I appreciated everyone's help in planning our recent trip to Southern Florida and will try to share a few notes with you.

Debbie

RENTAL CAR

We rented from Fox. I had never heard of it before, but its price was the best. There was a bit of a wait for the shuttle bus, but the rental was fine. We were the only ones renting when we were there. The office was in a kind of dumpy area, but it didn't feel dangerous. We picked up a map in their office and it turned out to be the best of the ones that we had.

Debbie

HOTEL: MIAMI

Our hotel was the Extended Stay Deluxe in Doral (evidently a suburb). There is also another Extended Stay in Doral which could be pretty confusing. The front desk clerk was young, personable and easy to understand. I was surprised to see my name on a welcome sign in the lobby.

One of the selling features of our hotel was that it was “recently refurbished.” Indeed it all looked as if it had just been painted. Our room had a queen bed, a recliner and a fold-out couch. There was also a table and two rollered chairs adjacent to the full kitchen.

The area close to our hotel had an odd feel – kind of industrial yet upscale. There were a lot of strip mall type business areas, but they all looked brand new.

My son had some sinus problems on the plane and we asked for directions to a pharmacy. The desk clerk suggested a Wal-mart. It was a mile or two away and there were lots of choices of restaurants in that area.

The breakfast area was not crowded and the others look like construction workers. We eventually decided that they were guys that drive advertising semi's. I had never seen such a thing before, but learned more about it by googling. Their trucks look like semi's except that the trailer part is narrow. There were about 2-3 of those guys. There were never very many people in the breakfast area.

The hotel offered bagels, muffins, coffee and orange juice. It was basic, but I was glad that it provided breakfast in addition to having the kitchen.

We had debated about instead staying in South Beach, but this hotel worked out fine. The couple of times we did go to South Beach (for an art deco tour and to see it at night), we got there in a half hour or less. The price was good (just under $100 and the parking was free. It worked out fine for us. That said, it wasn't a fancy hotel and there wasn't anything to speak of within walking distance (unless you count the Checkers fast food restaurant (G)).

Debbie

HOTEL: KEY WEST

Best Western Hibiscus Motel

I wasn't sure what to expect out of our hotel as it was a budget choice. However, the people on Fodor’s didn’t steer us wrong. It was very nice AND had free Internet access in the lobby. If I’d had a laptop, I could also have made use of free Wi-fi. Our room was neat and clean and recently painted. It had two sinks – one inside and one outside the large bathroom. It also had a small refrigerator and microwave. The next morning, I also appreciated the bathroom’s window as it allowed marvelous natural light.

I asked about the parking as I understood that it wasn't guaranteed. The desk clerk said that they had enough for the number of rooms that they had, but I suppose if people had more than one car or if people parked there who weren't supposed to, there could have been a problem.

The desk clerk told us the time of sunset when we checked in. Our primary complaint is that we had problems with the keys. We couldn't get the first set to work. When I went back down to the desk (our room was up steps to the second floor), the desk clerk commented on them being bent and made me another set. I took the second set up and they didn't work either. I could have bent the first set by having them in my pocket, but I hand carried the second set up. My husband took those back and the clerk got rather testy with him. The third set worked.

We walked from the hotel to the Southernmost point and then walked down Doral to Mallory Square. Doral was just a block over from our hotel.

This hotel's breakfast had a few more choices of food than the Extended Stay, but it will still pretty basic. It was much busier and we carried the food back up to our room to eat.

Debbie

HIGHLIGHTS:

Sunday - Art Deco tour, Wolfsonian, Ducks


Sunday – June 24


We used the GPS and drove to the Art Deco area in a half hour. On the way, we crossed a bridge and saw cruise ships such as the Freedom of the Seas. We were lucky to find on-the-street parking for $1 per hour. It was a system that I’d never seen before. You inserted money or a credit card in a box which ejected a tag to be displayed in your window. We paid $4 for 4 hours. Our car is between an Art Deco Best Western and the Wolfsonian Museum. As it turns out, both were part of the walking tour. We walked to the Art Deco Welcome Center and bought our tickets (2@20 + 1@15). It is HOT. While waiting for the tour to start, we walked behind the center to look at the ocean. Our tour met and started in front of a large concrete marker. In the midst of the guide’s talk, a bold young man asked us to all move so that he could take a photo. Our guide calmly replied, “No, we are doing a tour.”

