Curtis and I celebrated our 13th anniversary on a 8 day trip to Key West & Miami! Once again, we had hoped to go on our anniversary cruise but it was canceled this year also. Thankfully, we have been blessed with plan Bs the last 2 years when my parents have graciously offered their timeshares to us as a backup. (St. Augustine was last year's; Miami was this year. We added on Key West since it's one of Curtis's favorite places when we knew we'd be that close to it.)
This was the view when we rolled into Key West. There were several accidents along the Overseas Highway so it took much longer than we wanted, but we were so ecstatic to finally arrive!
We checked into our guest house quickly, finally ordered Garbo's (something we wanted to try 9 years ago, but it was closed at the time), and rushed to Mallory Square for the sunset. The long drive was worth the wait!
We rented bikes that enabled us to see more and make the most of our one full day in Key West. Here's my map of all our biking - over 12 miles!
We started the day biking to Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park and we found our sign that is displayed in our living room! We purchased it the last time we were in Key West in 2012.
Now we appreciate it more now that we've seen how large it really is!
We stopped at the Southernmost Point for a quick picture. We decided not to wait in the long line and instead just get a picture in front of it with our bikes! That is why there are random people taking their picture behind us. Haha!
We biked over to Higgs Beach Pier for some gorgeous views.
On the way back, we stopped at Margaret Street again! You'll find that we did several of the same things we did back in our anniversary trip in 2012. Can you see the little rooster to the right in the background?
We shared a dark chocolate dipped key lime pie slice on a stick together.
We also biked to the beginning (or end, depending on which direction you're headed) of US-1.
The Key West Lighthouse was near our guest house so I snapped this shot as we biked by the landmark.
We went back to Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park to swim in the caribbean before the sun set!
I thought this picture turned out pretty cool with Curtis in it.
We had some other amazing treats before we left Key West. On the left, we had the cookie monster at Matheessen's: a .5 pound chocolate chip cookie with 3 large scoops of ice cream (cake batter, kahlua fudge almond, chocolate fudge), chocolate syrup, whipped topping, and a cherry on top! It was a reward after all the bike riding! The next day, I got an iced mango tea at the Cuban Coffee Queen and it was delicious. It had fresh mango pieces in it! Curtis also enjoyed the Cafe Con Leche there (not pictured).
We had planned to snorkel at Big Pine Key; unfortunately, the weather canceled our plans. We drove to Miami where we were able to drive by and take pictures of both my mom's and my dad's childhood homes. It's pretty crazy to see how close they lived to one another and never met until Jacksonville many years later.
We stayed in North Miami Beach in a little town called Surfside*. We checked in and found that I was the guest of the day! That was unexpected!
When it wasn't raining, we enjoyed lazy days on the beach reading books and magazines.
We watched our first movie in a theater in a while!
(Curtis last saw a movie in December 2019; I did in January 2020.)
We weren't joking about the weather. It was raining every day! This day looked a little scary so we didn't stay long and we never got in the water.
We had some nice walks along the paths near the beach.
Our hotel even allowed us to borrow these fun umbrellas!
We saw a Carnival ship not far off from the coast and realized it's the closest we've come to our cruise so far.
On one evening, I rollerbladed to dinner! My shoes didn't seem as comfortable as I thought and this was my preferred mode of transportation. Curtis ran next to me or I bladed slowly until we arrived at our dinner spot. We took this to remember that I'll probably never rollerblade this close to the beach in the future!
Curtis humored me with attending a watercolor painting activity at our timeshare. He painted one of the views from the Higgs Beach Pier and I painted roses from the front of my Real Simple magazine! It was fun!
We ate a lot of amazing food that I didn't document in my pictures: cuban, peruvian, mexican, pub subs. One evening we took the trolley to South Beach and we almost lost our dinner reservation (by one minute). Thankfully, Curtis ran fast and secured our reservation while I slowly strolled in 10 minutes later.
By the end, we were excited to come back, see our kids, and hear all about Grandparent Camp!! Here's a few highlights from it. Uncle Benny had our kids over to the pool at his apartment!
The kids enjoyed playing at the playground near my parents' house.
They were finally able to go to Chuck E. Cheese again! We had plans to go on Kate's birthday (3/18/20) until the pandemic shut the world down. It was definitely a favorite part for them!
My parents took them to the Alligator Farm and held a real baby alligator! My mom had plans for every day of Grandparent Camp! They had so much fun that they didn't want us to come back.
When we did arrive back and Grandparent Camp ended, we spent one final time at the Spring Park. It was challenging to find a time to go when it wasn't raining - a common theme throughout our trip.
We stopped by Uncle Benny's apartment so that Curtis and I could see it before we left. I thought this family picture turned out precious.
We stayed with Aunt Megan and Uncle Jonas on the way back, but sadly we didn't get any pictures with them. We loved all of the adventures and seeing so many family and friends. When we arrived back in Indiana, we were glad to stop living out of suitcases!
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*Curtis and I were staying in the hotel right next to the Champlain towers that partially collapsed on June 24th. In fact, our balcony gave us a clear view of the portion of the building that is now collapsed.
Here is a screen shot where I am sending a video (through an app called Marco Polo) to my parents and kids. You can see the building in the background behind me when I was on our balcony.
Curtis circled our balcony in this picture of the aftermath.
We left Surfside just 5 days before the tragedy happened. We are thankful for the Lord's protection for ourselves and we grieve with all the families that were affected by this catastrophe.
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