Islamorda

My husband can not keep a secret when it involves gifts and if he has one he will constantly ask you if you want to know what it is...it drives me nuts!! So I'm really impressed that he kept a very good secret from me for so long. He surprised me with an early anniversary trip down to Islamorada. I was so impressed as he already had my time off approved by my boss, plans were already made for my kids to be taken care of and he even picked very romantic places to stay. So impressed and I was REALLY ready to go when he told me. But luckily he gave me a few days to pack and get a new bathing suit :)

We took A1A down most of the way so that the ride would not be as boring. So, we were starving and couldn't find anything that we wanted to stop in and eat. We had this rule that we would not eat at a place that you could eat at home. So, we found Corky Bell's. Our waitress was a bit loud, ok, REALLY loud! She was really annoying but the food was good!


We stopped one night in Jupiter to just break up the drive. I'm glad we did as we both just wanted to relax for a little while and stretch our limbs. So, Mark went in to the room and took a nap while I went out to the pool and laid out for a while, then got in the hot tub and read for about an hour. It was so divine just having some "ME" time. I rarely do anything alone so a few hours out in the sun reading was heavenly. I could have gone home after that I was so happy! These are a few pictures of our room and view. And then us at dinner at Pepi's. It was a cute little joint of a place. Our waitress, again was really annoying, she took forever to come back and take our orders. I believe her excuse was "I was trying to organize my cocktails!" Yeah, ok...





We went to Boardwalk Pizza in Islamorada for lunch and it was delicious! This pizza was all mine too! Of course I didn't eat it all but oh I wish I could have because it was DELICIOUS! It was the best pizza on the island...the advertisements said so!



This is going over all of the bridges on our way down to Key West one day. The water is just this beautiful green/blue. I wanted to dive in it! We couldn't stop laughing at the car in front of us. The woman kept raising her arms. We figured either this was a requirement if you are in a convertible or she was airing out her arm pits...



Eating at Margaritaville in Key West



The southern most part of the state. Yes, Ben there is a Mile Marker 0


Duval Street in Key West




We ate one night at Marker 88. It was very good food but really the atmosphere is what makes this place so great! Our table was about 3 feet from the ocean. And the sunset from our table was breath taking! After we finished up our delicious Key Lime pie we went back to our room, made some coffee and went out to the beach and watched the moon rise. So romantic and so very quiet and quaint!










This is the view from our room. We had our own private beach with cabanna chairs, tikki hut and access to the water. It was so relaxing. On Mothers Day we went out for a few hours and just laid out, walked around in the water. I was good in the water until a crab scurried over Mark's foot and it creeped me out. So I decided laying out with my book was a better option for me.





I thought this was so funny...you know you are on an island when they have doggie carts for you to use when you shop. I tried putting Mark in there but he just didn't fit...

Mark up on Ernest Hemingway's boat. This boat was inside the World Wide Sports store (where you can use the doggy cart) The boat had tons of memorabilia from Hemingway. Pictures of him on the boat and letters he wrote while he was on the boat.


We had lunch at Islamorada Fish and Trading Company one day. All of the places in this town basically only have outside seating, which we love! We were right on the water so there was a really nice breeze and the chairs were EXTREMELY comfortable. There was a rasta man playing some island music while we ate. It was Mothers Day and there was this little girl about Morgan's age sitting behind us and it made us realize how much we missed our kids. Yes, we were having a great time but we couldn't wait to get back home and hug and kiss all over our punkins!




We went to this place called Robbie's and fed the Tarpon. They give you a bucket full of dead fish (the blood is still squishing around the bottom of the bucket!) and you can go out on the dock and feed the Tarpon. There are tons of them there and they are hungry little devils. They just about snatch the fish out of your hands. We had fun but couldn't wait to go sanitize our hands when we were done (or at least I couldn't)








I could hear Mark giggling in the bathroom. So when I go in there I could barely see him. He was completely covered in bubbles. When I asked him how much he poured in the tub he showed me the bottle...he poured about a third of it's contents in the water. Needless to say we had bubbles every where and Mark is no longer in charge of bubble baths anymore!


I got the greatest opportunity to go and take a structured dive/swim with the dolphins at Dolphon Cove in Key Largo. Mark didn't want to do it (chicken) so he just abserved and took some pictures. It was really a cool thing to experiance. You have to go through this whole debreifing of what to do and what not to do. The one comment that sticks out to me is one of the instructors said "You might think that these dolphins are your entertainment but believe me honey, YOU are THEIR entertaiment!" I was the only one there that morning for the dive so I had all 3 dolphins to my self! I really wasn't that scared, they are very friendly and cute and I got a lot of love from them :)