Miami to Mile Zero

Miami to the southern most point in the continental U.S! We have done a ton of traveling these last few days. First we spent some time in Miami by the beach mostly, then we made our way down to Key West and then we went to the Everglades. I'm pooped! I think I need some more relaxing time at the beach:)

Where the hwy ends at the southernmost part of the continental USA

Of all these three places I enjoyed Key West the most. It's just as touristy as Miami, but the pace of life feels slower.

I'll tell you a little bit first about our time in Miami. Like I said earlier, we spent most of our time there by the beach. North Miami has some really pretty beaches and they seem to be less crowded. We also went to South Beach, the part of Miami that gets about 99% of the medias attention. It was seriously insane how many people were there! Alex and I drove around for over an hour trying to find parking and we almost got in a really bad car accident that would have been our fault:/ Glad we avoided it, though. We finally found parking by the beach, but it wasn't free. We went to the beach and we found out that beaches in Miami are "top optional."  There were two young women at the beach we were at that were topless, but that was about it. I was actually tempted to take my top off just because my bathing suit top can be such a hassle to wear. I'm always pulling it every which way to make sure I'm not exposing anything. The women there who were topless had mosquito bites as breasts, so it wasn't too distracting. I think if I went topless I would be more of a distraction than anything with what God has blessed me with, and the stares alone would make me feel more uncomfortable than wearing my bathing suit top. So, I kept it on.

swimming in the ocean!

Underwater picture:)

Beautiful North Miami Beach

After spending some time by the beach we walked around the South Beach area, where all the shops and restaurant are. There were soooooo many people. Mostly young people and a ton of Europeans. It's amazing how many Europeans are in Miami. Did you know that the restaurants in Miami actually add onto the bill an automatic gratuity because Europeans don't normally tip the waiter? It's the restaurants way to make sure the waiters get their tips. We almost double tipped at one restaurant, but luckily we noticed the added gratuity.

South Beach Park

Walking around South Beach

Someone Partying In South Beach

My overall view of Miami is that it's too overcrowded and I felt a little out of place. It seems like a place where people go to pretend they are someone else; to forget their real life back home where people really know who they are and what they are really like. You know that saying, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Well, I think that phrase would probably be the same for those who come to vacation in Miami. And the building architecture is very "art deco." The oldest building probably dates back to 1950, when Florida was trying to turn the state into a tourist getaway place. Stucco buildings, bright pinks and blues, gimmicky ocean themed restaurants and hotels, I think you get the gist.

One thing that saved my negative opinion about Miami was seeing The Ancient Spanish Monastery. It was so beautiful and reminded me of being in Europe. It was first built in the 12th century in Spain. So, what in the heck is it doing in Miami? Well, remember that guy I talked about in one of my previous blogs, William Randolf Hearst? He was the guy who built Hearst Castle back in California. During the building of his castle in California he thought it would be cool to have a Spanish Monastery on the property as well. So, in 1929 he bought one in Spain and had it dismantled. The stones of the Monastery were put in boxes, packed with hay and each box was labeled to identify what pieces were in each box. There were 11,000 boxes total. They were shipped to New York and upon arrival it was found out that in the area of Spain where the Monastery was purchased there was an outbreak of the disease Hoof and Mouth. So, the U.S Department of Agriculture quarantined the shipment for fear of the disease spreading to the U.S, and took the stones out of the boxes and had all the hay burned that the stones were packed with. Something terrible happened when they did that because they forgot to label what stones came out of what box. Then the Stock Market crashed and it would take too much time and money for Hearst to bring the stones to California and have his workers figure out how to put the Monastery back together. So, the stones were stored in a warehouse in New York for 26 years until Hearst died. After Hearst's death the stones were put up for auction and bought by two guys(I forget their names). They brought the stones down to Miami and it took 19 months and 1.5 million dollars to put the monastery back together. That was sometime in the 1950s, so it was the equivalent to 12 million dollars today. They called it the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle because they were putting it together without any reference what so ever. I think that is pretty dang amazing.

