Monday the 13th I got up early and skyped home and got to see the girls and ash and mum and dad – so good! From Daytona we set off for Miami, we would have loved to stay in Dayton a big longer but we still had Nicky & Michal’s box of stuff they needed to post home and they were leaving from Miami to head back to the East coast on Tuesday so we needed to get it to them.
So we headed off further down the coast toward Miami, we headed straight to Nicky’s hotel in South Beach to drop off their stuff – they said their camping trip was really good but extremely tiring having to set up and pack up every day. We then went to our hotel – the Hilton in downtown Miami, which is was really nice – just a lill bit swanky!
Driving around Miami is an experience in itself, there are just so many good looking guys walking around with no shirts on and there are chicks walking around with bikinis even if they really don’t have the body for that bikini! All very interesting but very pretentious.
We drove back over to south beach to meet up with the girls for dinner, we walked along the strip which is directly opposite Miami Beach. It was packed full of restaurants and bars and they all had outside dinning with all the waiters yelling out their specials grabbing at you trying to get you inside. It reminded me so much of Thailand – remember Ash all the guys “ohh pretty ladies, come in, come in good price for you” it was exactly the same just more American!
We ended up at a café restaurant that gave us a free drink which was good, although the tables were outside on one side of the footpath then across the path the tables were inside so there were lots of people walking up and down the footpath trying to sell you things like flowers, CD’s, club tickets and don’t forget the bums asking for money – cant escape those buggers, their everywhere!
Dinner was ok and after we finished we went for a walk down the strip, then for all you ‘Jersey Shore’ fans we stopped of at the ice creamery where they work at, didn’t really mean much to us. Walked the girls back to their hotel and drove back to ours. Next morning it was raining and overcast, but by the time we got outside the rain had stopped and the day was just overcast which was good.
Nick and Michal were leaving that afternoon so we caught up for lunch at an Irish pub and said goodbye to them as they headed off to Vegas. After lunch we walked around the shops and headed down to the famed Miami beach, it was quite disappointing – sand wasn’t that clean and there was cigarette butts littered everywhere and it also could have had something to do with the fact that it was overcast and had started to spit again! They did have cute little beach huts up and down the beach which were painted all different bright colours.
We decided to walk down the strip and check out all the art deco style buildings, they were great – all the different pastel colours and the intricate details on the buildings give it a really unique feel. Headed back to the hotel as the rain had started to get a bit heavier and had a little afternoon nap. For dinner we walked 6 blocks to a complex called (something that I can’t remember) anyways it is on a marina has lots of shops and heaps of restaurants, so after walking around window shopping we stopped off at Hooters for tea, they had fried pickles!!! Which we tried and loved – delicious.
Wed 16th we left Miami bound for the Florida Keys, along the way we stopped off at a placed called Coral Gables, just outside of Miami, to visit the historical Venetian Pool claimed as the most beautiful pool in the world. It was situated in the middle of a suburban area and costs a dollar to have a look around and $13 if you want to swim, it was really nice. Very Venetian looking and extremely old as it was originally a quarry for the local area (which was one of the 1st settlements in Miami) but later converted into a pool.
Back on the road and the rain started again , the land down to the keys was quite small with the road/highway in the middle and hotels/shops/restaurants on either side with the sea behind them, & every now and then you could catch glimpses of the Caribbean Sea which was an amazing beautiful azul blue colour – and that was even on an overcast day – so imagine it when the sun was shining! The night before we had booked through hotwire at the ‘Keys Resort and Marina’ which sounded promising considering we were driving past some pretty snazzy looking resorts along the way. The area of the Florida keys is made up of 700 -800 little islands so there are lots of bridges connecting all the islands all the way down to Key West which is the very last one.
The area which we were staying at was called Islamorada about halfway down the keys, by this stage it was still raining and getting quite heavy so when Tomtom said we had reached our destination we were a bit apprehensive as it was hard to see because of the pelting rain and because the place didn’t look like much of a resort! We pulled into this small ‘motel’ right off the highway and looked at it in horror as we realised we wouldn’t be staying in a ‘resort’ for the next 2 nights ohhhhhh! It looked more like a scene out of CSI Miami where some one is murdered or goes to top themselves, an old white building with 2 stories and a gravel parking lot. When I went in I asked if we where in the right spot and if the had a booking for us (secretly hoping that Tomtom had made a mistake and our resort was up the road somewhere) “No no said the Indian lady behind the counter, we have your booking - here are 3 keys you can have a look at the rooms and decide which one you would like”
As we walked behind the building we realised that the ‘marina’ was in fact a dirty looking suburban canal lined with houses, and to make matters worse there was a stray cat hanging around. So after walking into the first room and realising the door didn’t lock it was upstairs to the second room that smelt really funky, so onto room number 3 it was 109 which was on the bottom floor, it wasn’t great but better than the other 2, it had all tiled floors with a hideous mural of palm trees painted on the back wall behind the beds along with 2 equally monstrous lamps in the shape of pineapples – great.
