The trip to Fort Lauderdale was again short and sweet---except that we had a little problem finding our RV park---and had to turn our truck and trailer around in a nearby small parking lot. It turned out to be fine, and it unexpectedly prepared us for our arrival at the park. This park is also old and has small sites and narrow internal roads. There was no way we could get into the site they assigned us, even though it was a pull-through. We went to ask the office for a different site, and it was closed for a two-hour lunch. We chose a nearby site we could get into, and later informed the office. They couldn't have cared less. We noticed that they continue to assign our original site to incoming guests, none of whom can get into it. The problem is the location of a large palm tree at the entrance to the site. There are a lot of French Canadian snowbirds here, and they have a party every night. Tonight (Easter Sunday) they have set up in that site, knowing no one will take it.
On Saturday, we travelled to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park, both of which are below Miami (175 miles, roundtrip). The Everglades were quite interesting---lots of birds, sawgrass, and water, and we even saw a large turtle and an alligator. Bicayne NP is virtually all water (Florida Bay), so we just observed from the visitor center.
On Sunday, Becky walked from our park to the beach, a five-mile trek. On the way back (I picked her up) we rented The Blind Side. It was a nice, feel-good movie; not a classic.
On Monday, we took the truck (only) and Daisy and headed for an overnight stay in Key West. It's a long way (400 miles roundtrip) but well worth it. We stayed in a lovely inn (Chelsea House)
on U.S. Highway 1, just two blocks off Duval Street, the street in the old section where the fun shops and restaurants are---including the original Margaritaville.
We had a wonderful dinner at Nine One Five, a chi chi restaurant on Duval. Key West is really fun. The old section is filled with well-maintained Victorian houses, some of which are still private homes, but many of which are B&Bs, professional offices, and small stores. The newer parts of town have standard big hotels mixed in. We walked all over the old section, even (like a zillion other tourists) stopping at the monument commemorating the fact that it's the southernmost point in the continental U.S. Very nearby, there are the southernmost hotel, the southernmost house, the southernmost southernmost hotel, etc. You get the idea. It was too crowded to get a picture of ourselves at the point, so we took a picture of a little girl getting her picture taken.
On Wednesday, we had lunch (on them, thank you very much) at a very nice restaurant with some old LA friends (Lydia and Duane Cameron) who moved to the Fort Lauderdale area four years ago. They have a magnificent beachfront condominium on the 17th floor of a lovely new building.
We had last seen them more than seven years ago at a going away party thrown for us by them and some others from Becky's morning workout group at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. After lunch we went to the Sawgrass Recreation Park, which is really a large reservoir in the Everglades (but not inside the national park) where they have airboat tours. We had never taken an airboat ride before. What fun it was, zipping through the sawgrass.
Tomorrow we're off to the Daytona Beach area.
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