The Keys | 2011

It has been nearly a year since Mark and I took our first vacation to the Florida Keys. Last August, we both took 5 days off work and drove down to Islamorada with our boat (which I affectionately call Boaty). :) Neither of us had ever been and we LOVED it. The drive down itself was fun because once you get far enough south, US1 becomes a super long road/bridge connecting each key. Islamorada is known as the fishing capital of the world. It's also really laid back, so we thought it would be the perfect place for us to stay. We found a nice little hotel that was made up of several different little buildings. In the back there was a little man made beach with a dock and several boat slips. All of the buildings are painted bright, retro colors and the beach had lounge chairs and a hammock and fun colored lights strung between the palm trees. It was exactly what we wanted! We had a second story room that looked right out onto the water... and boaty. :) We mostly just fished, cruised around and laid out by the pool. On our next to last day we drove down to Key West, the southernmost key.

The top window on the right was our little room. :)

The water was SO clear and blue.. it was beautiful. I just loved all the mangrove trees that grow in the water.

We decided that next time we go we will have to spend more time just laying by the pool reading. It doesn't get much more relaxing than that!

If you look closely you can see all kinds of little fishies.

The next shots are from our trip to Key West. It was stormy that day, but the water looked SO beautiful.

We went on a trolley tour once the rain cleared up. We have no shame as tourists and the trolley is a must any time we go somewhere new! A lot of these photos were taken while we were being driven around.

The Southernmost Point (top left) was a neat thing to see. 90 miles to Cuba! The bottom center photo was from our drive down. Henry Flagler built the first railroad line that went all the way down to the keys in the early 1900s. The bottom right is a shot of where US1 ends, the famous mile zero! :)

I really liked how chickens and roosters were just walking around in the streets. 

After walking around town, we went on a glass bottom boat to get out on the water for a bit. It was hilarious because everyone was being quiet to hear the guide and to keep from disturbing the sea life, and Mark dropped his phone 15 feet down onto the glass. It was SO unlike him that I couldn't help but laugh! It was even better that it landed face up and people kept calling and texting him. :) The guide climbed down and retrieved it at the end of the tour.

We had ONE photo together- and we had been rained on earlier that day, so it isn't the greatest. Next time I'll have to be better about that.

I loooove the way the hazy skies look in this shot.

This buoy is supposedly one of the corners of the Burmuda Triangle.

  

The next day we went fishing and enjoyed the water. We loved being able to just pull up to restaurants and hop out of the boat for lunch. This was taken at one of our favorite restaurants, Lorelei's.

That little fishy was the ONLY one we caught! We really didn't try that hard though.... ;)

We had SO much fun and cannot wait to go back this summer!