Michael was super ambitious and got up early this morning to attempt to watch the sunrise. Me? Not so much. I’m not a morning person to begin with, and my other issue is that once I’m up, I have a really hard time going back to sleep. Plus, vacations are for sleeping in! :)

Unfortunately, he didn’t see much of a sunrise because of the cloudy weather. But he still snapped a few cool photos in the early morning light.

He said he stayed out for about 20 minutes before coming back to bed.

When we got up for the day, we had to get packed up so we could check out. Our time at Southernmost on the Beach had come to an end. While I showered, Michael took a cab to the airport to pick up our rental car (just an economy car this time–a lovely, smoky-smelling Hyundai Accent). Once everything was packed, we loaded up the car, checked out at the front desk, and prepared to leave Key West. But we had to make one last stop for a photo opportunity.

90 miles to Cuba!

Mission accomplished, we walked back to the hotel, got into our car, and begrudgingly left Key West.

At Beer School on Tuesday, one of Michael’s fellow students told him that on our way back up north, we simply HAD to stop at No Name Pub for pizza. Coincidentally, we reached the No Name right around noon, which was perfect because I was STARVING.

It’s exactly what you’d expect it to be… a cute little pub. The thing I found most interesting/impressive was that every square inch of the walls and ceilings were covered with $1 bills. All of them are signed, drawn on, scribbled with messages and dates, etc. People proudly leave their dollar bills as a sign that they were once there at the No Name Pub. I knew there were thousands of them, but when I went to the bathroom, I saw a framed newspaper article with an interview with the owner. He claims that there are between 65,000 and 75,000 $1 bills stapled to the walls and ceiling. WHOA. Anyway, it’s pretty cool looking, and quite the sight to see.

We ordered a pizza and garlic sticks and chowed down. Seriously, it was a lot of food and it was delicious. I’m still full, frankly.

The power flickered off and we had issues getting our bill as a result. (Seriously, No Name? You couldn’t have just done the math for us?) We had to wait a good 15-20 minutes just for the freaking bill! Annoying, as we just wanted to get back on the road.

Eventually, everything worked out and we were on our way, heading closer and closer to Miami Beach.

After hitting some traffic in Miami, we arrived at our hotel in Miami Beach between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. We checked in and got settled, then decided to take a walk down to South Beach to check it out. We walked around for quite a while, but still weren’t able to work up much of an appetite after our big lunch at No Name. Instead, we decided to sit outside on a lovely patio at a fancy-looking cafe and order a couple of desserts (and a cocktail for Michael). The weather was really breezy, but it was still beautiful to sit out on the street and take in our surroundings.

Once we had been significantly stuffed with sugar, we made the long walk back to our hotel, and now we’re calling it a night. The weather wasn’t very nice today–warm, but overcast all day. Tomorrow, it is supposed to rain. :( We’re not sure what we’re going to do with ourselves, as we had been planning to spend our time out by the pool or on the beach! That’s not the way we want to end our vacation…

Today’s plans consisted of a whole lotta nothing until the evening. This vacation has been much more relaxing than some of the other ones we’ve taken in the past. We typically like to go-go-go and get out and see everything, but with our “babymoon,” we decided to approach things at a much easier pace.

We woke up and got ourselves out by the pool fairly early, securing prime lounge chairs. We spent the whole morning reading our books in the sunshine, and taking dips in the pool to cool off. It was lovely!

Around lunchtime, we decided to take a break and grab ourselves some food. We didn’t have to go far–we decided to eat at the Southernmost Beach Cafe again (where we had breakfast on Monday). After all of the not-so-great eating we’ve been doing, we were both in the mood for some serious vegetables, so we both ordered some awesome salads, and enjoyed them with a great view of the beach.

There is just something about eating your meals while being able to see palm trees and ocean waters… I love it so much.

A quick stop back at the room, and we were back out at the pool again for another hour or two.

Eventually, we decided we’d had enough lazing around and went inside to shower and cool off. We spent the late afternoon walking around a bit, first down to the lighthouse…

…then over to Duval Street…

…then back to our hotel grounds. Since we’re leaving Key West tomorrow morning (SAD!), we wanted to be sure to take photos of the hotel property. I’ll share those in my hotel review post, coming up next week sometime.

By this time, it was HOT, so we went inside to cool off in some much-appreciated air conditioning.

Before heading out for our sunset cruise, we went down to the pool bar to have a few drinks during happy hour.

I was even able to score a virgin pina colada. Yesss!

