Laura goes to the US

florida roadtrip - welcome to miami!

FLORIDA - HOME OF THE SUNSHINE

the day after the end of my internship (12/17) i got up early, packed my stuff and drove to the airport to enter a plane (that i almost missed :)) heading towards Daytona Beach.
FREE!! There, Benni and Flo picked me up, we somehow managed to fill up the white Focus with our luggage AND us and entered the highway on our first miles of the big trip on the road....

DAY 1
Daytona Beach is the beach where you are allowed to drive on with your car that we OF COURSE did. (Bosch doesn´t have to know ;)) However, that is the only attraction of Daytona Beach and since the sunshine was out of home we made our way along the coast down to Cocoa Beach where we stayed in a neat resort - and a two room suite after we had discovered that our cheap room was under construction... first 0815-night: Jakuzzi and swimming pool under the stars! (17th of DEC!) we also discovered Ron John´s Surf Shop....


Benni & the new stylish waveboard


DAY 2
Breakfast on the trunk deck ("oh no, the food is protected by the plastic foil when I cut it" ...) and then Kennedy Space Center. On the way we saw an alligator just besides the road! YES, a REAL one!! Pure wildlife..!! Flo and me ran out of the car to take some pictures. that, the state troopers didn´t like... two police cars and a big announcement through the speakers: "GO BACK TO YOUR CAR!!!" damn, big trooper is watching you everywhere! In a national wildlife park just south of the KSC we met some flamingoes and some more birds. but it got dark pretty soon (the usual race against the darkness) and we went on to Fort Pierce. A small (not even) town we just chose as destination because it seemed to be a convenient starting point for the next day. there´s nothing going on and we had to make several lovable u-turns to find our resort. 0815-night number 2: jakuzzi and swimming pool (this time including beer provided by the hotel manager) under the night sky... (19th of DECEMBER!)

breakfast on the trunk deck

the alligator

Benni, me & Flo, the fancy ones, at Kennedy Space Center...


...and "normal" in the wildlife park








DAY 3
next destination: Lake Okeechobee. (by rain.) the way was cool (a little jungle feeling), the lake was disappointing. West Palm Beach was the place to have lunch(sushi und tuna at the ocean). there are some quite nice houses over there - oceanview on both sides. who´s going to buy one??:) Because we thought there was still room for more tighteness in our white Focus (to go straight, just turn the wheel... but that won´t prevent it from shaking) we went shopping in a huge outlet near Fort Lauderdale after. It is said that FL is one of THE spring break locations. Consequently we thought there might be some party going on. that´s what we thought... empty streets everywhere. finally, we found a dance club and went in. well, it´s true that women danced there but i was the only female in the whole thing that had clothes on... so no party in FL ;) (alternatively, we could have gotten tatoos in one of the 30 tatoo shops next to our -actually quite good- hotel)


DAY 4
we passed miami to hit our next destination: the Everglades. Unfortunately, we didn´t have time to stay there longer - it would have been big fun to camp and to make a larger hiking tour than the short walks we did!! The night we stayed in Key Largo, right on one of the first keys. Diner was delicious fresh dolphin fish. yummy!! since it was really expensive we shared one dish. Later on, we went to Arby´s to get some burgers against the hunger ;D 0815-night no3: Jakuzzi and swimming pool (with waterfall) surrounded by palm trees...
Everglades I

Everglades II





DAY 5
the morning: a canoo trip through the mangroves of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. the guys had to paddle and i was the guide ;) that´s why we got stuck in a dead end water channel... no, i have to admit i did it on purpose *g* it was really hard getting out of it again but the most fun :) the goal of the day was to watch the sunset in Key West. On the way (beautiful clear water!!!!) we took the oscar award winning movie "the coconut massacre" and relaxed a bit on the beach. I´m not sure if wwe actually arrived in Key West on time because it was a bit cloudy, but as the NASA slogan goes: Failure is not an option! So we voted for mission accomplished. :) ...and admired the southern most christmas tree... at night we reached our last location for this trip: south beach, miami. Welcome to Miami!
the hotel was pure luxury! however, what sucked about it was that they charge you for everything. As the receptionist said, too: welcome to Miami..!:)
stucked between the mangroves...;)

on the keys

the Southern most Christmas tree with fish decoration















DAY 6
Benni stole the car to drive back to Charleston, South Carolina. And Flo and me took the bus to be set off somewhere anywhere. we made our way to little havanna worriing about the soon coming darkness and the not available buses... so kept on walking absorbing the city. later, we counted the kms. the estimation is about 20km for that day. at night we went out to a bar in South Beach with live Latin American music. Crazy, crazy people down there! It´s glamour, craziness, and somehow tolerance and freedom. but at some stage it seemed to be rather the outer appearance than to be real deep. at least that was my impression. nevertheless, ´south beach is the mekka for going out. and the clubs and bars know it... high dress-code and upper level cover charges.



DAY 7
the day of South Beach. and the last one of this trip, too :(

South Beach I


South Beach II


















DAY 8
flying back into the cold...

posted by Laura @ 7:35 PM