Keys vacation - part 1.
Mar. 16th, 2002 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaBack to talking about our vacation. Not because I'm a callous bitch who hasn't been affected by the events of the last few days, but because I'm tired, and I want to think about something else.
The Florida Keys were not actually our Number One Vacation Choice. Originally, we'd talked about going to the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico using our free travel vouchers, but it turned out that only a few seats per flight were designated for vouchers, and flying to the Caribbean on less than three months' notice just wasn't going to happen.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel had always wanted to go to Key West, so we started looking into a vacation in the Keys. My sister Debbie found a small resort with cottages in Key Largo, and with some trepidation at the sight-unseen nature of all of this, we booked reservations.
Thursday
We met up with my sister in the Philadelphia airport and all flew to Miami together. Negotiating the Miami airport took way too much time - everything was slow, from the service at the restaurant (we were starving, and couldn't wait for lunch) to the rental car counter. By the time we claimed our car, it was raining hard, and by the time we hit rush-hour traffic on our way south it was pouring so hard we could barely see.curiousangel bravely did the driving. We reached our resort just before sunset, and by that point all three of us were pretty damned tired.
It was still raining lightly as we checked in, but things really brightened up when we were shown to our cottage. The guidebook and other references we'd seen had said that the Bay Harbor Lodge was friendly and cheap, but had tacky, worn, outdated decor. Apparently, they've remodeled. We had a living room, kitchenette, bedroom, and bath, all with cream-painted walls and tile floors, all squeaky clean. There were full-sized appliances (including a microwave, toaster, and coffee maker) and a good selection of cookware in the kitchen. The living room had a couple of daybeds and a table with comfortable padded rattan chairs. But the amazing thing was the view. We'd reserved a "waterfront cottage," but all I really expected was that we'd be able to glimpse the water from our window. Instead, we found ourselves about ten steps from the bay - water was pretty much all you could glimpse from the window, as you can see:
Debbie fell asleep almost instantly, and Misha and I walked out to the end of the dock to watch the sunset. It was still sprinkling, and the heavy bands of clouds lit up neon-red as the sun touched the horizon. Even with the rain, I was grinning so hard my face hurt. After the sunset, and a brief nap, we decided that we were too tired to do anything exciting for dinner. We picked up pizza and beer and soda and went to bed early.
Friday
Misha slept very late on Friday. Debbie and I awoke early and took our respective sources of caffeine (Diet Coke for her, tea for me) out to a porch swing overlooking the water. We rocked lazily and talked for a while, and then wandered around the resort exploring. It was small - maybe fourteen units all together - and densely planted with tropical trees and flowers, particularly coconut and banana trees. They obviously didn't cater to the spring break crowd or to families with young children, which meant that our stay there was quiet and peaceful. The waterfront area was built for relaxation - little shelters with palm-frond roofs, broad deep hammocks, lounge chairs in groups of two or three - perhaps because the bright turquoise bay was too shallow for swimming.
Friday's lunch was our first real Keys meal. (The pizza on Thursday night didn't count.) The resort people recommended a place called Ballyhoo's, just across the street. I had a marvelous Jamaican jerked fish sandwich, just spicy enough and nicely offset with homemade tartar sauce, made from the catch of the day, which was dolphin. (No, not the mammal, the fish. Apparently, people in the Keys haven't switched over to calling it "mahi mahi." It was a bit distressing to see the "dolphin" on the menu everywhere we went, usually without explanation.) With that, I finally felt as though I was truly on vacation. The bright water, the banana trees, the warm weather, were all very well... but you're not really traveling until you eat something you couldn't get at home.
After lunch, Debbie and I went to the Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center. This is a small working rehab center, with some caged birds (usually because they can't or shouldn't fly given the extent of their injuries) and many more wild birds who are just hanging out. There were a few hawks and owls, but most of the residents were shore and water birds: egrets, great blue and great white herons, ibises, cormorants, ospreys, and a remarkable pink bird called a roseate spoonbill. The pelicans, in particular, were not shy of people and would waddle right past you. We got a good view of the strange, flexible pouches under their beaks and of their elaborately striped plumage.
Our trip to the Wild Bird Center set the tone for the rest of our vacation, which wound up being much more wildlife-focused than I would have predicted. Debbie and I quickly developed the (probably annoying) ability to identify most of the birds and some of the plants and trees we'd later see in the wild, and we learned a lot from casual conversations with the Center staff. Obviously workers instead of tour guides, they'd walk past with a screech owl in their arms ("she's off to get her nails trimmed") and stop to talk for a while.
Back at the resort, Misha and I went for a swim in the pool before dinner. That was my only trip to the pool, which was heated almost to bathwater-temperature. It was good to reconnect with Misha after spending the afternoon with my sister. We swam a bit, but mostly we just played around in the water together. The three of us watched the sunset from lounge chairs on the dock.
Dinner that night at Calypso's, a small marina-side restaurant off the main U.S. 1 strip. This place had a much less polished feel than our lunch restaurant - all the tables were on a covered patio decorated with strings of fish lights and for some reason a disco ball. I got the impression that locals hang out here to eat and play pool. Debbie and I split an order of crab-stuffed mushrooms, which I followed with a seared tuna steak topped with garlic gorgonzola pepper sauce. It came with black beans and rice, which were okay, and corn on the cob, which was fire-roasted and dripping with butter and fabulous. Misha had yellowtail with serrano cream sauce, and I kind of wished I'd ordered that instead, but the tuna was very good.
We made tentative plans for the next few days, and had another early night.
