Day 8 - Miami to Key West

We started the day by saying bye to Miami, we took one last opportunity to cruise up Ocean Drive on the way out which was a delight.

Our first stop was the buffet restaurant Golden Corral at florida city. We had a fair amount of breakfast and k tried some chicken fried bacon! Down the other end of the restaurant the local motorcycle club, the golden wings road riders, were having a meeting. They were mostly pretty old but still dressed like sons of anarchy. One of the chapters was the  Scotland Wings! They seemed to be the black part of the group and had some sweet tartan on their leather waistcoats.

After we left we filled up the tank and hit the road to the keys. We've only spent just under $45 (about £30) so far on petrol cos it's so cheap here. We stopped in at our hotel we're staying in tomorrow and Tuesday to book our glass bottom boat tour for Tuesday en route. Other than that we didn't stop til about half way down the keys at the 7 mile bridge. Unsurprisingly,  this is a bridge that is 7 miles long. The cool thing is the original rail road bridge is still there and has been converted into a path you can walk on next to the new bridge. We went a wee stroll and looked at the sea and the bridge and the pelicans,  it was quite lovely. We just cruised down to key west after that. The journey was lovely, we drove through about 20 islands over 110 miles.

Our first stop was the southernmost point in the continental usa which is only 90 miles to Cuba. Like all of key west it was super busy so it took us a wee while to get parked but we eventually found a sweet space. After that we had a look at the beautiful southernmost house. As our time in Key West is limited we decided to hop on the trolley tour so we could see all the main sites. It was really good and our guide was very informative but funny too.

We got back to the car and headed to our hotel to check in. We were lucky and managed to get a space in the hotel car park so that was the car retired for the evening. Our room is lovely and we have a stoop with 2 chairs overlooking the pool, it's all very cute and southern. There is unlimited free iced tea in the lobby! Very southern. I highly recommend the Eden Hotel if you find yourself in Key West.

We headed out to explore and our first stop was for some key lime pie.  I had a frozen, chocolate coated, key lime pie on a stick and k just had homemade key limeade. Good times were had. We wandered about and went to some shops etc until about 45 mins before sunset when we headed to Mallory Square. Every night in key west,  thousands of people head to the pier to watch the sunset, there is live music, street food and street entertainers. We managed to get an amazing view and took about a million photos. It was spectacular and well worth the wait.

It was time for dinner and we were starving cos we missed lunch. We went to Caroline's which is on the main drag and sat outside and watched everyone going by. We both got the same thing, the macon & bacon salad which was wonderful. Loads of lettuce with chicken, bacon and maple pecans as well as corn and sweet onions with ranch dressing. Salads here are much more imaginative than at home and you don't get rubbish frisse lettuce. I also had a homemade pink lemonade and k had sweet ice tea.  It was a really great meal and the atmosphere really added to it.

Afterwards we wandered some more, checked out more shops and went to the oldest bar in florida where Ernest Hemingway used to be a local. It had live music and we sat at the bar drinking some very alcoholic cocktails in souvenir cups. Total tourists but everyone is here. It's a drinking town and we didn't really want to do anymore drinking so we came back to the hotel at a reasonable hour which is nice cos it's been so busy recently.

It's blinking roasting and I have a little of the sun so I'm very sleepy. Night!