2013 December – Miami/Orlando, FL & New Orleans, LA

Day 1 & 2 – Drive from San Antonio to Florida

We left San Antonio in the afternoon and drove to Baton Rouge – it was a 7 hour uneventful journey. There was not much to do there – just an overnight stay. Next morning, we set off for Spring Hill, Florida which is a little town just outside of Tampa, FL. On the way to Spring Hill, about four hours from Baton Rouge is the beautiful town of Pensacola Beach with its white sands and supers vistas of the ocean – definitely worth a stop. Unfortunately for us, this time the weather did not cooperate very well with us … we had to fight the rain all the way to Pensacola and beyond, a great opportunity lost!

Day 3 – Tampa to Miami, FL

We left early morning from Spring Hill and drove about an hour south to Tampa/St. Petersburg area. We visited the Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida, where the 2010 movie “Dolphin Tale” was shot (about Winter the Dolphin who lost her tail in an accident). It was amazing to come face to face with Winter. More than an aquarium, this is a recovery area for several underwater creatures – turtles with broken backbones, seals with broken jaws, otters with broken fins – very inspiring place to be in to see all these poor animals recovering from their injuries and/or handicaps.

Thereafter, we headed to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, a short drive from Clearwater. We are big fans of the Dali art – but there was nothing we saw in this museum that we couldn’t have found on the internet. So unless you are a true art connoisseur and enjoy standing in front of paintings and appreciating each brush stroke, I would say the artifacts of this place are best seen “remotely”. So, one hour and about $100 later, we set off for our true destination – Miami, Florida is only 3.5-4 hours drive from there, but we took the scenic route (off the freeways) and got there in about 5. Our hotel in Miami was in the Miami Lakes area which is quite a scenic area, away from downtown and the South Beach – both of which we could not visit because of lack of time and because they are not typically considered “family” hangout spots.

Day 4 – Key West, FL

Early next morning we took the 3.5-4 hour drive to Key West – honestly, the drive was nothing much to write home about. When I had first heard about going over island after island, I had visions in my head of little islands surrounded by blue waters, lined one after the other. Nah! Most of the way is actually driving through small towns where you don’t even see the water – it could as well be driving through villages on land. Even though the distance is about 200 miles, it takes more because of the slow traffic. There are several pull-out points, eating places on the way but since we had to come back the same evening, we just chugged along! Key West is a major port for Cruise Ships and has lots of quaint little shops, cool restaurants, major shopping etc. around there. Parking there is a minimum of $20-$30 though! We parked, paid and then walked to the southernmost point of continental US. Took a Tiki boat tour in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico (the sea gets rough where the two streams meet). From the boat we saw several beautiful waterfront properties including the homes of Oprah and Jack Nicholson. The guide was great and narrated several stories about people living on the boats anchored all over the place. Also saw the helicopter that was supposedly being flown by Jimmy Buffet for his grocery shopping. Could not stay long enough for the sunset at Key West and decided to drive back to the hotel, which was 4 hours away. 30 minutes east of Key West was the beautiful Bahia Honda State Park (there are several along the way – we just chose this one) .. we stopped there for a brief while. It was a good decision since we enjoyed the lovely white sand beaches of the Atlantic Ocean, frolicked on the ocean side, visited the Butterfly Garden (didn’t see a single one though) and saw the awesome sunset from the historical broken bridge in the State Park before stopping for authentic Cuban Food on the way back.

Day 5 – Everglades National Park & Drive to Orlando via Ft Lauderdale

Once again, we started early in the morning for the Everglades National Park which is an hour south of Miami. The entry fees was a mere $10 for the vehicle and it gives you access to the 1.5MM acres of the park, full of swamps, trees and supposedly alligators. However, we saw two alligators when we took the Royal Palm/Anhinga walking trail which is the first one closest to the entrance of the park. Just the drive through the park was good – nothing spectacular though. Again, I had expected the place to be crawling with alligators – no pun intended! Later in the afternoon, we took a boat ride into the marshes of the Everglades and learnt about the flora and fauna of the marshes. One of the coolest trees we saw was about a poisonous tree called the Manchineel tree that is a native there, so poisonous that it can drain the life out of you in minutes. This is where the fresh water and sea water meet – the ONLY place in the world where alligators (fresh water) and crocodiles (salt water) co-habitate. The experience was unique and one of its kind, although we saw only one crocodile on the shore and nothing else on the boat ride.In the late afternoon we set off for Orlando. Drove through Fort-Lauderdale (the Venice of America!), an hour north of Miami and and enjoyed the scenic beauty of the canals and the beautiful beach homes in the city.

Day 6 – Islands of Adventure

Like all of our other days, this one started pretty early in the morning too…headed to the best and the newest theme park, Islands of Adventure (part of Universal Studios). We had bought multi-day park passes as a package in advance. The Express Line (Fast Track) would have helped us through the lines but at $89 apiece it was too expensive. Luckily, the lines weren’t too long that day because of the rain and the nip in the air, even though it was the 1st of the year! We did almost all rides, and even managed to do some of them multiple times. Below is a listing of all the rides we took and our kids’ own personal rating (in order of liking) for each one of them….
- Islands of Adventure, the Park * * * * *

- Adventures of Harry Potter * * * * * Part Simulation, Part Ride!!!! (Best ride in the whole Solar System – so amazing, especially if you are a fan of Harry Potter!). It’s amazing how they have created the whole atmosphere of the Harry Potter books/movies with the Hogsmeade Village, Hogswart School of Witchcraft, Talking Portraits as you weave through the line, Sorting hat that talks to you, Pensive where you can look in, moving/talking Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron…. just amazing! The icing on the cake was the ButterBeer!!! – amazing mixture of Butterscotch and Shortbread flavor. We have been looking for the recipe ever since 9Apparently Starbucks serves it as part of their Secret Menu during holidays).