RobynPrincess
Looking around
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2010
- Messages
- 1,285
Fort Lauderdale.
We had a day of driving ahead of us today. We wanted to get to Ft Lauderdale in time to actually see some of the place so we were up early - 6:30am in fact - and by 8:30am we were all packed and ready to go!
First stop was breakfast at the same place as yesterday - Old Town Bakery. We all got some breakfast and something to have for lunch as we would still be in the car around lunchtime and the sandwiches looked amazeballs. Sy got a ham and cheese croissant while I got a plain and we planned to share a raspberry one, only I didn't like the raspberry (it had jam/jelly in it which I'm not a fan of) so instead we shared the ham and cheese
(much to Sy's dismay hehe). For lunch we both got the same thing - a curried chicken and apple sandwich. $24 including a large coffee and an Orangina. Not too bad for breakfast and lunch I thought. We had more of a chat with the owner today as it was less busy, he makes everything by hand each morning which would explain why it was all so yummy.
We sat in the car to eat our breakfast and once finished it was time to hit the road. I took a few pics from the car, most didn't come out all that well but here are a few that did.
Apparently this had been used in a film of some sort... I wanna say a Bond? I was told to take a picture by Sy LOL
I think this might have been James Bond too..
This is the dead centre of Key West... Aka the cemetery (see what I did there?). The water level is so close to land level here they cant bury bodies instead they have to pile them up above ground. I dunno if I like that idea or not.
We made good time on our way up through the Keys, and I even managed to stay away this time so I didn't missed the miles of driving over open sea! I may have had a nap shortly after that bit, I can't quite recall It started to rain about an hour into the journey which made our trip run a little slower but this was actually the ONLY day of rain the whole trip so I can cope with it being the day we were in the car.
It was decided that we needed a restroom stop as we drove through Key Largo so we stopped at a hideously tacky shell shop. It was still raining so Sy and I stayed in the car as we didn't really need to go. Mums came back first followed by the dads with some Key Lime pie they had bought in the shop. We ate our sandwiches in the car park as we were stopped anyway and boy, they were seriously good! I could so eat one right now. The apple and curried chicken on the most amazing bread heaven! Bread is the one thing I miss when we are in the USA, the bread over there is all too sweet for me, sourdough comes close but still not great, plus I love a really hard crust, none of that soft stuff So trust me when I say, that bread was goooooooooooood. We then all tried a bit of Key Lime pie, not quite as good as Blue Heaven as you would expect, but not a bad effort.
There was a huge storm over Miami as we drove past, the lightening was forking across the sky in front of us, gotta love those Florida storms! We never get lighting the same at home. We also discovered that we started to quite desperately need some petrol, and it took a while before we could find anywhere to stop! I started to get a bit panicky but we made it to a station in the end which turned out to be only about 2 miles away from our hotel for the night, phew!
We actually drove round for a bit looking for our hotel, it didn't look much from the outside and all of the pictures I'd seen of the inside were really lush and posh so I was looking for somewhere pretty spectacular. The outside didn't really match up to what I was expecting however as soon as we walked in we were blown away. I went to check in with both Dads while mums and Sy unloaded the bags along with the help of the bellman. We were told we had been upgraded when we checked in which was lovely! The girl didn't say what we had been upgraded to though... We were in for a real treat...
We all went up and the bellman said he would follow us shortly after. We all went to our respective rooms and then ran to each others rooms to tell each other how awesome they all were (if that makes any sense!). We had been upgraded to 1 bedroom suites. Each room was slightly different, my parents had the best and biggest room. Each room had washing machines and driers so Bill (my dad) went out to find some washing stuff, I did suggest waiting as we would have a washer and drier the next day in Disney but mum's didn't want to... Dad was actually gone so long we started to worry but he had walked and couldn't find anywhere (he missed the Wallgreen's at the end of the road, whoops!).
Anyway after all this talk about how amazing our room was, I guess I better show some pictures (and believe me, I took a LOT! This isn't even half of them, photo overload warning)
A downside to the hotel was $27 per night car parking, quite a lot considering it was a bit further out of town. The girl who checked us in did say the parking on the street was only .50c an hour and no charge at night so I think they are used to people not parking in the hotel... Seems silly to me to charge so much more! We saw a lot of guests going out to their cars parked in the street and none going into the hotel car park Guess where we parked...
