Labor Day weekend was up for grabs. We discussed Atlanta for a but eventually picked the Florida Keys. It seems as if our street is bustling with active LDS members nowadays, most attend our ward and we see on a regular basis. We Alexander's joined forces l with another set of Alexander's and a set of Secrist's, all fellow neighbors for this voyage.
Our game plan was fairly clear- Ft Lauderdale temple, Miami Beach, snorkeling in Key Largo. We Alexander's rode together and started the forsaken dang drive Friday afternoon, about 4.5 hours, to get to the first night to pit stop in Ft Lauderdale. Early enough we attended the newly built temple Saturday morning. Due to some strange scheduling we missed the endowment session but were able to fulfill other ordinances.
We were finished all were famished, so we decided to snag some food. Jared had a specific craving for a restaurant they tried before named Ally's; let me tell you: you ever get in that area get your bohonkus to that place! The omelettes! The grits! The bagels! All mouth wateringly delicious. Yum. Soon after, we made a beeline for South Beach in Miami. I'll be honest, I've visited it before (last April) and I knew I wasn't the biggest fan. Number one- too many folks, especially high number of speedo and thong wearers. But the water is always flawless, perfectly clear and spot- on temperatures for a blazing day. We met up with said Secrist's, who basically brought all you'll ever need on the beach (tent, water hug, a snack, inner tubes, chairs; a big ole braaavo you guys) and seemed to swim all day. Though, to be fair, I did shy away from being in the water exclusively due to a lack of sunscreen. Plus what if I get hit with a bad case of heat palpitations? No thank you.
Fairly late in the day we packed up to go towards hotel #2. It was here that Graham and I rinsed all of the gross sand from our hair, a must if I've been in the beach. We mosied on over to a restaurant called The Lime (I think) in one car, the two tallest fellas in the front, the remaining hombre and two preggo ladies in the back and I sat on the floor (pretty comfortably, surprisingly). This restaurant let me down biiig time- they carried the worse quesadilla ever :( It was served with cheddar cheese- come on now!, really? The queso was quite perfect, however.
Sunday Morning we dropped into an interesting Spanish and English combined branch (did anyone else know these existed? Apparently they do!) where they switch every other week to be able to be fair to everyone to attend. If you're not bilingual, 5 out of 6 of us traveling, they have headsets available with a translator to make it a spiritual experience. It turned out that we came on the English week, so only the prayers, every other song and 1 sacrament prayer was offered in Spanish. It was certainly a cool experience! I wish we had one locally so I could learn Spanish fluently. We ended up finding our way into a Sunday School class very reminiscent of one offered by a Travis Jewell, from my teenage years.
Then we were destined to make it to Key Largo! Back in about '97 I used to put the Trolls sing-along VHS into the box tv found in room 110 at Amelia By the Sea, where I would chortle "Aruba, Jamaica, Ooh I wanna take you, Bermuda, Bahama! Come on pretty Mama! Key Largo, Montego! Baby why don't we go..." And now, me, going! Woohoo! So, Key Largo was a lot different from what I thought it would be. There were zero waves, for starters, which gave it more a lake feel as opposed to an ocean. The water was clear but most portions weren't crystal, as I thought they would be like Miami. I think it just had a very different feel from an actual beach, which I had heard but refused to believe. But it was fairly nice, it even upped the ante by housing large iguanas, two of which we witnessed from a distance.
After trailing down to Islamorada, (another island down the Keys, see above) for an hour or so, we stopped at a beachfront restaurant. It was more picturesque than the actual place! It was darling, but we totally left it in the dust for DQ/Papa John's. Afterwards we crashed in our cute little bungalow, all the while our neighbor's dog went ballistic! Animals, man, yuck. My story for Labor Day is pretty decent, I'll touch on it later :)
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