Okay, we are back! So, last Tuesday was the last time that we actually posted. As soon as we were done playing on the computer and were ready to go out and enjoy the sun - it started raining! We went and grabbed some lunch at DJ's diner (really cool looking place - check out the pictures on our flickr site). The food was great and the place was fun. This was also the first place that we had a taste of Key Lime Pie - but it was in the form of a shake! It was pretty good and we are pretty sure they just put a whole piece of pie in a blender, there were even chunks of graham cracker crust in the shake.
After that the rain had really picked up so we drove over to Walgreen's for a few essentials (snacks for the room, etc.) That's right, we are in the Florida Keys and we went to Walgreen's - that's what happens when you marry Tom. :) When we got there we were surprised to find that they had a liquor store attached! We were pretty happy about this and took the opportunity to stock up a bit.
We went back to the room and rested for a bit - you know, because we had had such a busy day so far. Then, we headed over to happy hour at Coconuts bar (just across the docks/channel from our hotel) and enjoyed their Taco Tuesday special - a free taco with each drink purchased! We went up to the bar and bought our first drinks and got two tickets that we took up to the taco counter for our first round. We found a table, enjoyed our tacos and drinks, and went up for a second round. Tom bought the drinks, got the the taco tickets, and headed for the taco counter, only to find out that happy hour was ending and we were too late because they had already cleaned up the taco stuff. Why would they give out the tickets if there were no more tacos? Also, how did the people at the table next to us magically get tacos delivered to their table after we had been told no? Stupid Taco Tuesday...
We headed back to the room and watched some TV and eventually decided to check out the hot tub. The hot tub ended up being kind of gross...a lot of dead bugs and leaves and hair....gross. We stuck our toes in for a bit and then headed in for bed.
All in all a very laid back, relaxing first day of the honeymoon. Exactly what we needed after a busy, whirlwind weekend.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Airport, the wrong hotel and Simon the stray cat #2
Okay, continuation of the last post...
We left the Marriott and drove down to the Ramada. It was not quite as pretty as the Marriott, but the view from our room is awesome. (these were taken this morning)
We checked in, settled in, rested for a bit and then headed out for a late dinner at Bogie's cafe, which is connected to the holiday in next door. We sat outside near the pool and ate some sea food. We tried to be a bit adventurous.
We ate conch fritters (the snails inside of conch shells) as an appetizer. Erin got the Mahi Mahi with an awesome salsa and Tom got the fresh "Ketch" sandwich (which also had Mahi Mahi). The food tasted amazing!
We also met Simon the stray cat (named by Tom) who wandered around the restaurant patio becoming friendly with whatever table had the freshest fish. Tom wrote a song about him...you will have to ask him to sing it next time you see him.
After dinner (with a glass of wine each) and our long day of traveling, we headed back to our room and went to sleep...we were exhausted!
This morning we woke up (after sleeping in a bit) to discover scuba lessons going on in the hotel pool outside our window!
Okay, we know what you are thinking...get away from the computer and get out and enjoy the sun! And that is exactly what we are going to do now. We figured after a long, tiring couple of days, we needed to sleep in and be lazy this morning. Don't expect all our posts to be quite this long! Hope you are all able to keep up with our trip and enjoy our stories and pictures. We are already having a great time!
~Tom and Erin
We left the Marriott and drove down to the Ramada. It was not quite as pretty as the Marriott, but the view from our room is awesome. (these were taken this morning)
We checked in, settled in, rested for a bit and then headed out for a late dinner at Bogie's cafe, which is connected to the holiday in next door. We sat outside near the pool and ate some sea food. We tried to be a bit adventurous.
We ate conch fritters (the snails inside of conch shells) as an appetizer. Erin got the Mahi Mahi with an awesome salsa and Tom got the fresh "Ketch" sandwich (which also had Mahi Mahi). The food tasted amazing!
We also met Simon the stray cat (named by Tom) who wandered around the restaurant patio becoming friendly with whatever table had the freshest fish. Tom wrote a song about him...you will have to ask him to sing it next time you see him.
After dinner (with a glass of wine each) and our long day of traveling, we headed back to our room and went to sleep...we were exhausted!
This morning we woke up (after sleeping in a bit) to discover scuba lessons going on in the hotel pool outside our window!
Okay, we know what you are thinking...get away from the computer and get out and enjoy the sun! And that is exactly what we are going to do now. We figured after a long, tiring couple of days, we needed to sleep in and be lazy this morning. Don't expect all our posts to be quite this long! Hope you are all able to keep up with our trip and enjoy our stories and pictures. We are already having a great time!
~Tom and Erin
The Airport, the wrong hotel and Simon the stray cat
Hey everyone! Here is our first real update.
The fun and goofiness started right away when we had breakfast at the airport.
Tom was a bit selfish with the caffeine at first, but he ended up sharing later.
Erin wasn't too crazy about her "bacon ranch" coffee.
Erin just has to share a photo of her new Florida purse...she may even like it better than the first one that got soaked at the rehearsal dinner! (Thanks for trying, Manda!)
The first day was a lot of traveling. We were completely wiped out by the end of it. The flight went pretty well with only a little turbulence. We were pretty hungry by the end of it, though. They now charge $3 for snacks that used to be free, so we came prepared with leftover wedding trail mix and peanut butter cereal bars from the rehearsal dinner. Then they announced that there was a passenger with peanut allergies, so no one could open any peanut products on the plane...stupid allergies. Our snacks were not touched until we got into our rental car.
