Five Fun Days in Miami

Hello, how is everyone doing?

Things have been busy here.. those familiar with D's eye condition (yes we are still going through that) well last month progress had come to a bit of a stand still. So the doc prescribed a pill to get things moving along.. well, while the pill did work on the eye it also gave him debilitating headaches. He missed a lot of school and while he has been strong and positive through this whole ordeal he reached his limit. He lost hope, there was a lot of anger and we struggled with him. The medication has been discontinued and he is feeling more like his old self. But we needed a break.. get out of the depressive funk we were all under.. especially since he had an MRI scheduled when we got back (waiting on results so keep those positive thoughts coming) 

Kids had a few days off so off to Miami we went. We flew out election night to keep all the crazy away and pretty much ignored the news till the next morning. Not going to waste time on that.. this was supposed to be a break so we tried very hard to not talk politics. 

Day 1 - South Beach. We stayed at The Tony Hotel. Excellent location, great service but the room's were in need of some upgrading. 

We had breakfast at the New Cafe

The chiliques were so good! With our stomachs full we were ready to start the day. We mainly wandered the streets.. Ocean Drive, Collins Ave, Washington Ave, Espanola Way and everything in between. I loved the cotton candy colored buildings and art deco architecture. 

We stumbled upon a free Botanical Garden while we were walking around. Turns out the Miami Botanical Gardens is 2.6 acres urban green space in Miami Beach founded in 1962.

One of my favorite things about Miami was all the public art.. this post will have a lot of it.

We stopped for lunch at the 9th best pizza place in USA. Very good pizza. 

Afterwards we headed to the beach. D is not allowed to go in the water but there is just something about the beach.. the sound of the waves.. Unfortunately it was very very windy.

The beach had the coolest lifeguard towers.. I wish I could have walked along the beach and taken pictures of them all but the weather was not good. Afterwards H spent time in the hotel pool as well.

It was still cold and windy but this child loves his pool time. 

For dinner we went to Coyote Taqueria.. oh my God it was soooo good and had such a great vibe!

Day 2 - We had breakfast at Big Pink a retro dinner a few blocks away from the main South Beach area. Good food, great coffee

Today's agenda was to spend a little time in nature, specifically Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park is the largest designated sub-tropical wilderness reserve on the North American continent. It is located at the southernmost tip of the Florida mainland, just before the Florida Keys and an average of one million people visit the park each year. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone. Thirty-six threatened or protected species inhabit the park, including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, along with 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. 

First stop Shark Valley. We paid the entrance fee, parked and started our walk. Shark Valley has a 15 mile loop that can be biked, walked or explored via tram. The tram was not working that day and D did not want to bike. So we walked a bit and saw nothing. We did see in egret, great heron and anhinga before entering.. but once we entered it was zip zilch nada. Except the above peacock butterfly and two giant dead grasshoppers. The kids were not impressed.

We saw this dude just chilling out on our way to our next stop. The best things in life are free. 

We meet up with Tod from Tour The Glades near Big Cypress National Preserve and kayaked up and down Turner River.

Sshhh sleeping gator up ahead. We saw 3 in total. They are not fans of humans so they tend to disappear when we get close.

 

Anhinga

Great Blue Heron

Here's Tod cutting us up some oranges for us to snack on. He also gave us chocolate and granola bars. He was a wealth of information and so nice. Highly recommend his tours if you ever find yourself in the area. 

We headed back to South Beach, showered and headed out for a nice steak dinner. I needed an anti allergy because no matter how much bug spray I put on I was eaten up alive.. I am still itching.. H as well. While D and M escaped bite free. Why? 

After dinner we got the kids some rolled ice cream. 

Day 3 - We checked out of our South Beach hotel and headed down to Key West. But first some fun stops along the way. 

Our first stop was at Robert Is Here.. yes.. that is the name of the place. What I expected it to be was a modest fruit stand with some exotic fruit. It was that and more. It had fruits and vegetables and smoothies and juices.. sauces, spices and jams and then you go out back and there was a whole freakin zoo in the back! 

The Story Behind the Name - It's an amazing story about a little boy who opened a fruit stand in 1959 at age 6 to help his father sell produce from the family farm. To get the attention of folks passing by, Robert's dad scrawled the words “Robert Is Here” on signs placed on each side of the table.

Goats, turtles, lizards, geese, emu's cows, chickens, parrots.. I may be missing a few.. there were so many. Next time you find yourself in the Homestead area.. stop!

D and H shared a smoothie. We also bought soursop, guava and mango. The cashier cut all the fruit for us making it easier to eat. It was our first time trying soursop and we liked it, the kids found it too sour. 

Many believe the the key lime pie originated in Key West. There is no factual evidence to support the claim.. in any case there are many many places selling key limes pies across the Key's and many claiming to be the original and the best. We decided to make it our mission to taste many key lime pies to figure out which me liked best.. all for the greater good you know. 