The tour was a highlight of our trip. The guide was very interesting and pointed out and explained things that we would have overlooked on our own.

We dropped off the tour as they prepared to return to the welcome center. We looked at a few places to eat and ended up at a nearby grill. I had a messy, but good, veggie pita. My husband had a gyros and fries. My son had a hot dog. We then went to the Wolsonian. I found it interesting that it was on my list of nearby things to do – and we had actually parked in front of it and gone into the lobby while on the tour. When the clerk saw my Art Deco tour sticker, he gave us a 20% discount on top of the 2 for 1 coupon I had from my Entertainment booklet. The museum had originally been a storage area, albeit a very fancy one, for people who wintered in the area. The owner ended up donating the buildings and some of the contents which he owned to a university. Highlights included an interesting postal box from New York, a gate from Germany’s pavilion at a fair, a tea pot designed like the Eiffel Tower, and advertisements showing political and social changes. There were seven stories to the building, but only a couple had exhibits. The gift shop featured t-shirts that declared, “Curator” and stickers that stated, “This should be in a museum.”

Next stop was to be the Bayside Blaster, but there was no parking. We decided instead to go on the Ducks. We parked in a public garage for $6 and paid $30 each after a coupon for $2 off. It was still hot. The Duck went through the Art Deco area before entering the water. We were able to see many mansions from the water. They included Elizabeth Taylor’s pink mansion and one belonging to Shaq that had a statue of him at the dock. My husband commented that we could probably have taken the mike and added some details about the Art Deco buildings ourselves. Our guide was Ricky Marlins (real name?) who’s been a host on Telemundo. I won a quacker for coming up with Guys and Dolls as the answer to a trivia question. After getting off the ducks, we stopped in a Walgreen’s for water and then wandered through an outdoor mall and shopping area. I ducked into one of the stores and bought postcards.

We brought dinner back to the room.

We noticed that the Welcome Sign on the lobby had someone else’s name on it today (it had mine when we checked in). It was an unusual name. My son later pointed out to me that someone had just rearranged the letters of my name.

After it got dark, I suggested that we drive back to the Art Deco district so that we could see it lit up. There were lots of people walking around, but the traffic wasn’t too bad.

Query of the day: My son in reference to the walking tour: “Will it be outside?”

HIGHLIGHTS:

Monday: Miami to Everglades to Key West

Fruit and Spice Park, Robert is Here fruit stand, Everglades, Southernmost Point, Mallory Square

Monday – June 25

The hotel had a computer with Internet in the lobby, but when I’d tried to use it, it seemed to require a password. I decided to stop by and ask about it at the desk and the female clerk was on the phone speaking Spanish to someone. I waited and then decided to sit down until she was done. When she got off the phone, she immediately went into the room behind the check-in area and then started down the hallway with laundry. I stopped her and said that I’d like to ask her a question. She said, “Just two minutes” and kept going. Meanwhile my family arrived and we left. She was in contrast to the two guys in the evening who were helpful and friendly.

Ironically when I thought to ask the evening desk clerk on our second stay, I found out that the lobby computer was actually accessible without charge. He kindly told me just to ask if it needed to have the username/password re-entered. I never had trouble getting on again.

We left the hotel at about 9:30 and drove to the Coral Castle. The GPS helped us find it without problem. I had a Buy 1/Get 1 Free coupon from the Entertainment book which I planned to use for Charlie and me and a $1.50 off coupon for Scott. When I gave the girl the coupons, she went to an older man to ask for help. He said that we couldn't use more than one coupon. I said that I realized that we couldn't combine coupons, but that I wanted to use one for two of us and the other for the third. He said that he couldn't do that. I suggested that we could pay in two transactions. He said that a group couldn't use more than one coupon. I said OK that we'd use the B1/G1F one (tickets were $9.75). He said no - that we should use the $1.50 one for all of us. I couldn't get him to understand that it would not be the best deal and we decided to walk away. We could see the castle over the fence and, actually, it was not as impressive as I'd thought it would be from the photos. I’d read about it and decided that we weren’t missing much by skipping the actual admission.

