{"id":2347,"date":"2011-04-21T05:43:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T10:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2347"},"modified":"2011-12-06T16:02:25","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:02:25","slug":"florida-keys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2347","title":{"rendered":"The End of the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, April 21, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

We checked out of the Marriott Residence Inn in Delray Beach about 10 o’clock.\u00a0 It was a beautiful bright sunny day.\u00a0 The temperature was already 83 degrees with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean.\u00a0 We drove west along Atlantic Avenue for our final cruise up the avenue.\u00a0 I mentally said goodbye to Atlantic Avenue and Delray Beach and I hope to return soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Delray Beach Looking South <\/span><\/p>\n

We drove to Route 95 and aimed the car south.\u00a0 We whizzed by Hillsdale, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Hollywood, and Miami at 65 miles per hour.\u00a0 It was interesting to see the tall buildings of the city of Miami in the distance.\u00a0 We came to the end of the highway and drove through a residential neighborhood before Interstate 95 ended and became Route 1. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The traffic was heavy as we approached a sign which warned us that there was a dollar toll ahead.\u00a0 I was driving so Jeff prepared the toll money.\u00a0 We passed signs for a Sun Pass or “Plate Photos”.\u00a0 After toll booths didn’t appear, we realized that overhead cameras took photographs of my license plate and I would receive a bill for the toll plus “administration fees” sometime in the future!<\/span><\/p>\n

We passed through five similar toll booths which took photos of my car’s license plate. Will they all have additional fees added to the 75 cent or one dollar tolls we wondered?\u00a0 And how much??\u00a0 Bummer!\u00a0 I’ll find out soon…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We continued on Route 1 southbound to Florida City, the last city on the mainland.\u00a0 It was about 12:30 and we decided to stop for lunch at a Cracker Barrel, then continue on to Key Largo.\u00a0 We had made a reservation at the Hampton Inn there and drove south on the Overseas Highway\/Route 1 to find it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

After we checked in, we explored the hotel.\u00a0 The exterior of the building was ordinary, but the lobby and breakfast area were very nicely decorated.\u00a0 Our room was on the first floor with a private patio near the parking lot.\u00a0 The hotel resembled an old fashioned motel.\u00a0 Although the room was nicely decorated in a tropical motif, there was a musty smell in the room.\u00a0 Thank goodness for air conditioning!\u00a0 Perhaps rooms on the second floor were better, but we could not change because it was Easter weekend and rooms on The Keys were at a premium.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We walked down to the water and the shore was amazing!\u00a0 The bay was directly in front of the hotel.\u00a0 The water glistened a wonderful shade of sea green.\u00a0 There was a short sandy beach with lounge chairs and tropical plantings.\u00a0 There was a pool behind the beach, along a narrow canal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I overheard a woman telling her young sons who were swimming that manatees had been sighted nearby and to be on the lookout.\u00a0 The grounds had beautiful tropical plants and trees. Small geckos scurried across the walkways.\u00a0 What a beautiful place!\u00a0 It would be a nice beach to relax and do nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We wanted to see the rest of The Keys, so we left our luggage at the hotel and continued south on Route 1.\u00a0 Believe it or not, it took us three hours to reach Key West!\u00a0 The distance was about a 100 miles, but there was a lot of holiday traffic and the speed limit ranged between 35 mph to 55 mph.\u00a0 Just to keep everyone honest, there were many police radar-traps along the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Overseas Highway is an amazing feat of civil engineering.\u00a0 We had learned in St. Augustine that the road had been built over Henry Flagler’s railroad tracks after a severe hurricane had destroyed parts of the track.\u00a0 Now driving on the highway, we could appreciate Flagler’s contribution to South Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The highway essentially connects several of the islands in the archipelago at the end of the Florida Everglades.\u00a0 The islands were formed from fossilized coral and sand bars.\u00a0 Bridges connect the islands and the longest bridge is appropriately called The New Seven Mile Bridge.\u00a0 All the islands are inhabited and have colorful names like: Islamorada, Plantation Key, Tavernier, Upper and Lower Matecumbe Key, Long Key, Conch Key, Duck Key, Grass Key, Ramrod, Cudjoe, and Bahia Honda.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The city of Key West is a well populated town with a Naval Air base.\u00a0 It’s nickname is the “Conch Republic” and it is the southern most city of the continental United States.\u00a0 According to Wikipedia, Key West has a population of about 26,000 in less than six square miles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We arrived at the end of Route 1 and luckily found a parking garage for the car.\u00a0 It was about 5:00 o’clock, and we still had a couple of hours of daylight to explore Key West.\u00a0 Now we were sorry that we had not made reservations to stay here, because we had to drive back to the hotel tonight and we felt it was getting late. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We walked to the shore to see the harbor.\u00a0 There were many private yachts and many head-boats for hire.\u00a0 There were serious fishing boats, sail boats, catamarans, you-name-it boats!\u00a0 We walked along the famous board walk along the shore.\u00a0 There were boats on our right and bars on our left with lots of people, noise, and music.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As the sun set, there was a breeze and the air cooled off a little.\u00a0 We sat in one of the bars for a cold non-alcoholic drink and watched the crowd. Then walked around some more. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Key West was definitely a happening place! \u00a0There were lots of people, lots of activity, lots of noise, lots of music!\u00a0 We drove back to Key Largo in the dark and planned our return to Key West the next day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, April 21, 2011 We checked out of the Marriott Residence Inn in Delray Beach about 10 o’clock.\u00a0 It was a beautiful bright sunny day.\u00a0 The temperature was already 83 degrees with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean.\u00a0 We drove west along Atlantic Avenue for our final cruise up the avenue.\u00a0 I mentally said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states","category-florida","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2347"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3670,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347\/revisions\/3670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}