Our first stop was at Blonde Giraffe Key Lime Factory in Tavernier. Tart, not too sweet, good balance of flavor. 

Next we stopped at the Rain Barrel Village - an artisan market. 

Afterwards we stopped at Robbie's for tarpon feeding. The tarpon is a catch and release fish. At Robbie's you pay $2.50 per person to watch the feeding and $5 per bucket of fish if you want to feed. The tarpon's are aggressive so we opted to watch and not feed.

The pelicans got word and were all over the place accosting people with buckets of fish. Two pelicans even got into a fight over a fish. We also spotted a nurse shark and a manatee while we were there. 

We stopped at Island Deli to grab some sandwiches.. they were very very good and continued on our way to Key West. 

We checked in and after some down time we headed out. 

Our second slice of pie came from Southernmost Key Lime Shop. It was too tart with a bitter aftertaste. Not bad but the Blonde Giraffe was better. 

Turns out there had been a boat race earlier than week which meant tonight was their annual boat parade. The boats were driven through the streets attached to trucks. People sat aboard the trucks and boats throwing beaded necklaces (mardi gras style) and all in all it was not fun. It was so loud. There was a corner where topless girls handed out drinks and one of the boats had a pole attached to it where a bikini clad girl was doing something. We lost M and one point and phone service kept dropping making it hard to reconnect. 

Our third slice of pie came from Kermit's Key Lime Shop. The slice was really small. It was high on the tart scale but not as much of a bitter aftertaste. 

We went down to Mallory Square.. it was all different from what we remembered the first time M and I had come down to Key West some 15 years ago. Lot more shops.. 

 

We had dinner at Moondog Cafe. M and I shared a fig and gorgonzola pizza and a burger. The kids shared a mac and cheese and some steak tacos. It was a decent meal but we had better meals on this trip. Then we went for our fourth and final slice of key lime pie. The things we do for this blog.. lol. 

This one had by far the pest presentation. The graham cracker base was also the thickest (the crust is usually my favorite part) but hard to break. Good balance of tart and sweet but thought the meringue while great for appearance but was just too much. 

So our official rating.. drumroll please

1. Blonde Giraffe

2. Kermit's

3. Moondog

4. Key Lime Shop 

Have you been to Key West? Have you tried any of these?

The next morning we checked out. Grabbed breakfast at La Crêperie French Café. We had intended to eat at Blue Heaven but the wait was far too long and this place was just across the street.

The one thing I did love about the Keys were the chickens that just walked around.. 

Wow this is turning into a very long post.. just bear with me 

We made two stops on our way back to Miami. First stop was the Anhinga Trail.. part of the Everglades National Park. We thankfully had kept our park entry receipt and we able to enter for free. 

It was a quick 15 minute walking trail and we saw so many more things here than at Shark Valley. This is a great trail if you are short on time.

Can you see the gator? 

Our second stop was to the Zoological Wildlife Foundation. The foundation is home to many exotic animals whom were once pets (two of Michael Jackson's flamingo's were there) or found or donated by other zoos that do not have the capacity. They offer a general tour with some animal interaction. Or you can book an animal experience where you get to have one on one time with a primate, big cat, sloth etc. We did not do those. We opted for the general tour. On it we saw many animals.

This is not a good picture.. this is a liger, when a lion and tiger mate. These cross breeds never survive in the wild. Usually one side of the family will kill the cub. It was a massive animal, like an unfit lioness. There are only 100 in existance.

Then came the interactions. They were very safe and quick.

I have videos as well.. I will try to get them up on my Instagram hopefully sometime soon. This was a very cool experience. I didn't feel like the animals were in danger or being forced to perform. 

Next we were back on our way to Miami. We first went to Little Havana.

 Domino Park - men were playing intense games of domino.

The boys had ice cream while we got some coffee from the iconic La Colada - House of Cuban Coffee. Boy was this some strong coffee! We usually take ours black but opted for a cappuccino and iced with milk instead. We even bought a bag of beans for home.

We also checked out this cool gallery called Futurama 1637 which was full of artists studios. We wrapped up the night with dinner at Moxie's in the Brickell area. 

It was very good. 

Day 5 - Now we come to our last day. 

We had breakfast at Ojo de Agua 

While everything was very pretty and flavorful it was not our favorite breakfast. 

Next we headed to the Design District. It was a great area. While the area was full of designer shops it was also full of great public art. 

Next up was Wynwood. The area has been made famous for Wynwood Walls but there is a ticket to enter and there is a ton of artwork all over the place.. so we opted to walk around and enjoy the free art.

We ate some delish tacos at Talkin Tacos before heading to the airport. It was a great getaway and just what we needed. Hope you enjoyed tagging along. 

    

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