Florida Mini-trip

My kids and I were blessed enough to be able to take a last-minute mini-vacation to Florida.  And by Mini-Vacation, what I mean by that is we had 4 days.  Two of those days were travel days, and the other 2 days were for fun.  And we packed a LOT into those 2 days.

Due to last minute purchase of plane tickets, a flight into Orlando was out of the question however, Miami was still a reasonable purchase option so Miami it was.

This made us pick one day at Disney (yes it was a long drive, more about that in a minute) and one day down in the keys.

DISNEY'S MAGIC KINGDOM

If you, like us, find yourself driving up to Orlando from Miami, I do recommend the Florida turnpike.  It's about $20 in tolls each way but there is very little traffic, especially if you leave Orlando at 8:30 at night, you run into very few cars on the drive back to Miami!  I've been stuck on I95 from Daytona to Miami and the cars can sometimes be wall to wall so the turnpike really is less stressful as their slogan says - the stress less way.

Do NOT follow the directions on GPS that say go north of Osceola Parkway onto another toll road and then turn around back to Orlando (and vice versa at the end of the day).  It will add 20 minutes of unnecessary driving to you trip.  Get off at Osceola Parkway (where the signs say Disney exits) and when you are headed back take World Drive to where it intersects Osceola and take that back to the turnpike.  You will save yourself money and possibly time as well.

Once you get there keep in mind the parking is $20 a day for the parks.  You will take a parking shuttle to the main parking entrance area and from there you can take the ferry or the tram to the entrance of Magic Kingdom.  The ferry is a shorter ride, FYI.

For lunch I recommend Cosmic Ray's starlight cafe.  If you can manage to find a table, there's a little spot in the corner where you have a clear view of the castle from the windows while you eat!

Don't forget your 3 Fastpass spots.  Even if you aren't staying in a Disney Resort, make yourself a Disney account for purchasing your park tickets and then once you have your tickets, select 3 fastpass selections and they will automatically be linked to your park tickets if you do this while logged into your Disney account.  I recommend the Magic Mountain roller coaster - it's one of the most popular rides in the park and the regular wait is usually over an hour.  Go Fastpass!

THE KEYS

On our second day we got back on the Florida Turnpike from our hotel base in the Miami Airport hotel area (very convenient for early or late flights and car rental drop off) and made our way over to Route 1, which turns into the Overseas Highway down to and through all the Florida Keys.

Our stop for the day was Islamorada Key (just south of Key Largo).  We made our way to Plantation Hammocks Preserve first (due to massive traffic).  The entrance and parking area to this park is just past the parking lot for Islamorada visitor center.  

The preserve actually sits adjacent to Founder's Park.  It's a nice shady area of walking trails and you can get to the waterfront from here.  Note that the waterfront isn't really a beach, it's right next to a Marina area so it's not good for swimming but it has a nice picnic bench right on the waterfront and there's also a sitting bench nearby.  

After that we made our way over to Library Beach park - it's just that.  

A playground and picnic area right behind the library and has beach access into the waterway that winds its way through the mangrove trees.  It was too cold to swim when we went but on warmer days you can swim, the water is very clear and calm BUT do be aware that boats come in there to turn around so be looking for boats.

A suggestion for one more stop is Anne's beach - it is rumored to have very shallow water that you can wade into, and because of the reefs around the keys, the water is very calm, perfect for kids and/or snorkeling.  But due to time constraints we were unable to make it there.........I have it on my list for a future trip.  

I'm a HUGE fan of the Florida keys - Key West is home to the 3rd largest reef in the world, and why send our American dollars to overseas islands when we can stay local and support the local American economy with beaches that rival those of the Caribbean.

For lunch we recommend Wahoo's Bar and Grill - it's an oceanfront dining location on the Atlantic side of the key and overlooks some of the most beautiful water you will ever find.  

Until the next blog...........