who does lighting for a job has done a whole bunch of houses in his little street. Hes built huge steel frames with lights all over them . They were about 4-5 m high and about 10m long. Incredible the amount of work that had gone into it. You actually felt like we should pay a fee for being able to come and look at it , it was that good.
Saturday we drove down to Miami with Chris and Leanna and Co behind us. 1st stop was the swap shop, Its got a bit smaller over the years that we've been coming here but its still pretty good. Its a huge flea market with 1/2 of it indoors. We walked around the outside stalls before it got to hot.If we lived over here you could get some really good bargains. I found a huge chisel dyna drill that you pay over a thousand for at home for $125 second hand out the
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Having a swim while the rest of America is freezing. back. We found a motorised roller blade that runs on a little chainsaw motor, Awesome.3 Florida shirts for $10 everywhere, watches, jewelery, clothes , you name it , they sell it. Another day of about 25 degrees and muggy. I gave the kids some tokens for up in the amusement area and that kept them quiet for awhile. We had lunch there before buying some suitcases!! Yes we are going to have some issues with getting 6 months of stuff home. Then we drove down to South Beach in Miami. As we drove past the port we saw 3 huge cruise ships that often make Miami one of their stops.We cruised down A1A which is the main coastal road down there for a bit, that in itself is an eye opener. We found a park and walked out onto the sand to say we've been to the beach. It was a bit windy but still very hot. South Beach is the very exclusive part of the shore, All the major hotels are there as well as 'Versace's mansion' where he got shot outside. All the who'se who socialise there and we went to watch them. Girls in bikini's on scooters
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Americas southern most point. cruising up and down. Guys that look like body builders walking around posing. All the restaurants spill out onto the footpaths and we had to walk through them to walk along the street. I didn't like walking thru the gay bar one, not that the kids picked up on alot of that. People playing volleyball on the beach side of the street, not far from the homeless guys loitering down by the toilet block. I guess if your'e going to be a bum , It's not a bad view and its good weather!! It poured down on the way back, stopped and had dinner at a Denny's. People laugh but we always grab our sweatshirts to go into a restaurant over here as they crank the a/c up so far we freeze. Then Chris took us to Cityplace in West Palm Beach which is an awesome open air mall. The bars and restaurants all open out into this really nice courtyard with the water fountains going etc. At 7pm they let off snow from the roof. It was a a soapy mixture that looked like snow flurries but for most people in Florida they never get to see snow. So
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Kylie and Tori. all the kids that were there had a ball. We had a great night just walking around, as its the second to last shopping weekend over here before Christmas , it was pretty busy.
Sunday, we went and met Steph ( Mum and Dads old neighbour) from WPB. She had to go to work as this is UPS's busy time of year. So we met her at a burger king for a coffee. It was cool to catch up her as she remembers us from when Kylie and I were just married about 100 years ago!! LOL. Later in the afternoon we went around and saw Karen and Ed ( another of Mum and Dads neighbours we knew from way back). We showed them our photo's of our trip and caught up with what their daughters are up to now. They were about the same age as our kids are now back then. After tea we had a small christmas present giving with Christopher and Jonathon. I spent a few hours saving some of our photos onto a memory stick for the electronic photo frame we gave Mum and Dad.
Monday we packed up and said our goodbyes as the
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Pelicans in Key West kids went to school and Leanna went to work. Mum and Dad left behind us and passed us somewhere on I95 as we stopped to get gas. We stopped for lunch at Taco bell and never caught up to Mum and Dad. They took the turnpike and we took a different route, Anyway there was an accident on the turnpike a truck caught fire and closed the whole turnpike. So while they sat going nowhere , we drove to their place and got there before them, Bugger!
Tuesday we are in full pack up and clean up mode. We've got everything out of the trailer and wiped and cleaned it thoroughly. Mums lounge looks like a bomb site!! We have suitcases everywhere and Kylie spent most of the day working out how to fit everything in. Dad and I took the trailer down to a KOA down the road to empty out the sewer tank, The theiving bugger charged me for a nights stay just to dump our waste!! Then we took the trailer over to a RV dealer we originally talked to when I was looking to buy one and he gave us a price on our trailer.$5,500 what
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One of the old rail bridges. a joke!!I knew he had to make some money out of the deal but not double his money, so we'll see. I've got the trailer on e-bay, Craigslist, RV online shopper at the moment. I've got 2 bids on E-bay and 22 people watching it.Some guy rang up and wants to look at it in the weekend if it hasn't sold first. So its promising. We tried to get all the suitcases into the car, they didn't fit!! So now we are taking the bags on the bike rack and the bikes will stay here. I was going to give them to Evan and drop them off there on the way up the country. Thats what happens when you spend 6 months travelling around.
Wednesday we went down to Walmart and changed all our loose change. All those pennies came to $14.10!! Josh bought a new rip-stik to bring home as he has been wearing his cheap one out. Dad, Josh, Tori and I went over and played another 9 holes of golf before we leave. Kids are getting better. I packed up some of our posters and stuff and thought I would post them home. Went down to UPS
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Incredible lights in WPB. and it was going to cost $200 to send one home and $150 for the other, Yeh right!! Kylie managed to get all the suitcases packed. We're putting some of the suitcases on the bike rack , so that should work. We'll head north into the cold weather tomorrow.
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Jill
non-member comment
Returing Home
Hi again We can always bring some of your stuff home in July in need. If it is cheaper to sent it to Texas instead. Sounds like your pretty sorted, but just wanted to give you an option in need. Good luck with the sale of your R.V and enjoy the rest of your travels. Merry Xmas and have an awesome new year. Regards McAsey Family