Key Largo Post 1

Liesl and I had made plans to enjoy a few days diving in Key Largo, FL. with Silent World Dive Center and staying at The Hungry Pelican for 3 days, then heading north to the West Palm Beach Area for another dive on the Blue Heron Bridge. As we could not find a pet friendly place to stay, we decided to board Lizzy with Lesley (Pawkeepers), whom we have used in the past. She is great, and Lizzy enjoys her place.

We had an early morning consisting of getting everything into the car, and delivering Lizzy to Pawkeepers.
Pawkeepers is run out of Lesley's home, where she only boards 4 dogs at any given time. She is awesome with dogs, which could be recognized by the way Lizzy reacted upon pulling up to her place. As soon as the car door opened, Lizzy ran straight to the front door, waiting impatiently. After a short visit with Lesley, and dropping off the dog goodies, we were back in the car for the trip.
We had made reservations at a Days Inn in St. Augustine, Fl. the first night, so we needed to get some miles behind us (appx. 728 Miles). Luckily for us, we planned to leave in the middle of the Holiday instead of the end. Traffic was fairly light, and we made good time, stopping occasionally for gas, bathroom breaks, and coffee. No food however, as we had packed for that.
I didn't know anything about St. Augustine, except that it had cheap lodging in about the right spot for a days drive. Turns out, there's a lot more to it. Not knowing this, I didn't plan any extra time into exploring this historic little place. I almost wish I had.
The Days Inn hotel we stayed at was surprisingly clean. I say surprisingly, because we don't often spend a lot on hotel accommodations for a single night. It was an old hotel, but obviously well cleaned. Can't ask for much more, and I doubt we would have gotten it if we did.

The following morning, we ate breakfast at the attached IHOP. We spent the better part of our meal talking about how disturbing the menu was. Candy on pancakes. And everyone is thinking how great it is. Ugh.

Fast forward through my omelet, and Liesl's senior meal and we are back on the road heading south punctuated by playing the alphabet game and slug bug. There is really nothing much remarkable about the road trip down, as all you can see for the most part is trees lining the road or sound barrier.

Since we were passing by anyway, I suggested we stop off at the Blue Heron Bridge (+appx 241 miles) to get a look. Holy packed! Not a legal parking space around. We stopped in a slot designated for boat trailers, and made a quick meal from the grub we had brought along. Then, as police were shooing other people out of the spots, we made another loop through the parking lot on the off chance someone had vacated. No luck, so we headed out. On our way back to the highway, we stopped at Force-E, where we had earlier noted a sale going on. We perused the gear, and spotted a couple of books, but decided to forgo buying them. After browsing for a while, we jumped back in the car and headed south again.

The directions I had printed out, took us into a tollway. I'm not much for paying tolls (ie. cheapskate), so we took the "long route". Traffic was still at a minimum, so we got through everything just fine.
At this point it is important to remember that we are in Florida, land of the sunny beaches covered in super-model-hot-babes. Not to burst that bubble, but it's just another place people live. I'm sure there were some nice beaches, but we were bypassing them in lieu of our destination, Key Largo (+131 miles), and some hopefully spectacular diving.

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