From there, we drove to the Fruit and Spice Park which turned out to only be a few miles away. My sister had mentioned it as a favorite thing that she'd done when down here during college. We got there at about 10:40 and were told that we could wander around or we could take a tram tour at 11. We decided to wait for the tram tour. While waiting, we were able to sample a number of exotic fruits. I bought a couple of decks of cards for a souvenir and a gift. The choices were fruits, vegetables, spices or something else and I picked the fruit ones.

The tour was extremely interesting. We were the only ones on the tram and the tour guide was very knowledgeable. He drove us around through the property and we were able to see fruit trees from around the world. Periodically, he would stop to point something out or to offer us a sample. I had never envisioned how many of them grew - for example the cashew.

That tour was a highlight of the trip. It's good that we skipped the Coral Castle or we wouldn't have made the tram tour.

Our next stop was the Everglades. On the way there, it was suggested by contributors to the Fodor’s site that we stop at the Robert is Here fruit stand for fruit milkshakes. I was iffy if I'd like them as I don't like a lot of fruit-flavored things, but it seemed like the thing to do. My husband had orange (tasted like an orange freeze), I had coconut and my son had cherry key lime. Mine was WONDERFUL. I tried theirs too and they were also great. Mine had slivers of coconut in it and I loved it.

We went to the Everglades after that. Another Fodor’s poster commented that we were crazy to go there in June due to the heat and the mosquitoes. Consequently I wore long pants and 3/4 length sleeves. They were right on the heat, but the mosquitoes weren't too bad. We stopped at the first visitor center where we saw part of a Discovery Channel show on the Everglades. The theater was DARK. I waited for a bit and then decided to try to sit down. Unfortunately, taking my chances ended me up with my hand on someone's head. I backed out and started to try again but realized that I couldn’t really tell where people were at. I ended up going to the front where I could see empty seats from the light of the screen. We didn't stay long though as there was supposed to be a bench talk at the other visitor center at 1:30. We got there about 1:10 and saw that the sign mentioned only a 10:30 event. The center was temporarily closed and we debated on whether to wait until 1:30 to find out or to go on and take the 1/2 mile trail. I thought perhaps we should wait until after the talk, but my son thought that there was no way a 1/2 walk mile would take us 20 minutes. He had a point, so we set out. It was breezy, so still no mosquitoes. We saw marshland, but almost no wildlife. Near the end, thanks to other visitors, we saw one crocodile.

This visitor center was much smaller. We went in and the park employee said that there was no talk due to it being low season. She agreed that they should change the website. It was unfortunate as we would have spent more time in the first visitor center if we hadn’t been rushing to make the talk. On the other hand, we didn’t feel like stopping back there again on the way out of the park.

On the way out of the park, we did, however, stop at the park sign for a traditional photo. THAT'S where we saw mosquitoes. My son got bit and a bunch got into our car when we got back in.

After a fast food stop for lunch, we drove on to the Keys. We were slightly nervous about the 8 miles of bridges. As it turns out, there was a lot of land between the bridges, so it wasn’t quite as daunting as we had expected. However there was one 7 mile bridge and an absolute deluge hit while we were on it. It was awful and my husband could hardly see to drive. However, he had no other choice. It had stopped by the time we got to Key West and the rest of the evening was clear.

After checking into the hotel and a break (it was HOT), we walked over to the Southernmost point for a photo. The people in front of us asked me to take a photo and I had them take one of us too. Then we walked down Duval Street which is the main drag. We ate at a Denney's and then headed to Mallory Square to see the sunset. Duval Street was touristy with many shops, bars, and restaurants. It had something of the feel of Bourbon Street. At Mallory Square, we staked out a spot on the water and I wandered around. The sunset was underwhelming. There was an island west of us, so the sun dipped behind it rather than behind the ocean - plus there was a cloud right above the island, so you lost part of the effect.