View from our table during happy hour. Still plenty of people out at the pool!

Soon, it was time to walk alllll the way down Duval Street one last time to catch our sunset cruise. In Key West, it’s pretty usual to see people walking down the street with beers, so Michael took a bottle from our room for the walk down to the boat. As we were just starting to make our way down Duval, a woman with her husband stopped us and sounding kind of desperate, said, “Excuse me, but where did you get that cold beer?” We said, “Back in our hotel room!” Poor lady. She looked like she reallllly wanted a beer. :)

For the sunset cruise, we again went with Fury, for a trip called “Commotion on the Ocean.” The trip features appetizers (vegetables, fruit, meatballs, chicken wings, cheese), drinks, and live music. We set sail right around the time the sun was getting low in the sky.

When we were taking this belly pic (we were kind of obsessed with them while we were on vacation, haha!), the couple next to us noticed and asked if it’s our first child. We said yes, and the guy proceeded to tell us that his son just got married and that he and his wife were currently trying. That always cracks me up, when people share with strangers that they are “trying.” Anyway, this guy was really excited about the prospect of being a grandfather, so I guess it was pretty cute.

Meanwhile, a blonde guy walked past us, and ready-to-be-a-grandfather guy tried to convince us that it was Owen Wilson. From the very beginning, I was pretty damn sure that it wasn’t him, and when I got a closer look at him a little later, I was 100% sure there was no way the blonde guy was Owen Wilson. Still, we kept running into ready-to-be-a-grandfather guy on the boat throughout the night and he kept making comments about how he was sure it was Owen Wilson. Allllllrighty then.

The band was pretty entertaining. They played a good variety of music.

We passed the time by walking around different areas of the boat and taking photos.

Because of the clouds in the sky, we soon realized that we wouldn’t be able to see the setting sun touch the water like we did the other night at Mallory Square. Bummer.

While it certainly wasn’t the same because of the clouds, it was still pretty. BUT, little did we know that a little while later, we would be treated to something pretty spectacular…

Now, come on… how gorgeous is THAT?

Soon, the sun was all but gone and the boat began to make its way back to the dock. It sure took its time, though… they give everyone time to party! At this point, it really turned into a booze cruise, and honestly, it was just not fun for me. It seemed as if every single person on the boat was drinking except for me, and frankly, it was not the kind of environment that is fun to be in when sober. Still, I tried to enjoy the boat ride and the beautiful evening.

We did eventually make it back to the dock and everyone disembarked. Since we hadn’t really had any dinner, we decided that instead of eating late, we would get some sweet treats to hold us over until breakfast. I got an ice cream, and for Michael…

…we stopped at Blonde Giraffe and got him a slice of key lime pie.

Because it was our last night in Key West, it was only right that we ended it the same way we ended every night… in our hammock, staring up at the sky, listening to the ocean, and taking in the soft breeze off the water.

If I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… PERFECTION.

This morning, the skies were slightly overcast, but there were pretty significant breakthroughs of sun. We decided to hit the pool, since we hadn’t been able to until now. We relaxed, read, swam, and soaked in some sun rays (we wore sunscreen–don’t worry!).

By late morning, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel room to gather our things and make the walk (again, alllll the way down Duval) to meet up with our boat for the snorkel trip we registered for. Check-in was at 12:30, and we waited around by the dock for a while before the crew came to get us (and the rest of the crowd) for boarding the boat.

The entire trip lasted about three hours, with time built in at the beginning and end for boarding, leaving the dock, and coming back. The ride out to the reef was probably at least 40 minutes or so. We were able to snag nice seats in the sun, so we sat back and enjoyed the scenery.

We were snorkeling right on top of the reef, so our guides assured us we were sure to see a lot of colorful fish. At first, right off the boat, the water was pretty deep so we weren’t seeing much of anything. So we took a few pics of each other instead. :)

Our attempt at an underwater belly pic. We can show the Little Bugger that he/she went snorkeling in the Gulf of Mexico before he/she was even born!

At one point, I heard Michael make a sound through his snorkel. I immediately started looking all around me, because I wasn’t sure if it was a “OMG THERE’S A SHARK!” or a “WOW, LOOK, HOW COOL!” sound. Thankfully, though, it was the latter. He had spotted this school of big, dark blue fish swimming past us.

We swam around out there for about an hour before we were pretty tired and swam back in to the boat. As it turned out, shortly after we got back up on deck, they started calling all of the stragglers in anyway, as it was time to go.

