Florida day 1

No mistake . . . I had a last minute invitation for a trip to Florida and less than 36 hours to research and plan.  I am starting to enjoy this last minute stuff.  I was joining my friend M and her two girls so I knew two things:  we would have a fun time and we would have an awesome hotel!  We had all traveled together in February so the kids could learn to snow ski so now giving it a go at a beach vacation.  Colin and I arrived in Miami last night and linked up with our friends and headed for an overnight sleep in Key Largo.  It was uneventful.  We had a late lunch at Hobo's and checked into the hotel so the kids could swim and run wild!  The moms looked at brochures to try and plan what we would do the next 5 days.  I immediately found a brochure for a place called Dry Tortugas and was trying to sell it big time!  I wasn't having much luck, LOL.  We woke up at 9:30am and hurried to enjoy our free breakfast before closing time; we could not believe we slept so late and the only reason we woke up was housekeeping knocked on the door!  The plan for the day was to stop at the store to buy food for a picnic lunch along the drive south to Key West . . . take it easy and stop when we wanted.  We headed into Bashas' for food . . . note to self never take this group to a grocery store for food; it will turn into a major outing!  We headed back to the car when one of the kids said there was a crab under the car . . . I'm thinking hermit crab but no this big boy was hiding under the car tire!

The kids were loving stalking it with the camera and a lot of video was shot with camera too.  Poor thing wasn't sure what to do with all the noise.

This land crab quickly became a tourist stop of many in the parking lot.  The kids were scared we would run over it so it took some time to 'escape' the parking lot without damaging the crab.  Back on the road . . . kids were good and we enjoyed the views of all the keys.  We were on the lookout for the 7 Mile Bridge . . . indeed one long bridge and decided to stop for lunch after we crossed.  We found a park area and claimed the last covered area because this was rolling in . . .

. . . hopefully it would not be an indication of what the weather would be like all week!  We quickly ate and loaded the car as the rain began to fall.  We continued on our slow drive to Key West.  I have come from the Arctic Circle in Alaska to the Sourthernmost city in Florida!

We took a scenic drive around the area before we arrived at our hotel The Reach.  Our room wasn't ready so  I stopped to meet the concierge and discuss some options for activities while in town.  Of course I just had to bring up the Dry Tortugas.  She told me that the chances of getting a reservation for 5 people on a sea plane was unlikely, but I insisted.  Of course she also told me it was an amazing trip and awesome; nothing like telling me how great it is and that it is probably impossible to book it too.  She called and the only opening was Wednesday morning (the day we left town) at 8am.  I concurred with the other mom and booked it!  I like getting my way, LOL.  We headed to the pool and beach to start enjoying the resort and went next door to Casa Marina (the sister hotel) to check out that pool and beach too.  It started to rain and lightning so the pool and beach areas were closed.  We headed to our room and hung out on the balcony . . . 

. . . not too shabby of a view is it!  Our peacefulness was short lived as the fire alarm went off for about 20 minutes for an unknown reason.  The storm passed so back to the pool we went.  It was a nice day to just go from pool to beach back to pool.  The kids were having a blast.  We overheard some man at the pool talking about this crazy man who did tricks with fire and cats at Mallory Square each night . . . M inquired with him about more details, and we herded our kids up and quickly changed so we could find this dude.  Mallory Square was the place to be at sunset . . . not only beautiful sunset views . . . 

. . . but all kinds of local art vendors and crazy local talent too.   We first saw this . . .

. . . absolutely hilarious and cute too.  The dog's owners were playing music and the dog would go collect dollar bills from people.  One time he had a mouth full and dropped a couple.  The dog quickly put his paw on them and managed to get them back in his mouth before dropping them in the bucket.  Colin really loved it!  We continued on to the next act which was a man on stilts doing tricks with fire and knives.  Colin was picked to assist in throwing the knives at this character for him to catch . . . OMG my heart was pounding that he was going to stab the guy but seriously what kind of nut job picks a child to do this?  I guess I should ask myself what type of parent lets a child do this?  LOL.  We moved along but never saw the "Cat Man" which was disappointing.  Apparently we missed his show!  The kids were hungry so we walked down Duval Street until we arrived at Fogarty's.  We ordered dinner and had a drink from the Flying Monkeys Saloon.  Nice evening sitting outside with three good kids.  They still had a ton of energy so we decided to make the long walk back to the hotel . . . over 25 blocks!  Amazingly they did not really complain; maybe it was the ice cream stop along the way?  Or hanging out in the Hammock Shop?  Of course we did walk through an interesting part of town that had a bar with cross dressing performers, none of the kids really seemed to notice that they were men dressed as women.  We headed to bed soon after we arrived!