Panama Canl Cruise: Florida

We could easily spend a couple of weeks in Florida because of how much there is to see but we had to squeeze as much as we could into a couple of days. We had two things specifically in mind, the national parks and Key West. We elected to take our luggage off the ship ourselves so that we could head out early. It was a little concerning that we might have to wait around in customs and we had booked a rental car for 9am. It turns out that we got to the car rental place early and jumped into the car and off we went. The car was surprisingly comfortable and got us everywhere we wanted to go.

Our first stop was Key West so that we could get down there and back all in that first day. Thanks to being off the ship and picking up the car early, we made great time and got down there earlier than we expected. Our main goal there was to see the southernmost point of the U.S. We had been to the northernmost post when we went to Barrow, Alaska so this was super high on our list. We were shocked to see a huge line of people waiting too get up to it and take their pics so we opted to skip the line, take a couple of pics and go about our business. Parking is tough down there and it was very crowded. Of course it was the Friday before Memorial Day so we expected crowds but we had hoped that getting there on Friday instead of the weekend might be better. It probably was worse on the weekend but we drove around and around looking for a place to park. We finally found some paid parking near a souvenir shop - perfect! We ran in, grabbed a shirt, a hat and a fridge magnet and headed back out. I think we must have been extra tired after the cruise because we didn't even stop somewhere for a nice seafood meal. We just kept driving and headed back up the keys. We did find a couple of shops where we got some additional souvenirs and thankfully got back to our hotel moderately early. On the way back though we were on a mission to get a key lime pie. I remembered seeing a green building on the way down that had said they have pies so we scanned to shops looking for it and lucked out. Not only did they have pie, they had tons of other items that were key lime flavored. We decided on a pie and a pie on a stick of all things. It was actually a frozen piece of pie, crust and all on a stick like a popsicle - go figure - but it was so good. After all of that, we were so tired that we didn't even eat any key lime pie that night. I was intent of having some though so we had it for breakfast!

Our next day was our national parks day. We wanted to get to the Everglades and Biscayne parks and of course get more souvenirs. I had also made us a reservation for a tram ride through part of the Everglades. We weren't quite sure how that would be but we were very happy that we took that tour. There were actually trails there and if you wanted, you could walk them or rent a bicycle there and go on your own but the tram was certainly a lot easier and walking would have made me nervous with all of the gators we saw. The tour really focused on them to give everyone a good show and they were very patient about going very slow past them and stopping frequently so everyone could see them and get photos. It's too bad they were so focused on gators because I was hoping for birds but I don't think May is really the best time for that. I was pleasantly surprise and finally saw my first tri-colored heron and a little blue heron as well along with the requisite great blue herons and egrets. After the tour, we figured that we had seen all that we had time to see in the Everglades since we really wanted to see the other national park. Biscayne is not really that interesting by land since most of it is out in the water.  But we had to go and chalk up visiting another national park. It's really too bad that we didn't have more time so that we could have gone out to the Dry Tortugas national park but we did cram quite a bit into the two days that we had and had to draw the line somewhere. It's also not an easy pace to get to. You have two options, a long ferry ride or by plane. Well maybe next time.

All in all, it was a spectacular trip but we were tired and very ready to go home by the end. I hope we can get back to Florida another time and see a lot of the other things that we didn't have time to visit. Hmmm, now where are we going to go next?