Video inside the courtyard of the Monastery:

The Ancient Spanish Monastery

Door way to the Monastery Courtyard

Hallway of the Monastery

Okay, enough of Miami, now on to Key West! Oh, I absolutely loved Key West. It is the last of the Florida Keys and it is actually closer to Cuba than the Florida Mainland. The drive was gorgeous, ocean so blue that it was hard to tell what was the ocean and what was the sky. This is one place in Florida that I could see myself going back to. The houses date back to the 1800s and are all built in the Victorian Style. We meandered aimlessly through the streets. Chickens and roosters roamed around us, as well. We walked by Ernest Hemingway's home and a presidential vacation home called The Truman Little White House. J.F.K was at the house during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the last President to use the home was Clinton.

Can you tell where the ocean meets the sky?

Roosters and Chickens were all over the place in Key West

The Truman Little White House

Info about the Little White House

Ernest Hemingway's house

When we got to Key West I was pretty darn hungry. Alex and I had skipped lunch and decided on having "linner."  We went to a delicious gourmet Panini restaurant. I was soooooooo hungry and enjoyed every last bite. For dessert we went to a place called Better Than Sex. It was quite the experience. The owner of the restaurant seated us. Candles illuminated the restaurant. It was a dessert only place, hours were from 6pm to midnight and it was a little on the pricey side. I got the dessert wine, Muscato, with my wine glass dipped in caramel. It was seriously incredibly good. I would go back to that restaurant just for that wine again. The dessert Alex and I shared was called Better than Sex and it was an award winning bread pudding saturated in dark chocolate sauce with Bing cherries infused in the bread and strawberries on the side. It was really good. Was it better than sex? Well, in my opinion food and sex satisfy two very different sensations and if one were to think that any food can be better than sex then they probably don't have a very good or healthy sex life. Really you can't compare the two on the same level because they are very different. Just my opinion, though.

Yummy food

One of each of our paninis

My Muscato

The "Better Than Sex" dessert

Our last place of destination was bike riding through the Everglades. The Everglades are basically a fifty mile wide flowing river only a few inches deep and is full of all kind of life. Before our bike ride the lady at the park asked us if we had rain gear because a storm was supposed to roll in any minute. It was still pretty sunny outside and there were clouds in the sky, but not rain clouds. So, we decided to risk it and not bring ponchos with us. I figured if it rained it was going to be warm anyways. The bike ride was 15 miles total. We passed by alligators and birds, a few insects flew in my face. About 2 or 3 miles into the bike ride the wind picked up and rain clouds started to hover over us. By mile 7 it was pouring down rain! The wind was blow against us and we were soaked. There were other bikers, as well, along the trail. Alex and I stopped at the halfway point on the bike trail which had an observatory tower. We took a few pictures from the tower and decided to be on our way. As I was walking down the tower some people passed by us and they all gave me really weird looks. I thought to myself, "I wonder if my mascara is running." So, I turn to Alex and ask, "Is my mascara running?" Alex says, "OH YEAH! It's looks pretty bad!" OMG! I ask Alex, "Why didn't you tell me before we took all those pictures???" He says, "Sorry, I guess I just didn't think of it. Guys don't really notice stuff like that." Yeah right! The people who gave me those looks were all  young guys! Ugh, Oh well.
The wind was really bad and for like 8 miles we were riding our bikes against the wind, which is basically like riding uphill. I was exhausted! I had fun, but that fun was really tiring.

Alligator chillin on the side of the bike trail

Beginning of the bike ride was sunny

The storm begins to roll in

We tried riding our bikes really fast to avoid the storm

We didn't ride fast enough and it poured on us

The observatory tower

This pic was taken before I knew about all the mascara on my face:/

Another alligator

Man, this was a long blog. I hope you were able to get through it without falling asleep, lol! We've been in Florida for almost 3 weeks now and we are eager to go north to see more of the U.S. We just don't want to run into any really bad weather. I think we might go back up to Orlando and go to Disney World, it's a lot of money, but we may never have the chance to go to it again. I'm still thinking about it. On our bike ride through the Everglades Alex's phone got wet and is ruined. So, we have to get him a new phone and that is going to cost a lot of money.