After Savannah, we settled on Myrtle Beach. When we arrived there was not much going on but we started walking to the boardwalk. It was a cool day but still nice. It seems that we arrived 2 weeks too soon as their kingdom adventure park was opening for Tennessee spring break April 8th.
Everything seemed like a typical beach town. Lots of corporate restaurants but still there mom and pop places out there. Thankfully. At the boardwalk, Michael convinced me to go through a haunted building. I did okay until the very end and ended up screaming twice at the end of it. Overall fun though. Then as we headed back to the hotel, we stopped off at a Filipino restaurant. Great food. Loved the lumpia’s. A great end to the day.
Upon arriving to Savannah, we checked into our retro hotel called the Thunderbird hotel. Then we proceeded to walk toward their downtown area.
We stopped at a local pub house that was from the prohibition era. They still kept the nostalgia of it with all the signs from the past.
Savannah is one of those towns that remains stuck in the past. The buildings are from the 1800’s. And as you walk the Riverwalk area, the streets and steps are cobblestone. You are taken back in time for just a glimpse as the shops around are more corporate and new.
Came into Daytona Shores Beach to a cute 1 bedroom hotel room right on the ocean. So after checking in, we walked on the beach to finally get the sand in between our toes. The water felt nice but cool.
After walking around for a little bit, we went to get something to eat and relax for the evening.
The next morning we walked 3 miles to the boardwalk, which most everything was closed. Ate at the Ocean Deck, then walked the 3 miles back to our hotel on the sand, letting the ocean hit our feet.
Once we freshened up, then walked 3 miles the other way to Crabby Joe’s, which is a restaurant out on a pier. Had some shrimp and started our 3 mile trek back to the hotel.
This was the most we have ever walked. 12 miles total. We were alittle tired but felt good overall.
Traveling from Key Largo to Orlando, we went through a severe thunderstorm where sheets of rain were coming down and there was a tornado warning. Speaking with Michael, we went through a tornado. Speak with Renee and we just went through a severe thunderstorm. Either way, it was intense as people pulled over underneath the overpass as if there was a tornado near by. We kept going through it to get out of the area.
We made it to Orlando, checked in and then walked over to Universal Studio City Walk as we were only about 1 mile from it. We walked around to check out what was there and find out from the concierge had any deals for us for Universal Studios. He didn’t so we decided to get the tickets from our hotel.
After walking around we worked up an appetite and headed back to the hotels restaurant which was an Indian/Chinese/Thai restaurant. It got good reviews, so we were looking forward to it. So glad we as it was great.
Then to relax we hopped in the hot tub and met a few great people.
The next morning we walked to the Universal Studio and started our roller coaster adventure. There was only one true roller coaster, the rest was simulated roller coasters. Overall, it was good but just expected more actual roller coasters.
After riding all the rides we ended up going back to the Indian restaurant to try something else.
Traveling down to Key Largo from Hollywood, FL proved to be a little difficult as their was one spot that 5 different highways all merged. But we managed to get through it.
We got down to Key Largo and started planning out our next day.
We stayed here 2 nights. The first night we walked to a restaurant that overlooked the water. Beautiful views.
The first morning in Key Largo, we went parasailing at Key Largo Parasailing.
It was awesome!! We did 6 min in the air, taking off from the boat and landing back on the boat. Going up 400 feet in the air. Getting to see alot of cool aerial views. The take off and landing were easy. The gentlemen who were working the boat were really nice. Would definitely do it again.
After that we walked to the state park which was about 3 miles from the hotel. We made it to a beach and I ended up going in the water. It was quite chilly but it was a hot day. While in the water there was a white fish that hung out about 2 ft from where I was. Thought it was dead because it was so still, so I flicked a little water it’s way and it moved. After that we walked around alittle bit but ended up walking back to the hotel to relax and do laundry.
We came into Tampa about 5pm and checked into our lovely hotel that was overlooking the ocean’s bay. We then walked to Bahama Breeze to get something to eat. Even though it was crazy, we checked in, told it would be about 45 min to an hour. So we went to have a drink at the bar and Michael went with his intuition to buy the gentleman next to us his drink, who happened to be Michael as well. Kid you not, as soon as he paid for it, bartender had money in hand, our hand held beeper went off that our table was ready and it literally was only 5 minutes since arriving. And we received a table overlooking the bay! Talk about the universe helping us out. Amazing!
We actually really liked Tampa. It seemed clean but this is a town we would have to come back to spend some time to really get a true feel for it.
Traveling from Alabama to the Pensacola of Florida had a lot of small beach towns as we took the most coastal route.
We traveled through Flora-Bama, which is the state line of the two states. Then we stopped at a BBQ joint in Gulf Breeze to share a rib plate. The ribs fell right off the bone with ease. They were delicious! And it was right on the water, so it was beautiful to sit there as well.
Then we passed through beautiful Destin FL, tried a local brewery, then ended up in Panama City, FL. I tried to see a cousin, but I did tell her last minute and she was swamped with appointments. So maybe next time. All in all the trip was beautiful but felt more like we were just traveling through and not enjoying the towns.
On our way to Gulf Shores, AL we came across another NASA customer center in Mississppi and we decided just to see what it was about. It seemed to be more about devices to put in the water to track tsnaumi’s and such. But it was a good break to stretch out legs. We even saw an alligator in the water, for free :).
Next we made it to Gulf Shores, AL to hang out for the night. This place was nice but more of a tourist town. We stopped in at a place called the hangout but the service wasn’t great and we waited for a table for quite a while. So we left and found a place called Ribs and Reds. We are glad we did as the service was top notch and we got served right away. Good ribs and crab cakes.
After eating we headed back to the hotel as there wasn’t much else to do.
The drive to New Orleans was pretty and very interesting. We learned that Lousiana has alot of rice crops! And the town of Crowley claims they are the rice capital of America.
Rice field
We got into New Orleanus late so we got rest and left in the morning to do a swamp tour. We chose the Jean Lafitte Swamp tour because it was only 15 min from us. The people here are friendly. And we did get to see quite a few gaters and a couple of snakes.
After our almost 2 hour tour, we headed back to get ready to go down to the French Quarter of New Orleans. We took an Uber around 3:30pm so we didn’t have to worry about driving and parking downtown. We started walking around and noticed it was dirty but lots of people where walking around. There wasn’t much music going on, unfortunately. We had expected to see people playing on the streets but that wasn’t the case this time around. We did find a place to get gator bites and frog legs. Both were great and didn’t last long because they were good. 🙂
We ended walking toward the Frenchman street which had some music but not what we expected. We walked around until about 10pm and decided to head back as it felt like the same as any other downtowns.
The next morning we went to a place called the New Orleans Food and Spirits because it was recommended by a local for etouffee. I got the crawfish stew which is the same thing as etouffee. Michael got the oyster po’boy. Both were good but nothing fantastic.