The Florida Keys were not actually our Number One Vacation Choice. Originally, we'd talked about going to the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico using our free travel vouchers, but it turned out that only a few seats per flight were designated for vouchers, and flying to the Caribbean on less than three months' notice just wasn't going to happen.
curiousangel had always wanted to go to Key West, so we started looking into a vacation in the Keys. My sister Debbie found a small resort with cottages in Key Largo, and with some trepidation at the sight-unseen nature of all of this, we booked reservations.Thursday
We met up with my sister in the Philadelphia airport and all flew to Miami together. Negotiating the Miami airport took way too much time - everything was slow, from the service at the restaurant (we were starving, and couldn't wait for lunch) to the rental car counter. By the time we claimed our car, it was raining hard, and by the time we hit rush-hour traffic on our way south it was pouring so hard we could barely see.
curiousangel bravely did the driving. We reached our resort just before sunset, and by that point all three of us were pretty damned tired.It was still raining lightly as we checked in, but things really brightened up when we were shown to our cottage. The guidebook and other references we'd seen had said that the Bay Harbor Lodge was friendly and cheap, but had tacky, worn, outdated decor. Apparently, they've remodeled. We had a living room, kitchenette, bedroom, and bath, all with cream-painted walls and tile floors, all squeaky clean. There were full-sized appliances (including a microwave, toaster, and coffee maker) and a good selection of cookware in the kitchen. The living room had a couple of daybeds and a table with comfortable padded rattan chairs. But the amazing thing was the view. We'd reserved a "waterfront cottage," but all I really expected was that we'd be able to glimpse the water from our window. Instead, we found ourselves about ten steps from the bay - water was pretty much all you could glimpse from the window, as you can see:
Debbie fell asleep almost instantly, and Misha and I walked out to the end of the dock to watch the sunset. It was still sprinkling, and the heavy bands of clouds lit up neon-red as the sun touched the horizon. Even with the rain, I was grinning so hard my face hurt. After the sunset, and a brief nap, we decided that we were too tired to do anything exciting for dinner. We picked up pizza and beer and soda and went to bed early.
Friday
Misha slept very late on Friday. Debbie and I awoke early and took our respective sources of caffeine (Diet Coke for her, tea for me) out to a porch swing overlooking the water. We rocked lazily and talked for a while, and then wandered around the resort exploring. It was small - maybe fourteen units all together - and densely planted with tropical trees and flowers, particularly coconut and banana trees. They obviously didn't cater to the spring break crowd or to families with young children, which meant that our stay there was quiet and peaceful. The waterfront area was built for relaxation - little shelters with palm-frond roofs, broad deep hammocks, lounge chairs in groups of two or three - perhaps because the bright turquoise bay was too shallow for swimming.
Friday's lunch was our first real Keys meal. (The pizza on Thursday night didn't count.) The resort people recommended a place called Ballyhoo's, just across the street. I had a marvelous Jamaican jerked fish sandwich, just spicy enough and nicely offset with homemade tartar sauce, made from the catch of the day, which was dolphin. (No, not the mammal, the fish. Apparently, people in the Keys haven't switched over to calling it "mahi mahi." It was a bit distressing to see the "dolphin" on the menu everywhere we went, usually without explanation.) With that, I finally felt as though I was truly on vacation. The bright water, the banana trees, the warm weather, were all very well... but you're not really traveling until you eat something you couldn't get at home.
After lunch, Debbie and I went to the Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center. This is a small working rehab center, with some caged birds (usually because they can't or shouldn't fly given the extent of their injuries) and many more wild birds who are just hanging out. There were a few hawks and owls, but most of the residents were shore and water birds: egrets, great blue and great white herons, ibises, cormorants, ospreys, and a remarkable pink bird called a roseate spoonbill. The pelicans, in particular, were not shy of people and would waddle right past you. We got a good view of the strange, flexible pouches under their beaks and of their elaborately striped plumage.
Our trip to the Wild Bird Center set the tone for the rest of our vacation, which wound up being much more wildlife-focused than I would have predicted. Debbie and I quickly developed the (probably annoying) ability to identify most of the birds and some of the plants and trees we'd later see in the wild, and we learned a lot from casual conversations with the Center staff. Obviously workers instead of tour guides, they'd walk past with a screech owl in their arms ("she's off to get her nails trimmed") and stop to talk for a while.
Back at the resort, Misha and I went for a swim in the pool before dinner. That was my only trip to the pool, which was heated almost to bathwater-temperature. It was good to reconnect with Misha after spending the afternoon with my sister. We swam a bit, but mostly we just played around in the water together. The three of us watched the sunset from lounge chairs on the dock.
Dinner that night at Calypso's, a small marina-side restaurant off the main U.S. 1 strip. This place had a much less polished feel than our lunch restaurant - all the tables were on a covered patio decorated with strings of fish lights and for some reason a disco ball. I got the impression that locals hang out here to eat and play pool. Debbie and I split an order of crab-stuffed mushrooms, which I followed with a seared tuna steak topped with garlic gorgonzola pepper sauce. It came with black beans and rice, which were okay, and corn on the cob, which was fire-roasted and dripping with butter and fabulous. Misha had yellowtail with serrano cream sauce, and I kind of wished I'd ordered that instead, but the tuna was very good.
We made tentative plans for the next few days, and had another early night.
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Date: 2002-03-17 12:49 pm (UTC)*fanfanfan*
Inspirational, too. I got so excited after reading the second entry that I got right up and made a fabulous soup with a Thai ginger-coconut soup base, some added lime juice, a cut-up chicken and some spring onions. (-: