June 2017 - Florida
School ends here end of May, which our kids love because it's a month sooner than in Belgium and which we love because we can go on vacation in June and avoid the tourists from Europe ... nothing personal my European friends 😘, but the less tourists we can have around us, the better ... no matter where they're from 😉
That first year, we decided to go to Florida.
Why Florida?
My first job as an engineer was in Florida. I worked for Honeywell in Clearwater, for about a year. What an experience! I'm pretty sure that because of this experience, I didn't hesitate one second to go on this adventure here in Utah. I found out that moving to another country without your family and friends can be very refreshing. It's a time where you can truly discover yourself without the influence of your family or friends as well as the societal and cultural norms you grew up with.
My time in Florida has made me independent, adaptable and more open minded. It has learned me that instead of being afraid of change, it's something you should embrace!
So yes, I really wanted to return to Florida and show my family the place that has had such a big impact on me.
The intention was to fly into Miami and explore the south of Florida for 1 week. Then we wanted to 'hop' to Cuba for 1 week as it's only a 1 hour flight away, and then 'hop' back to Miami to explore the north of Florida for 1 more week.
We already bought the tickets for Florida when I learned that we would be treated as Americans when flying from Miami to Cuba 😱. What does that mean, I hear you think?
Let me quickly give you a short breakdown of US's travel relationship with the only country in the world the US government has ever restricted its citizens from visiting!
Afterwards we heard that in practice they apply this rule less stringent to non US citizens departing from a US airport, but we wouldn't have taken that risk with the kids anyways.
And then it was time for the East coast. First destination was St Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement, founded in 1556 by Spanish explorers.
Our hotel was located not too far from the historic center, so we walked via a charming little cemetry to the Castillo the San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort of continental US. It was built to protect the Spanish empire.
As we only had 1 day to spend at St Augustine, and as we've seen plenty of older and more impressive fortresses in Europe, we just walked around it and didn't go inside.
We stayed 2 nights in an 1969 vintage Airstream which was located in the garden of the owners, and it was just a little paradise!
We had our own covered terrace, with a shower outside.
The owners had a big pool we could use, ánd on top of that we could join them at their family dinner & breakfast table (located next to the pool) which we gladly accepted. We were positively surprised as everything was fresh and home made ... by an ex-chef cook! Lucky us! Best experience of the whole 3 weeks!
Each night we got company from a 1-eyed cat, who seemed to be able to open the door! 😆
That first year, we decided to go to Florida.
Why Florida?
My first job as an engineer was in Florida. I worked for Honeywell in Clearwater, for about a year. What an experience! I'm pretty sure that because of this experience, I didn't hesitate one second to go on this adventure here in Utah. I found out that moving to another country without your family and friends can be very refreshing. It's a time where you can truly discover yourself without the influence of your family or friends as well as the societal and cultural norms you grew up with.
My time in Florida has made me independent, adaptable and more open minded. It has learned me that instead of being afraid of change, it's something you should embrace!
So yes, I really wanted to return to Florida and show my family the place that has had such a big impact on me.
The intention was to fly into Miami and explore the south of Florida for 1 week. Then we wanted to 'hop' to Cuba for 1 week as it's only a 1 hour flight away, and then 'hop' back to Miami to explore the north of Florida for 1 more week.
We already bought the tickets for Florida when I learned that we would be treated as Americans when flying from Miami to Cuba 😱. What does that mean, I hear you think?
Let me quickly give you a short breakdown of US's travel relationship with the only country in the world the US government has ever restricted its citizens from visiting!
- 1960: The US implements an economic embargo on Cuba after Cuba nationalised American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation, which remains to date!
- 1963: Shortly after the Cuban missile crisis (remember the 'Bay of Pigs invasion'? If not ... look it up! 😏), President Kennedy prohibits travel to Cuba and makes financial and commercial transactions with Cuban illegal for US citizens.
- 2009: President Obama eases travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives in Cuba.
- 2011: The ban is further eased by allowing students and religious missionaries to travel to Cuba if they meet certain restrictions
- 2015: New rules are put in place by the Obama administration which greatly relax the restrictions. US citizens can visit Cuba without a license as long as the trip falls into one of 12 broadly-defined categories such as family visit, professional research, ...Under the educational category, 'people-to-people' trips could be done, organised by a certified tour operator who needed to maintain a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities during your trip. This is the closest you could get to a touristic trip to Cuba
- 2016: Individuals are allowed to travel to Cuba for people-to-people educational trips. However they need to show an educational itinerary by departure and they need to keep records of these activities for 5 years.
