Miami & Key Largo
One item that has been on our list to enjoy is the drive from Miami to Key West. The sun, clear blue skies with palm trees all around, and water on either side of us as we drive. At the beginning of February, what better area to explore than a place that has 70+ degree temperatures and fulfills the need for some very much sun during the winter. Our adventure kicked off in Miami, where we stayed at the Intercontinental downtown. The hotel was fabulous and had a great view of the Miami cruise port while offering plenty around it.
Being from the Mid-Atlantic, we are fans of Dogsfish Head brewing, and as they just opened a Miami location recently, we had to check it out. Located in the Wynwood district, we honestly were not sure what to expect as we did not really do much research for one night of staying here. Though, we can honestly say we fell in love with this area of Miami and want to explore it further. The art all around the buildings was stunning. After visiting a few of the local breweries, and having some food along the way, we called it a night before setting off on the drive to our first stop of Key Largo the next day.
What will probably be one of the more memorable moments of the trip, started as we got to our stop in Key Largo at the Hampton Inn. As we pulled up, we were greeted with what should be the true mascot of South Florida, an iguana just chilling in front of the tree right after we parked. That evening, our mission was to see the sunset over the water, and Bayside Grill & Sunset bar was a great place to have a bite for dinner while enjoying the view. Though we were even more impressed with the view that our own hotel provided when we returned and had thought the sun was done its show for the evening.
Our main stop in Key Largo on the way down occurred the next day when we visited Bob. Bob is a dolphin at the Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder. They allowed us to watch an earlier set of training & enrichment that they were doing, as our interaction was still a few hours away and we didn’t want to venture too far down the road, only to need to come back. While waiting we also grabbed lunch at Key Largo Fisheries, which had live music and a great vibe. If you are going for lunch, even on a Monday in February, there was a rush that came in around noon. After the quick bite, we did our dolphin interaction, which is where we met Bob who was excited to show us all he can do. He even went “shopping” for us and brought us two leaves that were in his pool. After we waved goodbye to Bob, we got on the road for the 2-hour drive south, through the remaining of the keys to our destination on Stock Island to the Perry Hotel. On the way, there are many roadside attractions.
The first was Betsy the shrimp, selfie-worthy with a lovely indoor/outdoor market to walk around in. On the way down of course, we tried to see some Key Deer, which are on Big Pine Key. Did you know the Florida Keys have their own “mini deer” that live on protected land? Us either! The road signs indicate they should be everywhere, however, we drove east to west on the island, no luck. Another stop was to Florida Keys Brewing, to try a sample of their offerings. The beer garden is not to be missed, however not our favorite brewery of the trip. Driving over the iconic seven-mile bridge felt a lot quicker than 7 miles going through the different keys. The view was surreal as we had a feeling of being on a cruise ship. It isn’t anything like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel, it is stunning nonetheless. Much of the drive across this bridge, you are traveling parallel with the old driving bridge, which doesn’t look wide enough for two cars, don’t miss Fred the tree defying logic growing out of the old bridge itself.