The ride back to shore was equally as relaxing as the ride out, especially if you were able to DRINK! Man, the crew on our boat was determined to get people drunk. Michael wouldn’t even be finished with his beer before a crew member was right there, filling it back up again. They had spiked punch, too. I stuck with water, but they had soda available, too.

We snapped a self-portrait as we were nearing the shore.

A cool photo of a pelican I took as we were pulling into shore.

Shortly thereafter, we got off the boat, but not before the crew poured everyone one last beer for the walks back to their hotels.

For anyone who is curious, we did the snorkel tour with Fury. While the snorkeling was not nearly as awesome as what we experienced in Hawaii (I mean, we swam mere feet away from a sea turtle, C’MON!), we didn’t really expect it to be. The crew was great–all really nice guys with great senses of humor. Also, as I mentioned, they certainly were not cheap about the drinks. They served plenty of beer and spiked punch for the money, that’s for sure. My only complaints were:

1) The gear was kind of crappy. We rented gear from dive shops during our time in Maui and Kauai, and I never felt grossed out by the gear. Although I felt confident that everything from Fury had been sanitized, there were bite marks in my snorkel and the masks just seemed… cheap. Although there was nothing that was literally disgusting about the gear (like I said, it was clean), it just didn’t feel very good to use.

2) Our concierge told us that there would be chips and salsa, and may have mentioned “snacks.” As a result, I didn’t worry about eating anything too significant before leaving for the tour, because I thought I would be held over by whatever they served on the boat. It turned out that the chips and salsa were non-existant, and the “snack” was a bag of Mrs. Vicker’s potato chips, passed out within the last half hour of the trip. This wasn’t Fury’s fault, it’s just that my expectations had been set higher by the concierge. If I did it over, I’d definitely eat before the trip, as I was starving.

All in all, though, a good excursion.

After it was over, we made our way back down Duval. Michael immediately headed off to “Beer School,” offered by our hotel. I would’ve loved to do it with him, but ya know how it goes! Anyway, “Beer School” is a fun activity they offer two days a week where you get to learn about and taste four different brews.

I’m so proud.

After Michael showered and cleaned up nicely, we walked down to have dinner at Sloppy Joe’s. A few Heather Drive readers had suggested this place to us, and we had passed by it numerous times on our walks up and down Duval.

Ever since we arrived in Key West, I’ve been looking for virgin frozen drinks. I’ve wanted a strawberry daquiri SO BADLY, it’s ridiculous. Unfortunately, most of the places we’ve been pre-mix the drinks and put them in these big frozen drink machines, so you can’t really order a virgin version. Well, Sloppy Joe’s came to the rescue. Not only could they make a virgin daquiri, but they also had it LISTED PLAINLY ON THE MENU. Ahhh, hassle free. *LOVE*

Forget the crappy O’Douls from the other night… this is the way to go. I was quite happy!

For dinner, I had a pulled pork sandwich with Sloppy Joe’s signature BBQ sauce. Michael had the sloppy joe, of course. Although the pulled pork was excellent, if I had to do it over again, I’d order the sloppy joe, too, because it was an AMAZING sloppy joe, people. Also, a tip if you ever eat here–order ONE side order of fries or onion rings or whatever. The sides don’t come with the meal, you order and pay for them separately, and well, at least you get your money’s worth. When they brought out a BASKET of onion rings and a BASKET of fries for me, I didn’t know if we’d be able to fit everything on our table! Crazy amounts of food. One side for two people would be sufficient.

After we were both stuffed full of sandwiches and fries/onion rings, we wandered back down Duval, chilled out in our hotel room for a bit (long day!), and then, once again, ended the night lying in a hammock. Now, we’re off to crash in the big, comfy bed.

I love vacation!

Unfortunately, we woke up to not-so-fantastic weather this morning. We had plans to spend the morning by the pool, but because it was pretty overcast, we had to change our minds.

We decided to get dressed and head over to the Southernmost Beach Cafe, which is right on hotel property, for breakfast. It’s open air and situated right on the beach and since it wasn’t miserable and rainy (yet), we wanted to take advantage. As soon as we left the air conditioned room, we knew it would rain today. The humidity was over 90%, and you could feel it, that’s for sure. It was tremendously sticky and the air felt heavy. Still, there was a nice breeze at the cafe, so we were able to sit outdoors comfortably. We both had pancakes–strawberry for me, blueberry for Michael–and took in the scenery.

After breakfast, we were pretty sure it was about to rain at any moment, so we decided to go over to Hemingway House, since we could take cover indoors if need be.