Afterwards we heard that in practice they apply this rule less stringent to non US citizens departing from a US airport, but we wouldn't have taken that risk with the kids anyways.
- 2017: In November 2017 President Trump rolled back these eased rules after mysterious attacks on American diplomats in the American embassy in Havana. People-to-people trips are only allowed though certified tour operators again 😕
So 3 weeks Florida it would be! 😎
Week 1
After a 6,5 hrs flight we arrived late in the evening @ Miami International airport and immediately picked up our rental car.
For that first night we booked a hotel @ the airport.
The next morning we headed to Shark Valley where we explored the Everglades through a 15 miles bike trail ... in the rain ... of course! As I mentioned in previous posts, when we go on a holiday, there is 1 guarantee wherever we go: bad weather! 😣
The advantage was, that we had the trail for ourselves! Just the 4 of us, ...
... and the wildlife!
Soaking wet, but thrilled by what we saw, we continued to our next hotel, the 'Ivey House' in Everglades city. It's a simple hotel, with clean rooms, located around the swimming pool (although not quite like Melrose Place 😏).
The swimming pool part is pretty important for our boys, especially the youngest ... once he's in, it's hard to get him out 😆.
As it was the beginning of June, the high season had apparently not yet started, because the choice of restaurants was limited. We ended up at 'Camellia Street Grill', and although I don't remember anymore what we ate (it's been more then a year ago!), I do remember that we enjoyed it. It's at the water and has a nice patio (where we didn't sit as it was rainy, remember?) and has an overall great atmosphere!
The next day we went for an airboat tour through the swamps. It's really a must-do! Of course it's a perfect way to explore these swamps, but it's also just so much fun to feel the wind in your face as you skim the surface of the water, zipping through the twisting mangrove tunnels!
Afterwards we had lunch @ 'City Seafood', which has a relaxed atmosphere and a nice terrace looking over the mangroves, but the food is not that great ... oh well, you can't have it all I guess. 😏
Next stop was Bonita Springs. We took the scenic route up there, to see some more alligators up close and personal in the wild, and it did not disappoint!
As an extra, we were treated with some other, smaller, and although leg-less, almost as scary reptiles:
In Bonita Springs, we stayed in a very nice hotel, 'Trianon Bonita Bay'. And as it rained almost constantly throughout our 2 night stay there, we were really happy that we had at least a comfortable haven to return to and relax.
Our boys were the only ones enjoying the pool and jacuzzi ... in the rain ... although they did get some company that was coming a bit too close for them to stay comfortable 😅
In between the rain, we did enjoy some of its beaches and sea.
From there, we headed to an AirBnB in St Petersburg, but not before we had an awesome breakfast in 'Heavenly Biscuit' in Fort Myers. Luckily it had a charming patio, because it was pouring rain!
It was our first experience with the AirBnB formula, and it's definitely not our last! It's way more personal than a hotel and gives you way more privacy and more space. Very often (which was the case here) you have a kitchen where you can prepare a homemade meal which is a very pleasant change after a few days of restaurant food.
When we got to St Petersburg, or St Pete as they say here, we finally got our first sun!
We were getting on familiar ground here for me, because I used to live 30 minutes from there.
We visited 'Fort De Soto Park' which offers a historic fort, nature trails, kayak and fishing opportunities and some of the best beaches in the area!
It's also where we saw our first dolphin of that vacation, right under the pier.
St Pete beach is also pretty nice. Not as busy as the popular Clearwater beach (our next destination), which is probably the main reason why we liked it more.
We also did a 'Dolphin Racer Speed boat' tour in St Petersburg. The weather wasn't ideal 🙄; for some time it wasn't even sure that the boat would go out. But after more than an hour of delay, they decided to give it a try. And boy were we happy they did!
What a sensation to see the dolphins playing in the waves of the speed boat and see them so close!
And when the dolphins weren't there to entertain us, there were the pelicans to admire!
Week 2
And then it was time to visit the place where I I lived for a year and where I had my first work experience as an engineer ... Clearwater.
We stayed in a very charming motel on Clearwater beach, just a cross the street from the beach (but I guess everything at Clearwater beach is close to the beach 😏). We even had our own little pier to sit back and relax some more.
