The Florida Keys

On our recent trip to Florida we visited the Keys, which was probably my favorite part of our trip (Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a very close second).  I wish we had more time there; my favorite spots were Bahia Honda State Park (all the beach pictures), the hotel I found on Key Largo through Hotwire (great deal if you're willing to bid on hotel and find out after it is booked the name of the hotel)(Key Largo was a bit disappointing, but the hotel was great, with its own private beach), and Key West.  En route, we drove through Miami via Ocean Drive.  Ocean Drive was fancy, yes, but a little disappointing.  It didn't take long on Ocean Drive to get our fill and see that (at least that day) it wasn't very kid friendly.  Sorry if you've seen some of these pictures.

These pictures were taken at the Dolphin Research Center on Marathon Key.  This is a well regarded center where scientists study dolphins.  I guess that is a duh.  I was really impressed.  We watched a little show, then walked around; the dolphins were trying to talk to us, especially Isa.

Airborn Dolphin.

These are by our hotel on Key Largo...just missed the Manatee but we saw a horseshoe crab!  So cool.

Miguel happened to have points at this hotel so we got free breakfast. Super yummy. And the view was so beautiful!

On the drive to Key West.

Above, the drive to Key West was so beautiful.  The water was so pretty and it was really peaceful.

These two are pictures of homes in Key West.  There were many cute homes there.  It had a fun feel, wish we could have stayed longer.

I read the book Truman by David McCullough and loved it; this was a treat, to get a glimpse of where Harry Truman vacationed and worked when he was president. 

Cool trees.

Ernest Hemmingway's House--sorry its through a car window.

We were tempted to swim to Cuba.  Some day!

Bahia Honda State Park.  Very beautiful.  We had a great time on the beach.  We saw: a big eagle ray that we thought at first was a small shark, a swimming iguana, and a hermit crab. The kids nicknamed it "hermie," and all fought over who got to play with it.  :) 

Iguana have a party.

Hermie.  He did survive.

 The A1A, driving toward Ocean Drive.  Just OK compared with the Keys.