We got into Miami at about 3:00 pm Miami time (2:00 Minnesota time). We went to baggage claim and got our bags pretty quickly and then had to find our way to budget rental cars. We wandered out to the shuttle area and stood under a sign that seemed to indicate that it was the waiting area for rental car shuttles (the signs weren't extremely clear, but luckily we were in the right place). We stood there for at least 15 minutes watching shuttles go by for every other rental car company in the world except for budget (some multiple times). Finally, we saw one and flagged it down. The shuttle ride took about another 10 minutes or so (through a lot of one way roads and road construction) and then we got in the line for rentals, which went relatively quick. We were told to go to parking space #29 and that the keys were in the car, when we got there we were surprised to find a car that was a bit nicer than we were expecting:
A pretty, white, 2 door Mitsubishi Eclipse with a sunroof! This picture was taken at the Marriott in Key Largo, more on that story later....
Some fun features: the heated leather seats (which come in handy when Tom cranks the AC and Erin is freezing) and the stick shift that looks like a baseball (with a bit of Tom's hairy leg in the background).
So we got in the car at about 4:00 pm, started driving, and realized we had no map and no idea where we were going. We knew we needed to find US 1 and head south, but that's about it. So we drove around until we found a major road that headed south (luckily there was a compass in the car) so at least we knew we were going the right direction. Finally, after about 30 minutes, we happened upon US 1 and got on it and headed south, just in time for rush hour! It took us another hour and a half to get out of Miami and onto the bridges that head to the Keys.
What a wonderful sight...
Yeah, that's right, its 89 degrees, and we are heading South!
Finally, the ocean!!!
Another 25 minutes or so on the road and we were in Key Largo. We drove up to the Marriott (based on Tom's memory, because we didn't have any maps or information printed out). We parked at the pretty hotel, walked into the lobby and tried to check in...but they had no record of our reservation. We sat down at the computer in the lobby and Tom logged into his e-mail, only to discover we were staying at the RAMADA, not the Marriott....whoops. Where he came up with Marriott, we will never know...we aren't staying at a Marriott for any part of our trip. Oh well! Here are some pictures of the hotel that never was...
Okay, we have a few more quick stories that we want to post about, but we are going to start a new post, because it is getting annoying to drag the pictures to the bottom of the post (if anyone knows a better way of doing this, please let us know!).
~Tom and Erin
The fun and goofiness started right away when we had breakfast at the airport.
Tom was a bit selfish with the caffeine at first, but he ended up sharing later.
Erin wasn't too crazy about her "bacon ranch" coffee.
Erin just has to share a photo of her new Florida purse...she may even like it better than the first one that got soaked at the rehearsal dinner! (Thanks for trying, Manda!)
The first day was a lot of traveling. We were completely wiped out by the end of it. The flight went pretty well with only a little turbulence. We were pretty hungry by the end of it, though. They now charge $3 for snacks that used to be free, so we came prepared with leftover wedding trail mix and peanut butter cereal bars from the rehearsal dinner. Then they announced that there was a passenger with peanut allergies, so no one could open any peanut products on the plane...stupid allergies. Our snacks were not touched until we got into our rental car.
We got into Miami at about 3:00 pm Miami time (2:00 Minnesota time). We went to baggage claim and got our bags pretty quickly and then had to find our way to budget rental cars. We wandered out to the shuttle area and stood under a sign that seemed to indicate that it was the waiting area for rental car shuttles (the signs weren't extremely clear, but luckily we were in the right place). We stood there for at least 15 minutes watching shuttles go by for every other rental car company in the world except for budget (some multiple times). Finally, we saw one and flagged it down. The shuttle ride took about another 10 minutes or so (through a lot of one way roads and road construction) and then we got in the line for rentals, which went relatively quick. We were told to go to parking space #29 and that the keys were in the car, when we got there we were surprised to find a car that was a bit nicer than we were expecting:
A pretty, white, 2 door Mitsubishi Eclipse with a sunroof! This picture was taken at the Marriott in Key Largo, more on that story later....
Some fun features: the heated leather seats (which come in handy when Tom cranks the AC and Erin is freezing) and the stick shift that looks like a baseball (with a bit of Tom's hairy leg in the background).
So we got in the car at about 4:00 pm, started driving, and realized we had no map and no idea where we were going. We knew we needed to find US 1 and head south, but that's about it. So we drove around until we found a major road that headed south (luckily there was a compass in the car) so at least we knew we were going the right direction. Finally, after about 30 minutes, we happened upon US 1 and got on it and headed south, just in time for rush hour! It took us another hour and a half to get out of Miami and onto the bridges that head to the Keys.
What a wonderful sight...
Yeah, that's right, its 89 degrees, and we are heading South!
Finally, the ocean!!!
Another 25 minutes or so on the road and we were in Key Largo. We drove up to the Marriott (based on Tom's memory, because we didn't have any maps or information printed out). We parked at the pretty hotel, walked into the lobby and tried to check in...but they had no record of our reservation. We sat down at the computer in the lobby and Tom logged into his e-mail, only to discover we were staying at the RAMADA, not the Marriott....whoops. Where he came up with Marriott, we will never know...we aren't staying at a Marriott for any part of our trip. Oh well! Here are some pictures of the hotel that never was...
Okay, we have a few more quick stories that we want to post about, but we are going to start a new post, because it is getting annoying to drag the pictures to the bottom of the post (if anyone knows a better way of doing this, please let us know!).
~Tom and Erin
Monday, July 14, 2008
We made it!
We are in the keys and we are going to start recording our memories on this blog. We are tired from traveling today and will come back later to post our update so far.
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