We met up with Bill and his family while we were there. He was a close friend of mine when I lived there, and for more than 20 yers we kept in contact. It was very special to meet them together with my own family this time.
It was so special, that I even forgot to take pictures together with them!
It was Willem's 13th birthday that night, which we celebrated by ending the evening in a creamery ... luckily we did take a picture of that.😊
As we didn't really like the big crowd at Clearwater beach, we went to 'Honeymoon Island', which I remembered to have pretty secluded beaches. In 20 years, a lot of things changed however. We had to walk quite a bit on it's beaches to find some seclusion, but (even with the clouded day) it was absolutely enjoyable. Geert even got to hold a little black tip shark that a fisher caught from the shore.
But although it's really busy at Clearwater beach, we did have some fun times here too! Soft white sand, calm blue water and even some (not enough though!) restaurants and bars on the beach are just a formula you can not 'not' enjoy.
One restaurant I really would like to recommend here, is 'The Bait House Tackle & Tavern'. It just has this local feel and flare, where great food is served on a great patio at the water, and all that for a great price!
And we did of course go back to the place where I lived for a year, more than 20 years ago. Although I already 'left' home and lived in a dorm in Brussels during the week for 2 years before moving to Florida, this really felt like my first real step into independence ... I mean, I wouldn't be able to go home during the weekend so my mom could do my laundry and get pampered a bit before going back to my dorm. Here, I wasn't studying anymore, I was working and on top of that, I had no family or friends to depend on during this first big step into adulthood. A very memorable time, I can tell you that! So returning here after such a long time, was really very special.
In front of my apartment
In front of the building where I used to work
From here, we headed to the East coast of Florida with a 1 night stop in Ocala, central Florida, where we went tubing on the Rainbow river, and visited the 'Rainbow Springs' which feeds the river ... one of the natural freshwater springs Florida is known for.
It was a rainy, cloudy day, but we decided to go for it anyway. We were the only ones on the river 😑.
It's really a fun and relaxing afternoon to float down a crystal clear river on a tube and just watch the fish underneath you and the occasional alligator on the side of the river 😳.
We only had 2 pairs of goggles (as Geert threw the 3d one in the river, thinking somebody would catch it 🙄), but the river is so clear that we hardly missed it.
It's really a fun and relaxing afternoon to float down a crystal clear river on a tube and just watch the fish underneath you and the occasional alligator on the side of the river 😳.
We only had 2 pairs of goggles (as Geert threw the 3d one in the river, thinking somebody would catch it 🙄), but the river is so clear that we hardly missed it.
Rainbow Springs is a Statepark, really close to where we went tubing, where we went swimming in the springs and walked one of their nature trails in its luscious landscape.
View on the springs
The spring is so clear, that you would almost think you're in a swimming pool!
We were not really impressed by the nature trail, as it's just a paved 'walking' trail, and we prefer some real hiking. But the views are pretty, and we did get to see a black racer snake!
Our hotel was located not too far from the historic center, so we walked via a charming little cemetry to the Castillo the San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort of continental US. It was built to protect the Spanish empire.
As we only had 1 day to spend at St Augustine, and as we've seen plenty of older and more impressive fortresses in Europe, we just walked around it and didn't go inside.
at the cemetery
around Castillo de San Marcos
Do you see the promising clouds on the pictures above? Well, they lived up to their promise ... we got completely rained out. Hence no pictures of the old town as I didn't want top ruin my camera.
For the last day of our second week, we headed South along the East coast to our hotel in Titusville, 30 minutes away from our next stop ... Cape Canaveral, the home of the Kennedy Space Center, NASA's primary launch center of human spaceflights.
You just have to get over the Disney character they've tried to give it (I guess to make it more attractive for everybody??🙄), but it's definitely a must do! We were not that lucky to see a rocket launch (I did see one when I was there more than 20 years ago), but you do get to see the Atlantis space shuttle (1 of the 5 space shuttles ever built to explore space) up close, and an actual Apollo spacecraft (spacecrafts built to explore the Moon), and so much more.