We didn’t even bother unpacking the car, we just took off to try and find something to do, after stopping in at the visitor centre and asking about fishing we were directed to a place called ‘Robbies’. It wasn’t very far & when we got there the big jolly guy behind the desk, Steve ,was really nice, and was saying that they don’t get many Aussies down at the Keys so he was very excited and he even joined us on Facebook. We booked a half day fishing charter for the next morning and it was only $35 – bargain, we chatted for a bit with Steve and it wasn’t long till ol’ gimpy appeared which he thought was fabulous and took pics with her. He then told us to follow him out onto one of the jetty’s as he grabbed a bucket of fish, walking along the little jetty the water was so clear and you could see a mass of fishing swimming around. As he grabbed a dead fish from the bucket he leaned over the edge and dangled it over there was a massive splash and this huge 2m fish jumped out of the water and grabbed the fish! It was huge and all of sudden there was 50 or so of some of the longest fish I had ever see swarming around for more food. They were called Tarpon fish but weren’t very good eating fish, Leigh had a go of feeding them and I attempted it but they had really big mouths and they scared me so I wussed out and just threw the fish out into the water, they went berserk and full on fight for it.
After feeding the fish it was about 4.30ish and we wanted to have a look at Key West so we drove the 2 hours to get there along the straightest most uneventful road, but when we arrived it was well worth it. I would def recommend staying at Key West rather than any where along the keys. It was such a nice seaside town it has a beach and lots of little boutique shops and cafes and a nice boardwalk where we stopped and got an ice cream and watched then sun set, where buskers where singing and playing music – really nice.
We drove back and it was pouring rain so not best visibility and it was getting late so we stopped off at Wendy’s and had a salad which wasn’t the greatest but ok all the same. So we finally arrived back at the dump to find about 5 stray cats roaming around and the place stinking like cat wee – nice. See we got ready and jumped into bed to watch so telly, I was in a bed to myself and Kel and Leigh we in the other. Just as we were turning off the lights I noticed something on the mattress……
As I sat up in bed there was this little brown bug crawling around as I squashed it blood came out of it like it was a mozzie, I jumped out of bed and pulled back the covers and they were every where….what the hell? When I got into bed there was nothing that I could see, so the girls checked there bed and nothing – thank goodness. The more we looked the worse it got, we collected them up in a cup and marched down to reception past the 100 cats and there of course was no one there, it was only 11.30pm and the sign still said open so we buzzed and rang the phone number for a while but nothing. Went back to the room and changed as I was feeling extremely itchy like I had bags all over me eeewwwww! To make matters worse they lill buggers had bitten me too, we had decided that they were bed bugs but they so much bigger than I thought they were.
So back in the room there was no way in hell that I was staying in that bed and Kel said even though they didn’t have anything in their bed she wouldn’t be able to sleep either, so her and I went out side and hopped into the car, first we were going to but the back seats down and lie half in the boot and half on the back seat but after about 2 seconds we realised that, that wasn’t going to happen. So we reclined the 2 front seats and lied their for a while itching ourselves with our ipods in and our eye masks on – looking ridiculous mind you. Having the eye masks on made us a little scared that someone was going to come up to the car and we wouldn’t be able to see them haha, and to make the whole experience even more enjoyable it was 27.5 degrees even with the windows down! So here we were lying in the car, itchy, sweating scared that some one was coming to get us, annoyed that there was no one at reception and not being able to sleep a wink and knowing that we had to get up in the morning to go fishing!
By this stage it was 12.30am and all of a sudden Leigh pops out and says that she cant sleep as she is getting freaked out by the bugs so we try reception again and still nothing so we grab our toiletry bags and hit the road to find another hotel minus the bed bugs, all the places we were passing didn’t look like there was anyone at reception or to expensive, driving 10 mins we stopped at ‘Days Inn’ Kel and I went in, in our pj’s and gave the guy our sob story, then he turns around and says ‘oh yeah bed bugs and turning into a big problem and they can get in your clothes and bags and then you transport them round’ ohh I was thinking he was going to tell us we were an infection risk and we couldn’t stay…….
But for 80 bucks we got a room at 1am and we checked that room up and down to make sure there were no bugs. Of course we didn’t sleep very much and we got up at 6.30am to have showers and get ourselves back to the other place to pack up our bags and throw everything in the car, we got our cranky pants on and went to the front desk with our cup of bed bug evidence. “Excuse me but we would like our money back, last night we came to complain several times but there was no one here and this is what we found in our bed!” as we thrust the cup at her. “Oh oh oh I'm very sorry but you don’t have a receipt of how much you payed as you booked online, so cant returnt your money” so she wasn’t sorry that they had a bed bug infestation or that we had to move hotels or that the place she was running was an absolute black hole, all she was worried about was the bloody receipt!
“Well can I use your computer” as I leaned over the counter and logged onto my email and printed out the bill – “there $88 a night for 2 nights” so she wrote us the check, we grabbed it and speed off the go fishing! Thank god we got the cheque now all we had to worry about was finding the bank and hoping it wouldn’t bounce, but we had fun to have so that could wait.
