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Published: February 22nd 2007
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The Car
This is my beast - what a great buy for $3500 USD Things began to settle down a little and we decided that Christmas was probably the best time to start our travel. We didn't have a lot of time off, only 24 - 27 Dec (Fiona had a conference on the 28 Dec which she had to attend), so we decided to do some of the local sites.
I had been searching religiously for a second car on the internet and decided to take the plunge and buy a car on e-bay. What the heck! We bought 1997 Chrysler Sebring Convertible rom a small town call Brandenton on the West Coast of Florida (see map for exact location).
On the afternoon of the 23rd we hired a car and drove down to Brandenton to pick up the car. We stayed overnight at a hotel and picked up the car the next morning. It was as had been described on e-bay so we headed towards our first stop on our holiday - The Everglades National Park. As we were actually heading to Miami we stopped only very fleetingly to look at the Everglades. Now swamps don't really do it for us at the best of times, but it was pretty much
The Gator
Here's Fiona with a real life baby Gator - Can you spot it?? like Kakadu and numerous other places we had seen while living in Darwin, so we did the obligatory things - saw a 'Gator' and fan boats then jumped in the car and headed for Miami.
We arrived in Miami and found it to be a pretty large town. Miami Beach is actually built on a set of islands running North/South just off the mainland (where Downtown Miami is), and it's connected by a number of large bridges running between. We cruised the beach with the top down pretty happy with our new car, and enjoying the significantly warmer weather. We had a quick meal and went to bed.
The next morning we rose and decided to do a self guided tour of the city. We drove down to South Beach and enjoyed a beautiful breakfast in amongst the Art-Deco restaurants which a beautifully restored and give the area a lot of character. Everyone getting around seemed to be either riding a scooter or motorbike or in a convertable. Then we headed into Downtown Miami to see the sights. First we headed out to Coral Gables for a look at the 1920's designer suburb which includes the well reknown
Fan Boats
This is pic of the Fan Boats you see on TV all the time. Notice the Alligator lurking in the forground 'Miracle Mile'. Some amazing architecture and very lavish houses. When then stopped for a swim at the Venetian Pools which were made to service the toffee's living in Coral Gables. We also stopped at the Biltmore Hotel which was built in the 20's to attract upper classes from New York to come and enjoy Miami's climate during the winter - very flash. Was frequented on a number of occassions by Al Capone.
We then headed out to Coconut Grove for Lunch where I enjoyed my first 'Hooters' experience - god I love that place. We then ventured into little Havana where we decided it would be best experienced on foot. That was a great decision - within 10 minutes of our walk we got caught in a tropical storm and absolutely soaking. We quickly jumped into a local supermarket and got ourselves an umbrella and kept on going. We dropped into a Cigar Factory and picked up a couple of genuine Cuban cigars which we are yet to smoke. Whist in Miami we also visited the Museum of Contemporary Art which bored that absolute piss out of me, but Fiona loved it. After the Musuem we enjoyed the shopping
Art-Deco buildings
This is a typical Art-Deco building that lines South Beach - they really add character at the waterfront tourist trap shops and then headed out to a blues bar. After realising the band didn't start until 11pm and we were heading to the Florida Keys the next day we called it a night. The drive back through downtown Miami at night made us realise that it's probably not the best place to be after dark.....
Next Morning we got up and said farewell to Miami as we headed towards the Florida Keys - it just happened to be Christmas day too!. The drive down through the Keys is quite memorable. The road is a series of interconnecting bridges based on the railway that Henry Flagler established in the 20's. The seven mile bridge is quite an amazing feat of engineering and provides an excellent few. We arrived in Key West and decided to head into town. We drove in and instantly loved the place - it had so much history and was full of quaint old buldings that had been restored and there were a lot of shops and pubs without it being a tourist trap and gimicky. We had a very drinks and even danced up a storm at one of the local
Miami Beach
Here's Dan in front of a life-guard tower on Miami beach. They are all designed and decorated differently pubs before calling it a night. We had a pretty enjoyable time in the Keys, we saw the most southern point of the USA and pretty much the most southern everything (House, Hotel, Street, Christmas Tree etc etc) and just wandered the streets. We did a bit of shopping and stumbled across a museum which was really interesting. Essentially a guy had discovered a sunken Spanish Treasure Fleet and uncovered all the treasure which was worth about $500, 000, 000 USD and a lot of it was on display. Thousands of pieces of eight, silver and gold bars etc etc. Unfortunately while we were in the museum another massive storm hit - but we couldn't shettle from it as our car was illegally parked. We braved the flooded streets and made it back to the car before trying to float it back to the hotel.
One of the best things we got to see was a Pirate Museum. Key West has a very strong Pirate History and the museum had some great artifacts - One of only two authenticated Jolly Rogers, a genuine pirate chest, swords and cutlasses of some of the most famous pirates - it really was
a great museum. We managed to sneak into this museum very quickly before starting the long trip back to Jacksonville. What a great way to see Southern Florida!!
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