48 - Kayaks, Bike and Golf Carts

So, Dad and I drove back to Louisville where I spent a couple of days playing with everyone there before flying back to Orlando.  Pedro picked me up at the airport and took me straight to our favorite restaurant Caffe Positano.  Lucky for us,  Roberto was finishing up working and able to join us for lunch.  The food and company were, as always,  amazing!  Since, he was finished for the day, we followed him back to his home.  We stopped on the way to meet the new baby goats who live at a nearby farm where he houses his chickens.   Yes, they were as cute at they look!!!

We spent the night with Polya and Roberto and left the next morning to make our way down to Key West where we'd planned a week with them and their daughters.  Since we still had a week before they could get there, we decided to tour more of Florida and stop anywhere that looked fun along the way.  Our first stop was Plant City for their annual strawberry festival.  We arrived in time to see the parade through town which turned out to be the best part of the festival

We continued heading southwest and went over to Gasparilla Island to the town of Boca Grande.  Neither of us had been to this area for 20 plus years and it was wonderful to see that not much had changed.  It's a great little town and we had a blast biking all around.  My absolute favorite spot is a street aptly named Banyan Street.  This street is lined with gigantic banyan trees who've grown into a tunnel.  As with most things the pictures don't do it justice but it was beautiful!

Next, we continued onward to Cape Coral where we dropped our kayaks in for a quick paddle to the Caloosahatchee River.  We then headed south to Ft. Myers where we rode our bikes around downtown enjoying the scenery and outdoor art work.

Continuing south, next,  we dropped our kayaks at Isle of Capri for a tour of the everglade area just outside of Marco Island.  We drove over to Marco hoping to find a spot to ride bikes but the town was so crowded that we decided to just continue on.  We stayed on the back roads and took Tamiami Trail back across the state keeping an eye out for Florida wildlife.  The drive was pretty but uneventful.  We spent the night in Miami and rode our bikes the next morning along the wonderful beach boardwalk in South Beach.  Continuing south, we drove to Key Largo with the hopes of chartering a scuba dive that afternoon.  Alas, the weather didn't cooperate for either that day or the next so we continued on.

Next, we contacted my Aunt Jeanne who moved to Marathon several years ago to see if she was available to meet.  Not only was she available, but she also invited us to stay a couple of days with her and Keke the cat.  Her house has an amazing view of the sunrise over Boot Key Harbor along with an array of wildlife that both swam and flew by.  She showed us all around her adopted town and also introduced us to her amazing friends. We had such a good time that she invited us to come stay again on our way back from Key West.

We continued heading southwest to meet up with Polya, Roberto and the girls in Key West.  We'd rented an AirBnB so that we could all be together and so that Roberto could cook for us!!  We had an amazing time and explored the city by foot, bike and golf cart.  We snorkeled, watched the sunset at Mallory Square, visited the Hemingway House, the new butterfly exhibit, the southernmost point and even rented a power boat to go explore by water.  Needless to say, we ate very well and the food was only surpassed by the company!  

As always, we took a bunch of pictures.  Here is a link to the rest of them:

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipN3gbKEHc49N7hpCta9INTCQ111hjvA3BKWqoBW

We headed back to Cocoa Beach to again  for a dog sit with Bella who happens to be our dear friend Frenchie's grand dog.  Babysitting with her also gave us a chance to see Frenchie (we've seen her since our ski trip last year but not much).  We only had Bella a couple of days but she was such a sweetheart we had to include her.  We continued exploring our adopted home state but we'll fill you in on that next time.

Until next post!