We unpacked a little and did a bit of washing once dad was back with the washing tablets. Then it was time to head out on the 5pm boat trip that I'd found online before we left home, the rain had long cleared up but I thought it would be best to check the website before going to find the place in case it wasn't going out for whatever reason, it said it was still going ahead so off we went. We were struggling to find a car parking space and it was coming close to 5pm so Sy dropped me and Bill off and we went to check they would wait for us all (didn't think they would wanna turn down 6 adults on the trip considering it was out of season), the boat was there but deserted and the ticket booth had the shutters down. I was cross, like really cross. I had checked before we left it was still running! There was nothing to say why it wasn't running and closed up. We could have gone with another company and been out on the water by now
The only reason we didn't find a boat trip in Key West was cause we knew we were going on this boat tour! This was the only thing we were planning to do in Ft Lauderdale, the only sightseeing trip, we were planning to leave early the next morning! I was really cross. Luckily we managed to grab Sy before they paid the huge parking charge in the car park nearby. We hopped back in the car and decided to instead drive ourselves round on a tour and look at the sights, not quite the same thing but it was nice to have a look around.
We stopped at the Wallgreen's on the corner near the hotel to get some snacks and drinks and headed back into the hotel. We sat on my parents balcony as they had the biggest with the nicest view. We had some drinks and crisps and tried to decide what to do for dinner. Sy really fancied trying a place called Chima however on looking at the menu online it was hugely expensive and as it was an all you can eat Brazilian you had to go really hungry, which we now weren't after the snacks... We decided that we were all a bit knackered and actually no one really wanted to go out to eat so we sent the men out to take some food, they know us and know what we like so we had every faith. By 9pm (almost 2 hours later) we were all falling asleep in mum's room. Anne had her key but Sy had gone with ours so I couldn't get back into our room, eventually I got sick of waiting for the guys and went down to reception to ask for a key but as I had no ID they were a bit wary, they did agree to take me up to the room if I could show them ID once inside (which is where everything was) but as I was about to get into the lift with the guy taking me up, the men appeared with pizza. Crisis averted. I'll be honest here, we had decided not to go out to eat because we were tired but by the time the guys got back we could have gone out and eaten and come back again, so I wasn't best pleased - none of us ladies were. They said they had driven up and down looking for somewhere but ended up at the Italian about 3 mins walk away.
Back in the room we had 3 massive pizzas, Sy had got stuff on ours I can't eat, Cliff had got stuff on theirs that Anne wouldn't eat and my mum was now so tired she didn't want any. Good job guys! So I went to bed in a huff cause 1, they had been gone so long and I was peed off and 2, Sy had got stuff he knew I couldn't have on the pizza. Oh dear, not a happy Robyn. LOL (I got over it pretty quick - by the morning it was forgotten).
Tomorrow, DISNEY!!
We had a day of driving ahead of us today. We wanted to get to Ft Lauderdale in time to actually see some of the place so we were up early - 6:30am in fact - and by 8:30am we were all packed and ready to go!
First stop was breakfast at the same place as yesterday - Old Town Bakery. We all got some breakfast and something to have for lunch as we would still be in the car around lunchtime and the sandwiches looked amazeballs. Sy got a ham and cheese croissant while I got a plain and we planned to share a raspberry one, only I didn't like the raspberry (it had jam/jelly in it which I'm not a fan of) so instead we shared the ham and cheese
(much to Sy's dismay hehe). For lunch we both got the same thing - a curried chicken and apple sandwich. $24 including a large coffee and an Orangina. Not too bad for breakfast and lunch I thought. We had more of a chat with the owner today as it was less busy, he makes everything by hand each morning which would explain why it was all so yummy. We sat in the car to eat our breakfast and once finished it was time to hit the road. I took a few pics from the car, most didn't come out all that well but here are a few that did.
Apparently this had been used in a film of some sort... I wanna say a Bond? I was told to take a picture by Sy LOL
I think this might have been James Bond too..
This is the dead centre of Key West... Aka the cemetery (see what I did there?). The water level is so close to land level here they cant bury bodies instead they have to pile them up above ground. I dunno if I like that idea or not.
We made good time on our way up through the Keys, and I even managed to stay away this time so I didn't missed the miles of driving over open sea! I may have had a nap shortly after that bit, I can't quite recall
It started to rain about an hour into the journey which made our trip run a little slower but this was actually the ONLY day of rain the whole trip so I can cope with it being the day we were in the car.It was decided that we needed a restroom stop as we drove through Key Largo so we stopped at a hideously tacky shell shop. It was still raining so Sy and I stayed in the car as we didn't really need to go. Mums came back first followed by the dads with some Key Lime pie they had bought in the shop. We ate our sandwiches in the car park as we were stopped anyway and boy, they were seriously good! I could so eat one right now. The apple and curried chicken on the most amazing bread heaven! Bread is the one thing I miss when we are in the USA, the bread over there is all too sweet for me, sourdough comes close but still not great, plus I love a really hard crust, none of that soft stuff
So trust me when I say, that bread was goooooooooooood. We then all tried a bit of Key Lime pie, not quite as good as Blue Heaven as you would expect, but not a bad effort. There was a huge storm over Miami as we drove past, the lightening was forking across the sky in front of us, gotta love those Florida storms! We never get lighting the same at home. We also discovered that we started to quite desperately need some petrol, and it took a while before we could find anywhere to stop! I started to get a bit panicky but we made it to a station in the end which turned out to be only about 2 miles away from our hotel for the night, phew!
We actually drove round for a bit looking for our hotel, it didn't look much from the outside and all of the pictures I'd seen of the inside were really lush and posh so I was looking for somewhere pretty spectacular. The outside didn't really match up to what I was expecting however as soon as we walked in we were blown away. I went to check in with both Dads while mums and Sy unloaded the bags along with the help of the bellman. We were told we had been upgraded when we checked in which was lovely! The girl didn't say what we had been upgraded to though... We were in for a real treat...
We all went up and the bellman said he would follow us shortly after. We all went to our respective rooms and then ran to each others rooms to tell each other how awesome they all were (if that makes any sense!). We had been upgraded to 1 bedroom suites. Each room was slightly different, my parents had the best and biggest room. Each room had washing machines and driers so Bill (my dad) went out to find some washing stuff, I did suggest waiting as we would have a washer and drier the next day in Disney but mum's didn't want to... Dad was actually gone so long we started to worry but he had walked and couldn't find anywhere (he missed the Wallgreen's at the end of the road, whoops!).
Anyway after all this talk about how amazing our room was, I guess I better show some pictures (and believe me, I took a LOT! This isn't even half of them, photo overload warning)
A downside to the hotel was $27 per night car parking, quite a lot considering it was a bit further out of town. The girl who checked us in did say the parking on the street was only .50c an hour and no charge at night so I think they are used to people not parking in the hotel... Seems silly to me to charge so much more! We saw a lot of guests going out to their cars parked in the street and none going into the hotel car park
Guess where we parked...We unpacked a little and did a bit of washing once dad was back with the washing tablets. Then it was time to head out on the 5pm boat trip that I'd found online before we left home, the rain had long cleared up but I thought it would be best to check the website before going to find the place in case it wasn't going out for whatever reason, it said it was still going ahead so off we went. We were struggling to find a car parking space and it was coming close to 5pm so Sy dropped me and Bill off and we went to check they would wait for us all (didn't think they would wanna turn down 6 adults on the trip considering it was out of season), the boat was there but deserted and the ticket booth had the shutters down. I was cross, like really cross. I had checked before we left it was still running! There was nothing to say why it wasn't running and closed up. We could have gone with another company and been out on the water by now
The only reason we didn't find a boat trip in Key West was cause we knew we were going on this boat tour! This was the only thing we were planning to do in Ft Lauderdale, the only sightseeing trip, we were planning to leave early the next morning! I was really cross. Luckily we managed to grab Sy before they paid the huge parking charge in the car park nearby. We hopped back in the car and decided to instead drive ourselves round on a tour and look at the sights, not quite the same thing but it was nice to have a look around.
We stopped at the Wallgreen's on the corner near the hotel to get some snacks and drinks and headed back into the hotel. We sat on my parents balcony as they had the biggest with the nicest view. We had some drinks and crisps and tried to decide what to do for dinner. Sy really fancied trying a place called Chima however on looking at the menu online it was hugely expensive and as it was an all you can eat Brazilian you had to go really hungry, which we now weren't after the snacks... We decided that we were all a bit knackered and actually no one really wanted to go out to eat so we sent the men out to take some food, they know us and know what we like so we had every faith. By 9pm (almost 2 hours later) we were all falling asleep in mum's room. Anne had her key but Sy had gone with ours so I couldn't get back into our room, eventually I got sick of waiting for the guys and went down to reception to ask for a key but as I had no ID they were a bit wary, they did agree to take me up to the room if I could show them ID once inside (which is where everything was) but as I was about to get into the lift with the guy taking me up, the men appeared with pizza. Crisis averted. I'll be honest here, we had decided not to go out to eat because we were tired but by the time the guys got back we could have gone out and eaten and come back again, so I wasn't best pleased - none of us ladies were. They said they had driven up and down looking for somewhere but ended up at the Italian about 3 mins walk away.
Back in the room we had 3 massive pizzas, Sy had got stuff on ours I can't eat, Cliff had got stuff on theirs that Anne wouldn't eat and my mum was now so tired she didn't want any. Good job guys! So I went to bed in a huff cause 1, they had been gone so long and I was peed off and 2, Sy had got stuff he knew I couldn't have on the pizza. Oh dear, not a happy Robyn. LOL (I got over it pretty quick - by the morning it was forgotten).
Tomorrow, DISNEY!!