We walked through the crowds and saw a number of street performers. We spent the most time watching a near 50 year old black man who did gymnastics. He created a circle of by-standers (partly to protect him from accidents involving the stairs) and did a number of tricks. However he drew the show out longer than we wanted to wait around, so we slipped away and headed back down Duval to the hotel. Back at the hotel, I was able to use the computer in the lobby to write up my trip notes.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Tuesday: Key West Conch Train Tour, Robert is Here

Tuesday – June 26


We drove to a parking lot near Mallory Square and bought tickets for the Conch Train. The spot that we were at was an auxiliary stop. A train was to come by, we'd board, and then we'd get off at the main stop and catch another train. I had trouble understanding the first driver as he spoke very fast - as if he was quickly reciting a memorized script. Fortunately, our main driver, Tommy, was much better. The trip took us back and forth across the island which is less than 2 miles by about 4 miles. We saw the Southernmost Point, Hemingway's home, the Truman White House, and a lot of interesting homes. I took a few notes on the fans that they gave us when we bought tickets. Tommy pointed out that he could get a bonus if he was the driver with the most returned comment cards, so I made sure that we returned our three.

It started to sprinkle and the driver stopped the tram and passed out raincoats to all of us. The train was to go on regardless of the weather and I thought the raincoats were a nice gesture. At first I thought that we wouldn’t need them (there was a roof, but the sides were open), but I was wrong. It rained hard enough to get us wet under the roof and, by the time, we pulled into the final stop, there was another deluge. We ducked under an awning and waited there until it let up.

On the tram, we noted that Key West has houses made out of wood – unlike most of Miami. Many have tin roofs which helped to prevent fire. Although we’d heard that there were many chickens in the streets, we only saw a couple.

We planned to go on a tour of the Truman White House and headed that direction. When we got there, we couldn’t figure out the entrance. There was a box for free tour information by a gate on the east, but it was empty. We saw another box at a nearby gate and checked it out. It was also empty. So we went beyond the gate and looked along the side and back of the house. All we saw was a man working on the porch. We returned to the front and read a sign that said the entrance was to the left (west). So we went to the corner in that direction, but only found a bank. I decided that I could read about the house on the Internet and we gave up on it.

At one point, we considered going on a glass bottom boat ride, but I decided that it wasn’t really worth going on a two hour ride. So we went back to the car and started back towards the mainland. This time the drive over the 7 mile bridge was clear.

I’d loved my milk shake at Robert is Here so much, that I suggested we go back to the Robert is Here Fruit Market. We also toyed with the idea of re-entering the Everglades to see the Discovery Channel movie. However, as we got closer, I realized that we wouldn't get there before the park closed. Nonetheless, we returned to the Fruit Market for another round of shakes. As I wandered around waiting for the shake while looking at all the fruit, I saw a man in a Robert is Here t-shirt and smiled to myself that maybe he was Robert. Since the business was started in 1960, we had surmised that Robert was retired or had passed away. I continued to wander and happened upon a brochure about the business. According to it, Robert was only 6 years old when he started his fruit stand. His dad had dropped him off at the corner to sell cucumbers. A day passed and he didn't sell any. The dad conjectured that it was not possible that no one liked cucumbers and that people just didn't notice Robert there. So the next day, he put a sign on both sides of him that said “Robert is Here” and that was the beginning of the fruit stand. I looked at the current photo in the brochure and, sure enough, I'm pretty sure that I saw Robert.

We drank our milk shakes while checking out the fenced in area with small animals behind the stand and while continuing to wander looking at all the choices of fruit. Some I remembered from our Fruit Farm tour (jack fruit), some were familiar, and others I did not remember ever seeing before. It would be fun to live nearby and try the various fruits. I bought a bottle of Key Lime juice and plan to try to make a pie.