We felt a few drops of rain on our walk over, but the weather was still holding when we arrived, so we decided to wander the grounds outside first.

The yard is full of trees, plants and flowers, so it is pretty beautiful.

They book weddings at the Hemingway House; the ceremonies take place out here in the garden gazebo. Pretty.

Surprisingly, it never started raining while we were outdoors. Once we had made our way around the house, it was time to go inside.

They have turned Hemingway’s old house into a museum of sorts, so there are photos and artifacts situated throughout. You can take a guided tour, or wander through on your own. We decided to go it alone, but being there, I think you’d find out a lot more about Hemingway if you take the guided tour. There aren’t a lot of resources (plaques, information to read, etc.) for the self-guided folks. Still, it’s neat to walk through and see everything.

This cat was sleeping soundly on top of one of the displays. Most of the cats didn’t care if tourists stopped to pet them, but this one hissed and tried to scratch a lady who dared to touch him/her. Yowzers! Cat lovers beware!

Check out the two cats snoozing on the bed. I’m not a cat person at all, but even I thought that some of them were pretty cute!

The wrap-around porch on the second floor.

Views from the porch upstairs.

On the second floor of the guest house/poolhouse, there is a room in which Hemingway used to write.

Overall, Hemingway House was a neat place to visit.

After we were done, we were surprised that it had STILL not started raining! We walked around Duval a little bit, then went back to the hotel. Shortly after we got there, the water finally started falling from the sky. Because we couldn’t go outside and hang out by the pool or in any of the hammocks like we originally planned, I curled up in the air conditioning and read for a while. Michael decided to take a run in the rain.

By mid- to late-afternoon, the rain had subsided and although it was still overcast, we decided to get outdoors again. We found that the rain had helped to significantly lower the humidity outside, which was nice. We went out onto the hotel’s deck, grabbed a couple of lounge chairs, and both spent some time reading our books. Our hotel is seriously the BEST place to relax. Everything is so beautiful and tranquil.

Since we hadn’t really eaten anything since breakfast, we decided to do an earlier dinner. We were in the mood for Italian, so we again asked our concierge for a recommendation. She suggested Abbondanza, which just so happened to be only a few blocks from our hotel. Perfect. We showered and got ready to head out.

The atmosphere at Abbondanza was nice and authentic, and the food was fantastic. Our concierge again gave us a coupon–this time for free key lime pie for dessert. We asked for it to go, since the dinner portions were so filling. I just didn’t have room! But I have to say–I’m not a fan of key lime pie. I know, I know! But I’m not a big pie person to begin with, nor am I a big “fruit in my dessert” person, so it kind of made sense.

We took pictures of the different stages of the sun setting, and in between, we were entertained by a nearby street performer.

Me, in action. :) Reviewing my sunset photos!

Before we knew it, the sun had disappeared, leaving behind a beautiful orange sky.

Before walking all the back to the hotel, I wanted to give my feet a little rest. I underestimated how hard it would be for me to get up on this thing with my little belly. Sheesh!

We ended the night in a hammock at the hotel, staring at the moon. Perfection.

We flew into Miami a little late last night. We were delayed just a bit in Detroit, then had to wait around for a while for our luggage. (I really hate checking luggage–sucks when it really can’t be avoided.) By the time we got our rental car and were on our way, we were both tired and didn’t really want to go out to eat anywhere. We decided to do some kind of takeout and bring it with us to our hotel in Coral Gables.

We decided that pizza sounded good, but had no idea where to get it from. I called our hotel’s front desk and asked, but his two suggestions were Papa Johns and Dominos. Um, no thanks. I googled “University of Miami pizza” and up popped a restaurant called “Miami’s Best Pizza.” If you’re going to call yourself the best, well, I suppose you’re worth trying, right? We called and ordered a pizza and went to pick it up.

It was good stuff! We were pleased. The pizza had really good sauce, which is half the battle. We enjoyed our pizza and went to bed.

This morning, we woke up early and were both so ready to get up and get our vacation started that we couldn’t get back to sleep. We went with it, deciding to get up and go! We showered, checked out of our hotel, packed up and hit the road to the Overseas Highway!

It was exciting to get onto US-1. We stopped at a Walgreens to get some cold water, and noticed that it was looking pretty cloudy in Miami. Bummer, since we rented a convertible for the ride. Still, it wasn’t raining so we were enjoying it while we could. At Walgreens, a guy in the parking lot said to Michael, “You heading South?” Michael told him yes, and he said, “You might want to put the top up” and pointed to the sky. We were a little worried, but soon found out that the Walgreens guy was certainly NOT a meterologist.