Atlantis space shuttle
an actual Apollo spacecraft that landed on the moon, launched by a Saturn V rocket
the monstrous 363ft long Saturn V rocket
Week 3
From Titusville we drove to Jupiter, the northernmost town of Palm Beach county, where we stayed in a very charming hotel, the Jupiter Waterfront Inn. We had a room with a nice patio with view on the swimming pool and the sea. There was no beach at the hotel, but it did have a charming pier.
view from our patio
the pier at the hotel
It was our base to visit the Blowing Rocks beach, which gets its name from what the rocks and waves do during high tide ... water spurts out of holes in the limestone rocks, at times spouting 50 feet into the air. We were not that lucky to witness this, as these conditions are most common in winter.
But it's a really nice beach where you can see plenty of turtle nests, and when you're lucky you could even see them hatch.
You reach the beach after winding through a tunnel of Sea Grape trees.
tunnel of Sea Grape trees
the beach
The next day we continued down south, to Homestead, 50 km southwest from Miami. We stayed 2 nights in an 1969 vintage Airstream which was located in the garden of the owners, and it was just a little paradise!
We had our own covered terrace, with a shower outside.
The owners had a big pool we could use, ánd on top of that we could join them at their family dinner & breakfast table (located next to the pool) which we gladly accepted. We were positively surprised as everything was fresh and home made ... by an ex-chef cook! Lucky us! Best experience of the whole 3 weeks!
Each night we got company from a 1-eyed cat, who seemed to be able to open the door! 😆
our little paradise
our furry 1 eyed company
It's a perfect place to go explore the Everglades, but as we already did that, we made a day trip to Key Largo to go snorkeling @ John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Key Largo is part of the Keys, an archipel of around 1700 little islands. All inhabited islands are connected with each other and the main land via the Overseas Highway.
(picture I found on line ... not mine!)
The snorkelling trip was awesome! You go off-shore with a boat to the coral reefs, and the water is just so blue, and warm, and clear, and full of beautiful fish!
waiting (impatiently) for the boat
After our second night in this little quiet paradise, we drove to the touristic and busy Key West, the last island of the Keys and only 150 km away from Cuba.
We didn't really like Key West as we just don't like places that are overrun by tourists. We just walked around a bit, passed the house of known author Ernest Hemingway where today 40 to 50 cats call the grounds home! Half of these cats have 6 toes! In the 1930s Hemingway received such a cat from a sea captain (6 toed cats were favoured by sailors back then as the extra toe provided better balance on rough seas) and apparently it is a dominant gene 😏
I did visit this place 20 years ago, but we didn't feel like standing in line to get in and pay $60 to visit it again!
Same story for the most southern point! Not that you have to pay to see it, but there was a line of about 30 people just to take a picture of it! 🙄 Just to see (and have a picture next to) this:
as we didn't wit in line, this is not a picture I took
We did enjoy the restaurants here! Our first evening we enjoyed a nice pizza with the 4 of us on the lovely terrace of Onlywood Pizzeria Trattoria @ Duval street. And our last evening we had tapas at Santiago's Bodega, with just the 2 of us, and we loved it!
@ the pizzeria
After 2 nights here, it was time to head back to were we started ... Miami. On our way there, we had 1 more stop at one of the Keys though, Marathon. We stayed in 'Captain Pips Marina & Hideaway', which we really enjoyed as it had a patio with a nice view and a little kitchen, so we were able to make our own breakfast.
view from our patio
Close to Marathon we visited the 'Bahia Honda State Park', looking for a beautiful beach to relax. As the Keys are all islands, surrounded by clear water, you would expect to find the most pristine beaches here ... but nothing could be further from the truth! At this State park is also completely overrun by tourists, but when you walk far enough on their beaches, you can still find some beautiful secluded parts.
We also did a fishing trip in Marathon.Definitely a recommendation! We were all able to catch some fish, and afterwards they cleaned our fish and we went to a little restaurant next to the marina where they made an appetiser with our catch!
best appetiser ever!
When we arrived in Miami, we didn't take the time to visit it, so we planned 2 nights there before returning home.
We didn't stay at South Beach for budgetary reasons 😏, but our hotel was close enough that we could visit everything by bike.
We only had 1 day to explore Miami as we arrived in the evening.
And luckily, except for the first night where we were rained out (again),...
... we had gorgeous weather! 😅
1 Day is definitely not enough to do everything we wanted to do in Miami, but you can't have it all, right?
Our last evening we had dinner @ our hotel (something we normally never do), but they had this lovely terrace at the water which was just too hard to resist.
@ the terrace of our hotel
And we finished our 3 week stay in the Sunshine State (although we might disagree with this nickname 😏) with a pretty sunset from that terrace:
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