My running has done two things for me...allowed me to run and to explore new places. This time I got to explore with Dave and Camden. And we explored! We only had two days and lots to do and see!
We left Charleston as soon as Dave got off of work and headed south. We made it to Melbourne, FL where we stopped for the night.
Rocking out to Will Smith's Miami and the Miami Sound Machine, we drove toward Miami early Friday morning! At our airboat ride exit, we tried to find a cool place to eat lunch, but there weren't many choices that didn't involve burgers or Mexican food. The latter not being the best choice the day of and before a race! So, we ended up getting subs at a Publix.
Then we were ready for our first adventure tour of the weekend. Our airboat ride with Everglades Airboat Expeditions was in the Everglades, just not the national park part of the Everglades. But it was super cool! The boat seemed to fly over grass, but the grass was growing out of the marsh and not on dry ground at all. We only saw a couple of small gators, but lots of baby gators. They were really cute! Glad we did not encounter the mama gator!
It was very windy on the boat ride!
This bird was friends with our tour guide...or at least with his Cheetos! He took them out of our hands.
The baby gators were really cool!
After our airboat tour and bib pickup (which included shopping at the race expo!), we went to Robert is Here fruit stand and bought smoothies and a dragon fruit. When we ate it at home, we decided it was good, but not something we want to buy again.
We had a couple of hours before we needed to get to the start line for the 5k, so we went to the Everglades National Park.
The marsh water was so clear!
More baby gators!!
We just had a very short time to see the park and we saw very little of it! But it was nice to see part of it. After we ran the 5k, we ate dinner at Cracker Barrel....another nondescript dinner!
But finally, after we finished our half and made it to Key Largo, we had a good meal! With an even better view!
Our lunch view...beautiful!
I guess we ate at Mr. Beans!
Then we really had an adventure!! Snorkeling! On a reef 5 miles off the coast! When I signed up for snorkeling with Pirates Cove Watersports, I'm not sure what I thought was going to happen but taking a 40-minute boat ride off the coast of Key Largo was not what I envisioned! But it was a blast! It was also very wavy. The tour guide said it was rougher than usual for snorkeling. Dave got a lot of good footage with his go-pro. And Camden had a good time for his first-time snorkeling...after a rough start of his snorkel coming off two times! I have been snorkeling before, however, I was either doing something wrong or my snorkel was messed up because I had to empty it of sea water after every 3rd or 4th breath. And that was a little tricky with waves crashing over my head! But we still all had a great time!!
The water was beautiful! They say a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work...I guess you could say the same for a rough day of snorkeling!!
We had wanted to drive out to Key West, but we were tired after snorkeling. We made it to 7-mile bridge, and we were too tired to keep going. So, we found a restaurant with a view of the sunset, Sunset Grill and Raw Bar on Marathon, and ate dinner. It had a nice place to sit and look at the water while waiting for our table. I got hogfish as I was told that I should try it in the Keys! And of course, we got key lime pie!
It was a busy two days, but so much fun with lots of good memories made. We had a long drive home on Sunday, but the whole trip was so worth it! And now we want to go back and stay longer in the Keys one day!
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