Florida pics, yo!

FINALLY. Sorry to keep you waiting - here are the pics from our Florida trip. We flew into Orlando on Monday (my birthday!), stayed in Vero Beach for two nights and then headed to The Keys. We spent one night in Key Largo and then the next 4 days we stayed at the Casa Marina Resort in Key West. Holy crap. It was gorgeous. Our pics don't even do it justice. It had a private beach, and real live cabana boys that would fetch you a lounge chair, lay out your towels for you, and bring you popsicles. I'm not even kidding. Our room had a beautiful view of the ocean and a large balcony. Outdoor pools, tiki bar, outdoor dining (I think there was 3 restaurants on site. We only ate at one). It was nice. The resort may have been a little stuffy, but nice. Most of the cars in the parking lot were worth more than my house (for real). I thought it was only in the movies that young ladies called their "daddy's" to ask for more money to be put on the credit card, but we actually heard a girl doing it while we were there. I may or may not have looked out of place in my Target capris and sunglasses from Younkers...but who cares! We had a blast, the food was wonderful and the drinks were strong. And that, my friends, is all that matters. Check it out!
Here are some Vero pics:

I was so excited to see the ocean, I forgot to roll up my pants before I came running out onto the beach!

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

For dinner, we went to Gloria Estefan's Hotel/Restaurant called Costa d' Este. The restaurant has a Cuban flair to it, and Steve and I shared the Paella for two. It was so good. It had fish, shrimp, mussels, scallops, squid and octopus. Plus andouille sausage (which I thought was going to be weird, but was one of my favorite parts) and chicken. YUM.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Outside of Costa d' Este. Full and happy. Why do I have to live so far away from an ocean?

On the beach in Vero, picking shells. No offense to anyone who lives in Vero Beach, but it is a retirement community and held very little interest for Steve and I, other than the beach. Bob and Jane (Steve's friends who we stayed with in Vero) had a beautiful condo in a gated community, with a fantastic pool, hot tub, bar, and ocean access. No one was ever using any of them. The beach was empty as far as you could see. The pool and hot tub were always empty. It was unbelievable - these people pay millions of dollars to live by the beach in these upscale complexes, and never make use of any of it. All I'm sayin' is - I just can't imagine. I lived 20 minutes from the ocean for 2 years and I never got tired of it. Oh well...Se la Vie!

This is me in our pimp-ride! It screamed "TOURIST!", but it was so nice to take the top off, especially driving through The Keys!Here is a beach that we stopped at on our drive down from Vero to The Keys, because we couldn't take it anymore and needed to lay in sun. Vero was chilly, but the weather got warmer and warmer as we made our way down.

Toes in sand! Toes in sand! Nothing better than your toes in sand!
And then we were off to The Keys. I have MILLIONS of pictures, people. I can't post millions of pictures, I just don't have the time or energy it requires. But here are a few that I picked out that I thought were nice...

Our resort...

And here is the whole thing taken with a wide-angle lens from the end of one of two piers on the property

Here is the other pier...

Here is Steve on the 2nd pier (aren't my captions just...captivating?)

This is a crazy pelican that sat on the pier and let us get dangerously close to him. I kept envisioning him freaking out and attacking...can you see that sharp hook at the end of his beak? That can crack an oyster shell like its paper! (I'm totally making all that up, I think. I don't know if pelicans even eat oysters.)

SEE?!?! (and then pretend like you don't see the tag hanging out of my swimsuit. Or my fat rolls.)

This is the view from our balcony with the fish-eye lens

Another fish-eye (I think it's Steve's favorite lens)

One of the nights we were in Key West, we ate at a delicious little Mexican restaurant called Salsa Loco, and our waiter was awesome. He was more than willing to give up some local secret spots, and he told us about a beach on the West side of Key West that very few people frequented...we went there on our last night to watch the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous!

There were lots of sailboats that stopped to watch too...

Beautiful!

Doesn't it make you want to put your flip flops on and fly as fast as you can to the nearest tropical location?
I'm sorry.
On our way through The Keys back up to Orlando, we stopped at Seven-Mile Bridge. It is amazing. Just going over a bridge for that long with the most gorgeous views is one thing...but you can also walk on the old, Historic Seven-Mile Bridge. It was so cool - you can walk out for quite a ways...

 We stopped for a while, and watched the boats go underneath the bridges. Then we saw this pelican looking for his next meal, and Steve happened to catch him in the act

Ok, I'm spent. I just want to tell you one more thing about our trip...Under Tara's guidance, we went to Little Palm Island for dinner one night. It was magical - you take a beautiful "ferry boat" (which is more like a yacht) to this little island (hence the name Little Palm Island - duh!) were you can dine right on the beach, and after dinner you can go into a porch off of the bar area and listen to someone play the piano, or sit around a lava rock fire on the beach with your drink...it was amazing. It is not cheap, of course, but the food was fantastic. The lamb was the best I've ever had. We had a great time - it was super romantic. Then the ferry took us back to mainland and we drove back to Key West with the top down on our little rental car. It was perfect. Thank you Steve for the best Birthday present anyone has ever given me.