After driving away, I read the brochure some more and decided I really wanted to try one of the homemade Key Lime pies from Robert's. Trying key lime pie had been in my mind as something I wanted to do in Key West and I hadn’t done it yet. So we turned around (we were close) and drove back and bought one.

Debbie

HIGHLIGHTS:

Wednesday - Vizcaya, Venetian Pool, Chess Hall of Fame, Marlins game

Wednesday – June 27

This morning, we headed out to Vizcaya - a mansion and gardens. It was built as the winter residence of a vice-president of International Harvester. It made me wonder what sort of home the president had. It was opulent, large and filled with centuries old European items. The gardens were pretty amazing too and were filled with running fountains. The back of the mansion overlooked a beautiful view of Biscayne Bay.

While at the mansion, we saw four different girls being photographed. My guess is that they were celebrating their quinz (15th birthdays).

After that, we went to peer through the fence of the Venetian Pool. It is a historic site and the symbol of Coral Gables. I think Esther Williams did some movies there. We didn't want to actually swim and someone suggested we could just look through the fence. I think others were there just inside the entrance taking photos - but we contented ourselves with walking all the way around. Halfway around, we found a spot where the vegetation was open so I could take a photo. There was no one in the pool and we could hear a lot of kids' voices, so I wondered if we were missing something further back. Fortunately, as we went around, we found the source of the noise. A bunch of kids, apparently part of a day care or camp, were playing games in an open area behind the pool.

Our next goal was to find food. We used the GPS to find an area that had a lot of restaurants, parked, and walked around to check out the choices. We ended up at Gastronomia. It sounded good and I was intrigued by the placards listing its Zagat rating. I'd never seen any of those before this trip to Miami. I suppose most of the places that we frequent don't have rated restaurants. (Note: after our trip, I’ve seen them at, of all places, our hometown Wendy’s.) The restaurant was just OK. We were again seated right by the door. The waiter had an accent and spoke very softly - so basically I didn't understand anything that he said. Our son and I both got pizzas and my husband had lasagna. My pizza was artichoke, mushroom, and black olive and our son’s was margherita which was basically cheese. I took a minute to get up and read a framed restaurant review. The whole first paragraph was pretty negative and I wondered to myself why they would post it!! However when they got to the part about the actual food, it was positive. My own reaction was pretty neutral. We were given a bottle of oil and a basket of bread, but the bread was not refilled. The pizzas were large and very thin. Mine was kind of burnt in spots on the bottom. It was OK – but nothing special and I didn’t think it was worth the price.

Today, the original plan had been to do the Ducks, the Vizcaya Gardens, and go to a Marlins game. However since we'd done the Ducks earlier this week, we had extra time.

After lunch, we decided to borrow another item from Thursday’s plan - the World Chess Hall of Fame. I could not find my AAA section for Miami that had the address, but we plugged the name into the GPS and it led us right there - and no doubt with more certainty than we would have had ourselves. The museum was well done. They had a display of amazing old chess sets (some pieces found were ca 1100's I think), specialty sets, a history, memorabilia, chess in advertising, and a film. It was a nice stop and turned out to be only about 15 minutes from our hotel.

After that, we went back to the hotel for a break before the game. Game time was 7:05, but we planned to leave about 5:30 to allow time for traffic and to get there early enough to buy food and watch batting practice. The weather looked iffy and we took our ponchos from the Conch train tour. We didn’t leave quite that early and the traffic was bad. We missed batting practice, but had time to get food and settle in before the game.
Other than someone almost u-turning into us as we turned onto the stadium's street, the night was great. The ticket taker allowed us to use a 2 for 1 ticket from the Entertainment book even though it said that they had to be purchased 24 hours in advance. Then, she also gave us seats in a better section. We try to go to various major league ballparks and I took our traditional photo in front of a team sign. In our breakfast room at home, we have a U.S. map for our ball park quest. Whenever we go to a new one, we buy a pin to put on the map and also post a photo. The parks that we haven’t gone to yet have a baseball sticker.