As we drove, heavy clouds soon turned to lighter clouds and then to full-blown, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky sunshine. Hell yes. Exactly what we had been hoping for.

The ride was thoroughly enjoyable, with frequent views of beautiful, aqua-colored water. Isn’t it always the case that when you snap pics from the road, a sign always gets in the way? FIGURES.

We pulled over to ensure we would have at least one decent photo of the water we were seeing!

Soon, we had reached Marathon, where we planned to stop for lunch. Someone I was chatting with on Trip Advisor had recommended a little place right on the water, called Sparky’s Landing.

By this time, we were really hot from the sun beating down on us in the convertible, but the restaurant was all open air–so no air conditioning! Thankfully, the temperature felt really comfortable in the shade. Plus, we were able to sit outside, at a table on the deck, right above the water. We were happy campers.

My view from the lunch table.

Michael’s view from the lunch table. Ahhhh. True relaxation.

Michael picked a beer from the Bahamas. Oh, how I wanted one! All I could do was smell it. :)

These really loud birds kept landing on the posts right next to our table. I attempted to take a photo of him sitting there, but he flew off just as I hit the shutter button. It actually resulted in a pretty cool pic of him flying, though!

For lunch, I had a turkey BLT wrap and Michael had a wrap that had fried grouper in it (it was the day’s special). Yum!

We continued on the road again, cruising with the top up for a little while to give ourselves a break from the heat and sun. We crossed Seven Mile Bridge, which was very cool, and eventually found ourselves in Key West.

After a quick stop at the grocery store to stock up on a few things for our hotel room, we went and checked in. When we stepped foot in our room at Southernmost on the Beach, we were extremely happy. It is beautiful! I’ll post at some point with a bunch of hotel photos as an official “review.”

At the store, we picked up a six-pack (for Michael, obviously) of a local Key West beer. Again, I sooo wanted one. Sacrifices, people! :)

After we unloaded all of our things and got ourselves situated in the hotel room, we decided to head out again right away to return the convertible at the Key West airport. Because we knew that we wouldn’t need a car while in Key West, we decided to book one-way rentals to get ourselves from Miami to Key West today, and back on Thursday. No sense in holding onto and paying for a rental car for four days that we aren’t going to use!

When we stopped to gas up, we realized that we hadn’t yet taken any photos of our ride. Had to snap a few pics of the convertible that got us down to Key West!

Once the tank was full of gas, it was off to the airport.

Not a bad view on the way to the airport, right? It was a very quick ride… maybe 5 minutes, but definitely less than 10.

Goodbye, Mustang!

We took a taxi back to our hotel. By that time, we were both feeling pretty disgusting from spending the day in the heat, so we decided to get cleaned up and relax a little before going out to explore the hotel grounds and get some dinner somewhere in town.

The way the hotel is set up, it’s a bunch of different buildings situated all over the property, and there are lovely little nooks and crannies throughout with nice landscaping, hammocks, etc. We decided to walk around and get acquainted.

View of some of the hotel grounds from the dock.

The dock. They put a bunch of beach chairs out there so you can actually go out and relax. There is also a set of stairs at the side of the dock that you can walk down and right into the ocean to swim. Nice!

Feeling very pregnant in my t-shirts! I had to try on all of my clothes when packing on Friday night. I didn’t know which summer clothes would work and which ones wouldn’t! It was an adventure, for sure. It took me twice as long to pack as it usually does. Anyway, a lot of my regular t-shirts totally accentuate the belly! :)

After walking around for a bit, we asked our concierge to recommend a place for dinner. We walked all the way down Duval Street to get to Conch Republic. Duval Street is fun–lots of restaurants, bars, and shops. Our end, where our hotel is located, is really quiet and peaceful, but if you walk up several blocks, things start to pick up.

Conch Republic was down on the water, but since it was dark (we had a late dinner), we couldn’t see much anyway. We had to wait a little bit for a table, so we took seats at the bar and used a “buy one get one” coupon our concierge had given us.

Since I had been wanting a beer so badly, I decided to give a non-alcoholic one a chance. I ordered an O’Douls. And honestly, I don’t know when I’ll ever have another one. It just was NOT the same.

After dinner, we took our time walking back to the hotel. We are going to bed pretty early, as we are tired from all of the sun and fresh sea air today!