Florida Keys (part 1- Fun on Land)

My muscle man and I recently decided that we definitely deserved a spring break this year, and my uncle was gracious enough to offer for us to come stay with him in the keys for a while!! We had such an amazing week, between scuba diving and kayaking to just plain enjoying the touristy stuff, it was so much fun!

We were able to score a super cheap flight into Tampa, which is a nice little drive from the keys, but we figured it would be nice to drive through the everglades, plus even with the cost of a rental car it was still way cheaper than airfare to the keys or Miami. =) And it gave us an extra day to just sight-see before going into the keys.  My muscle man is a huge "ancient aliens" fan, so when he found out our planned route was taking us straight to Homestead FL, he insisted we go to Coral Castle. It was a great little 1950's roadside attraction, and quite fun to look at all the neat stuff.

The best thing about the place though was that they include a guided tour with your ticket, and the guy running the tours just makes a big loop, so you can join up whenever you arrive and just listen until you're back where you began =P

And then, there's the obvious cool factor that they let you touch all the creations, explore on your own, and they even encourage you to sit in the chairs! (Sadly, the coolest thing to play with would have been the big-ass rock door that used to swing around like a turnstile, but it broke some time in the 80's and no one could seem to fix it... It's still remarkably incredible to look at, even if it doesn't rotate anymore)

We also made a stop by a little state park to check out the water, then it was off to the Keys bright and early the next day! Lucky for me, Dunkin was running a free iced coffee promotion, so I was able to get my caffeine on before the drive =D

A few days later me and my muscle man decided to head down to Key West for the afternoon, and we happened to run into some key deer on the way! They are super cute, and coming from Alabama, deer here are cute but very deadly at 5-6 feet tall, these little key deer were just too darling, even if they were getting into trouble when we happened on them (they had found a trash can full of yummy things apparently, and tossed it over to enjoy the contents)

I convinced my muscle man to try conch fritters at lunch (I got the crab cakes, yum!) and then we were off to enjoy the island. We decided that the trains were all too expensive since we hadn't gotten into town until noon, so we just used my muscle man's smart phone to take ourselves on a walking tour from one side of the island to the other. We literally walked from one end of the island to the other and back again (hindsight, I totally should not have worn flip flops) but it was really a lot of fun to just take our time and enjoy the scenery.

We had to go to the lighthouse, and of course had to climb to the top, even though I absolutely hate spiral staircases with an intense passion (they exasterbate my vertigo, so I have to go really slowly and I feel like I'm going to fall the whole time). The view was great, it's so fun to be able to see water all around!

 We definitely had a wonderful day out, but in the end we decided to skip the sunset and head back to the middle keys for the most awesome dinner ever... LIONFISH SUSHI... now that was an experience!