The month of February is the worst month of the year to me. It is a 5 week month at work (I am in finance so I am talking fiscal months) so it always seems to drag. By February I am so over the snow and cold so I usually declare to Mike that we need to plan a warm vacation. This year he took me seriously and we planned a trip to Florida Keys. My parents needed a vacation from their lives, and wanted to spend time with Bryce, so they came too.
We flew into Fort Lauderdale and made the drive down to Key West. Mike watches “Man vs. Food” along with a few other food challenge shows. He wanted to stop to eat at the Primanti Brothers which were featured for their sandwiches. We made the detour and were not disappointed. Mike loved his sandwich and my dad and I had pizza and both enjoyed it.
Our next stop was Robbie’s Pier. I highly recommend this stop to see the Tarpon fish. They are huge and are right below the pier. We bought a bucket of fish and fed them. They jump out of the water and fight to get the little fish we fed them. Bryce sat down on the pier with me and before I knew it he had kicked off his brand new sneaker. It fell right down into the water and we watched it float out to sea, good thing toddler shoes aren’t that pricey.
We then headed off to our hotel in Key West for 3 nights. Our hotel and time in Key West was amazing. I just love the Marriot Resorts and this time we stayed at the Marriott Beach Front Hotel. We had the 3 bedroom and 3 bath suite and it was great to have the room so we weren’t on top of my parents’ space. We ate the breakfast buffet every day while there and had no complaints. Of course, while in Key West you have to try the Key Lime Pie. I had a slice from the Key Lime Pie Factory and I have to say it was the best I ever had (okay, I admit it was the only piece of key lime pie I ever had, but still, it was amazing). We had a really great dinner at Fogerty’s the one night. I had stuffed grouper with roasted red pepper sauce and it was worth every penny and every calorie. Mike had a grouper sandwich which he said was excellent and my parents loved their dishes as well. We stopped at Upper Crust the one day for lunch. It was a decent pizza, but I do not understand the craze over the stuff.
The beaches in Key West aren’t your typical, sit down and relax on the sand type of beach. There is no sand, because of the coral reefs protecting the island from waves. One beach, Smather’s Beach, had sand brought in from the Caribbean. We spent one afternoon at Smather’s Beach with Bryce so he could play in the sand. It is a nice beach and we enjoyed the relaxation. The only time we actually spent in the water was at our hotel pool, which is your typical nicer hotel pool with a decent view of the ocean. One day we rented bikes and rode around the island. We saw Key deer everywhere, they are so cute! We also rode to the Big Blue Hole and saw a gator swimming and two iguanas.
We spent the last three days of our trip in Key Largo. We stayed at the Hampton Inn, which I can’t complain about, but it was quite the adjustment after the Marriott Beach Front. One plus of this hotel is the beach, my parents watched a manatee one morning and Mike saw a few sting rays one evening.
We had our first dinner at the Fish House, which we had heard numerous praises about. We left slightly disappointed. It definitely has the feel of a good seafood restaurant where locals would gather, but the food proved otherwise. My stuffed shrimp were so over cooked that they were tough. They had cheese on top of them that had turned crispy and hard. The service at the fish house was great and the food came out so quickly that I have no idea how they possible had time to over cook it like they did.
Our best meal of the vacation was had at Calypsos in Key Largo. Mike and I went there one night while my parents stayed at the hotel and ordered Chinese food. We had the peel and eat shrimp appetizer. I ordered the fish tacos and Mike ordered the fried Captain’s basket. I didn’t expect tuna in my tacos so we switched meals since I don’t do pink meat. Both dishes were excellent and we went back to the hotel raving about the place to my parents. Of course, my parents wanted to go to Calypsos so we headed back the following night. Our food was once again delicious, but that night Mike and Bryce got plagued with sickness. We can only point our finger at Calypsos as a culprit for the sickness because the two of them shared food, but it could have just been a 24 hour bug, not sure.
We spent one day at the beach in John Penne Kamp state park beach. Mike and my mom snorkeled off the shore. My mom loved snorkeling there and said she saw a sting ray and the cannons that they sunk. Mike and I took an early morning snorkeling trip on the Encounter boat from the park. The water was so choppy, it wasn’t anything like the snorkeling I had done before but it was neat to see the reef. I didn’t see anything exciting and thought fighting the waves was annoying. Some people on our boat said the saw a nurse shark which sounded pretty cool…err scary, to me.
On our last day in the Keys we decided to do a canoe trip through the mangrove trees. It had the potential to be a great trip and to see lots of cool things. However, Paul at Robbie’s Pier definitely decided to ruin it for us. He told us we had plenty of time to do the big loop through the bay. I would never have thought to question the guy’s recommendation. Umm, yea I am from Pennsylvania, it is landlocked – I have NO experience with boating in bays. So like trusting tourists, we headed out canoeing with Bryce in our boat. We paddled through the mangroves, head out to the bay and then the water starts to get lower and lower. Yes, you guessed it, the bay got too shallow and we were stuck in a thick messy bog of mud! The sun is beating down on us, my baby is crying and we are stuck! Mike gets out and pushes me and Bryce about 200 yards to the water’s edge where we can paddle our way pack through the water. My parents, are older, my dad had a heart attack a few years back, and they just aren’t in their prime physical shape anymore, and they are still stuck. My husband, being the hero he is, heads back out through the waist deep mud and pushes my parents’ canoe to the water’s edge. We then paddled back through the mangroves to return our boats to Paul. Yes, I was furious but my husband reminded we were on vacation and Paul was too stoned to care about our misfortune and to just leave it be….
