Tranquility

Since our vacation seemed to be 3 separate trips all rolled into 1 I thought each part deserved its own post. So here goes part one.

The first leg of our vacation was in the Florida Keys. Which meant that we had to drive from Miami to the Keys which is about a 2 hour drive. The drive actually wasn't that bad. It was very scenic which made the drive go really fast. We decided to stop at a place called Mrs. Mac's Kitchen for dinner. It was a total dive but tripadvisor.com rated their food #1. They catch their fish fresh every morning from the dock in the back of the restaurant! The food all looked so good that between the 4 of us we ordered 2 appetizers and 5 entrees! It was amazing! So if you are ever in the Keys and need a place to eat I would recommend this place.

After we finished our delicious dinner we headed to the resort that we were staying at, Hawks Cay. What a beautiful resort it is! We stayed in one of the townhouses that they have there. It was so cute and fun.

When we went inside to check out our rooms we were surprised to find that we weren't alone! This poor gecko was trapped inside the house but don't worry we caught the poor little guy and let him go outside.

After the catch and release of the gecko we went out to see the rest of the resort (and to find the hot tub to relax in). There are several pools at the resort but we were looking for the adults only pool. Don't get me wrong, I love kids but if I wanted to hang out with kids on my vacation I would have brought mine. :) By the time we got to the "Tranquility Pool" it was dark. We enjoyed it anyways. On the walk back to the townhouse we saw fireflies! I have never seen one in true life. My only experience with them is on the Pirates ride at Disneyland. It was very cool!

The Keys are beautiful, just not what we were expecting. They are much more lake-like than tropical. Meaning there aren't really "beaches" to hang out on. We weren't too disappointed though because we knew that we were headed to some amazing beaches on the cruise. So we opted for the next best thing... the "Tranquility Pool".

We spent the whole day here. The whole day! It was wonderful. It was so hot though we would be in and out of the pool to stay cool. One of the times we were out of the pool, I was laying face down on my lounge chair and heard a strange noise. I looked up to see a giant iguana right under my face! I wasn't scared I know that they are harmless but it did interrupt my tranquility. All that he was really interested in was the last piece of fruit from lunch.

After a very strenuous day of lounging by the pool we needed some nourishment. We went to another highly recommended place called the Sunset Grille. It was an outdoors restaurant right on the water with an amazing view! After we had filled up on more delicious food we headed back to the resort where we called it a night.

The next morning as the girls were getting ready to head to the cruise ship Chet decided to head out back to try some fishing. He didn't catch anything but he sure looked cute trying.

All in all the Keys were very beautiful and relaxing but now I was ready for the tropical part of the trip. The Bahamas!!!