So at 9.10am we arrived at Robbies for the fishing adventure to begin, it wasn’t the best day it was still overcast and looked like the heavens could open at any second, but we soldiered on-nothing was going to stop us fishing! Leigh often goes out with her dad in their boat and is a seasoned fisher girl where as Kel and I not so much, Kel had only ever been once before. Once on board we met Anthony our deck hand and Captain Mike, there was about 14 people including us all blokes except us and one other old lady – no talent though! We headed out about 4 miles to the reef, along the way we had to go inside because it belted down which hopefully wasn’t a sign of things to come.
Once we stopped we got a bucket of squid as bait (which is apparently the best type of bait to use!) We baited our hooks ourselves – well I did mine and Kel’s and Leigh did her own, and off we cast. It wasn’t long time we got some nibbles and Leigh pulled up the first fish a white one called a a throw back but we had made a start. I was next with the same type, Leigh then with an orange one called a this time a keeper. Just before we cast off Anthony told everyone about 3 different type of fish that where deadly and shouldn’t be brought on board, if we did catch one we had to call him over so he could get it off the line.
My next fish was a keeper, then Leigh pulled up this tiny baby fish about 5cm and bright yellow. Kel got a bite and pulled it up but just as it got level with the deck the bugger of a thing flipped off. The next one I pulled up looked completely different from the others, it was a more round shape and was bright blue “Anthony” over he cames and lets me know in no uncertain terms not to touch it as it was a surgeon fish and had 2 razor sharp barbs on either side of its body that if touched would require you to visit the surgeon to get stiches – right mental check “don’t touch the blue fish’
We didn’t do too bad at that spot but it was time to go a bit further out so off we went to deeper waters and dropped our lines. More luck at this spot and I got another few throw backs and then I got a big bite, yanked up the line and for sure it was either one of 3 options #1 a dolphin was on the end of the line, #2 a shark was desperate for a morsel of food and had wanted some of my squid or #3 my personal favourite – I was about to pull up a mighty big marlin (one that I could get taxidermy –ed and sent home for the back patio wall) It was really hard to reel in and some of the other people of the boat had started to looked over.
More reeling – that even Rex Hunt would have to take his hat off too I finally pulled up the ugliest looking fish I had ever seen! All that effort for a fish that looked like a prehistoric rod cod. “Anthony” as he comes over “don’t bring that on the boat, don’t being it on deck” ok man settle down I thought to myself. ‘This is a scorpion fish, the most deadly in the Caribbean sea’ its spikes have a poison in them that is equal to the most deadliest snake bite and if anyone was to be bitten they would “haul anchor, speed back to shore, have and ambulance waiting for you and that’s if you made it” right – ‘mental note 2 don’t touch the ugly fish’.
So after Anthony had cut the fish off the line while it was dangling off the boat I realised that everyone from the boat had come over to have a look at it and some were taking pics, Leigh caught a few more and then it was time to head back in. All in all I had an absolute ball and caught 9 fish all together Leigh wasn’t far behind and Kel had 2, we beat most of the guys on board with our amateur efforts. I'm now determined to join the fishing club when I get home and convince dad he needs a boat!
When we arrived back to the little marina we got Anthony to fillet the fish and bag it up for us, it then started to pelt down like nothing before, the whole place flooded and was in ankle deep water, so we waited in the little hut where they did the bookings for a bit and talked to Steve the guy we met the day before. When the rain eased a little we got our fish and walked over to a little café where they cooked our fish up for us. In the end we think some of the guys on the boat took some of our fish because it turned out we only got 2 little pieces each but that’s ok because it was the best fish I have ever, ever tasted. After the little fish snack we agreed we had seen everything we wanted to and we hit the road bound for…….Well we didn’t really know where we were going but we would just drive and stop when we felt like it.
We headed in a north-west direction and drove and drove for about 2 and bit hours and it was raining so hard we could barley see the car in front, then we turned off the main road and little did we know we were driving through the everglades national park-which was stunning we could see the marshlands, swamps, grasslands and lots and lots of wild birds but for about 2 ½ hours there was absolutely nothing, just us on the road and one small toilet block half way along, so it was lucky that we had filled up before hand. It was a really long drive especially because of the rain and because the night before had been so traumatic with the bed bugs. To make matters worse the only radio station we could pick up was a Spanish station and we were getting extremely sick of the only CD that we had been listening to for 3 weeks!
So when we finally found civilisation again we were in a town called Naples by the coast on the Westside of Florida. It was a lovely, clean looking town with manicured gardens and lots of retirees. We drove until we found somewhere to stay that would suit the budget, La Quinta it was - so for $70 a night including breakfast we got a room. Leigh wasn’t feeling the best and had a bad cough so she hit the bed and Kel and I did the washing and went for a swim. We decided to book another night so we could rest up. That night for dinner we got take away from Olive Garden – a great restaurant that was right next door to the hotel which was perfect.
Cheerio xox
I know I have been extremely slow with the blog but I'm getting there x