Dolphins Stadium is used for both baseball and football. However it didn't seem all that obvious to me. Our seats were in the shade and there was a wonderful breeze throughout the evening. We felt a drop or two of rain, but that was all. It didn't rain until after we got back to the hotel.

My husband said that his hot dog rated in the top 5 of the stadiums that we'd been too. Our son bought his later and said that he thought it was the best

HIGHLIGHTS:

Thursday - Franklin Tropical Gardens, Beach, Jerry's Famous Deli

Thursday – June 28

In the morning, we visited the Franklin Tropical Gardens. It is 80 acres and features many beautiful plants.

The park had a tram on the hour, so we wandered around a little and then took it. This park is more landscaped than the Fruit and Spice Park and twice as big. The F&SP tram ride was more personalized since there were just the 3 of us and the driver stopped often to point out things and to give us samples of fruit or to allow us to smell a leaf. This driver was a volunteer (woman originally from PA whose husband went to the U of I) and she also gave a very informative ride.

After the park, we drove back down to the Art Deco area to eat at Jerry's Famous Deli. We'd seen it when we went on the walking tour and would have considered it if it hadn’t been some distance from our ending point. The food was just OK (in my opinion) and the total was expensive even though we didn't get drinks and ordered less expensive choices. Oddly, the total bill had the gratuity added onto it and also included a spot for a tip. I'm not sure if the tip spot was if you wanted to add more or if you wanted to cross out the included gratuity and replace it with something else. I had a veggie sandwich - sourdough bread with a dollop of artichoke, a too thick slice of onion, slices of cucumber and tomato and lettuce. We also each got our choice of 2 of baked beans, potato salad and Cole slaw. My sandwich (with sides) was almost $12 and I didn’t think it was as good as a 6” veggie sub from Subway.

After that, we walked a block to the beach and walked along the beach for a short distance. It was too hot to enjoy going very far and our son opted against trying to run on the sand.

Debbie

We flew home on Friday.

Debbie

Great trip report of my area - I think you've seen more than I have. I definitely have to go Fruit and Spice Park after you've described it. I don't think you missed much by skipping Coral Castle either. It is one of those attractions that used to line US-1 when this was the main route up and down the coast for vacationers but I don't think it has been maintained and marketed as well as it could have been.

amcc - We enjoyed your area. I was beginning to wonder if I could post up an entire trip report and not get one reply. That's OK though since if someone wanted to do a search on something that I mentioned, it would be there.

We did enjoy the Fruit and Spice Park a lot. If you do go there, be sure and take the tram tour. We wouldn't have known what we were seeing without the guide's explanations. Of course, I'll never remember all that he said, but it was interesting at the time (G). It was really personal and we enjoyed trying all the fruits. It kind of made me wish we lived where we could grow all those things - or that I should at least explore the produce area of our supermarkets a little more closely.

Debbie

Sounds like you had a great trip - I hope there are some things left undone so you can plan another trip to the area!

Yes, we didn't really do everything that we'd intended. There is a lot to see in Miami and southern Florida. It was hot enough that we slowed down somewhat. However spending time relaxing rather than being on the go all the time wasn't all bad.

Debbie

Thank you for the extremely thorough trip report. Did you go on the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades? You said you didn't see any wildlife - I can't imagine not seeing wildlife there - I think that would be a first!

I agree that Robert is Here is fantastic. YUM!

Did you enjoy the drive back up from Key West? Aren't the Keys phenomenal?

Yes we went on that trail and just saw the one crocodile. Maybe we saw a bird or two and I've forgotten them. I do remember seeing two white birds when we drove into the park so that gives you an idea of how quiet it was. It was the middle of the afternoon and hot. The wildlife was probably all in the shade somewhere - smarter than us.

The Keys were pretty cool. It's pretty amazing that you can drive from island to island all that distance. On the way back, we saw a blimp.

Debbie

The only problem with Robert is Here is that he is THERE and not HERE. I REALLY want another of those coconut milk shakes.

Debbie

OK, midday and hot could indeed scare away even the ever-present wildlife at the Everglades. Sorry to hear that! But at least you got to see the alligator....