Deerfield Beach

We left Miami Beach to meet up with a childhood friend of George's, Steve Linebaugh, and his fiance Camilla (also an old time Central York friend) and their son Lukas near Boca Raton.  We spent the day at Deerfield Beach before meeting up with Stephen and his family for ice cream at Kilwins.  Of all the beaches we have visited thus far, Deerfield Beach was definitely my favorite.  The water was spectacular!

We had a great time with Steve and Camilla and it was great to be able to visit with them as part of our journey.  Thanks for the ice cream Steve!  Hope to see you again soon!

The water was the most clear at Deerfield Beach out of any beach we've been at during our travels.

Stephen and his family took a much-coveted tour of our van.

Camilla, are you certain you want to admit to knowing me in such a public forum?

South Beach and Virginia Key

We left Bahia Honda in the Keys and Sunday afternoon drove through South Beach, Miami Beach.  We saw a lot of interesting people, as well as the famous Art Deco district of Miami Beach.  One of the highlights was seeing the Carlyle Hotel, the site of the "chainsaw" scene from Oliver Stone's 1983 film "Scarface," which is centered around Miami.  We didn't see Tony Montana, however.

Traffic was heavy in SoBe and parking was scarce and expensive, so we headed to Virginia Key Beach on Key Biscayne, just south of Miami.  The beach was nice, although it was a little crowded.  We spent a couple hours in the evening there and had dinner parked by the beach.

When we were heading back to the mainland this was the view of Miami from the bridge.

Bahia Honda State Park

I found out later that Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys, approx 35 miles northeast of Key West, is where my parents used to spend weeks on end when they were first married...before my sister and I were born.  

My dad has fond memories of fishing off of this bridge (Old US 1 bridge, closed in 1972, built atop the railroad bridge) which is now dilapidated and closed to traffic.  He remembers catching an enormous red snapper from this spot.  Bahia Honda has several beaches, 3 campground areas, a marina, a nature center, and other park concessions.

Key West became a destination only after the construction of Henry Flagler's Key West Extension ("Overseas Railroad") of the Florida East Coast Railway.  It was not until this trip to Florida and studying a bit of it's history that I learned what a fundamental role Henry Flagler played in the development of the entirety of Florida and it's tourism we know today, by running a railroad down the entire east coast of Florida ultimately all the way to Key West.  Everyone knows the name Rockefeller associated with Standard Oil, but Henry Flagler was the initial financier of the enterprise before Rockefeller had any money, and is largely credited as the brains behind the success.  By the early 1900's he had turned his interests to real estate and development in the still very remote and rural Florida.  Bahia Honda Key is unique in that it is linked on both ends by bridges built exclusively for the overseas railway, including the famous Seven Mile Bridge, which was a remarkable engineering feat for it's time. The original railroad bridge below ultimately had the old Route US 1 constructed atop the railroad deck; this is a main historical attraction at Bahia Honda State Park.

You can walk up a restored section of the old bridge and view the rest of the old one, however fishing is not allowed off of the bridge.

George caught a Beechcraft V35 Bonanza flying southwest just offshore, most likely headed to the Key West for the weekend.

After walking around the park a bit and visiting both the Gulf side and the Atlantic side, we decided to spend the day on the Atlantic side.  The Gulf side was very crowded and the breeze was better on the Atlantic side that day.  Bahia Honda has repeatedly been voted the best beach in the entire Florida Keys, easily beating out Key West beaches, which are surprisingly not that wonderful.

We went for a walk along the beach and George found this coconut.

I retrieved our ax and worked on cracking that coconut.

It took a little work but I finally got it.

We left Bahia Honda and headed north, bound for South Beach!

Key West

We left Key Largo and continued south on Route 1.  That evening we arrived in Key West.

The next day we visited some of the sites including the Southernmost Point and the Hemingway House.

This was the lighthouse across the street from the Hemingway House.  His friends used to joke that he used the lighthouse as a beacon to find his way home after leaving Sloppy Joe's each night.

Below is Ernest Hemingway's Key West home from the 1930's.

We saw some of the famous six-toed Hemingway cats.

The $20k swimming pool Pauline had installed while Hemingway was away on "business"

The carriage house where Hemingway worked.  This is where he wrote 70% of his life's work on the original typewriter pictured below.

We left Hemingway's and headed down Duval Street for some Key Lime Pie.

After our pie we headed for the Key West Bight and the nearby cruise ship port.

Then we walked through the city and took in the sights.

On our way to Smathers Beach we saw another Intervec Falcon motorhome with the same color scheme as ours!

George rode out to the airport one evening to watch some of the planes taking off and coming in.  He came across a small dilapidated  Cubana Airlines plane with tail number CU-T1294; recall US does not have diplomatic ties with Cuba and there shouldn't be a Cuban plane on US soil. After a little research he realized that this plane was hijacked and landed at Key West in 2003.  Below is a file photo of the plane and you can read more about the plane's story here.

We spent some time at the beach then headed north to Bahia Honda State Park.