Florida 2010: Part 2 Island Queen
Happy Friday eve all! We spent day 2 touring Miami on the Island Queen (Star Island!) and shopping at Lincoln Road, South Beach and the Festival Flea Market.
Before I get started on my Part 2 recap, I have to say you all had me cracking up with your comments on this week’s Wordless Wednesday ~ The “Smart” Cop Car still has us laughing every time we see.
We woke up on Sunday (on West Coast time LOL) to the most beautiful sunset. We quickly threw on our shoes and ran down stairs to beach.
I think morning time is the ONLY time that nobody is on the beach. The Time Share was right on Pompano Beach….We spent each morning with a beach walk.
Amanda had told us about the Island Queen Cruise and we bought half price tickets on Groupon. We picked the Millionaire’s Row Cruise because well – it just sounds awesome!
The narrated tour is 90 minutes and you get to see the beautiful downtown Miami skyline, the Port of Miami, Fisher Island, Miami Beach and "Millionaire’s Row" – aka “Star Island”.
My BETTER half 
Plus me too!
I think I had a thing for taking pictures of boats because I think I took them of every type they had on the water.
Miami Sky Line
So, we took pictures of like every house we passed on Star Island and now have no clue whose house it was We can remember some names like Will Smith, Gloria Estefan, Shaq’s Old House, P. Diddy, The Guy Who Invented Viagara…BIG House and Growing 
LOL
Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are just a few the pictures of the “Star’s” houses
This picture totally summarizes the weather we had while we were in Florida ~ It was totally HOT and HUMID, but, cloudy and sunny like every day. I LOVE the clouds!
After our cruise, we headed down to Lincoln Road (where South Beach is too) and I have to admit, I was pretty excited when I saw they had a Farmer’s Market!
The Farmer’s Markets in Florida are really different from the ones in California for sure. It was fun seeing the local “tropical” fruits.
These AVOCADOS are my favorite! We always buy at least one when we go to the Caribbean. California Haas Avocados are delicious, but, these are HUGE and a little nuttier:D
Amanda and her husband, David, met up with us again this trip. WE LOVE them – they are so nice and funny. They were our personal tour guides letting us know all the cool things to do while in Florida ~ Thanks, we totally had a blast!!! Amanda – you both need to work out in California next
I WISH I wore my pedometer on Sunday because we walked and walked for hours down Lincoln Road, South Beach and then at the Festival Flea Market before we plopped back down on the Pompano beach to recover.
We ended the day with a sunset that was almost as beautiful as the sunrise.
You can catch my Florida 2010 Part 1 Recap HERE. Stay tuned this weekend for parts 3,4, 5
Have a great Friday all and an even better 3-day weekend!
Wordless Wednesday: Bad Boys, Bad Boys…..
Whatcha’ gonna do?!?!
Florida 2010: Part 1 ~ Gator Park
Thanks for the welcome back everyone! We had a blast on your trip to Florida and on our Bahamas Cruise. Day 1 was spent napping, shopping and at the Beach, so we officially kicked off our trip with an AIRBOAT RIDE AT GATOR PARK!
We actually used my DROID YELP APP a lot for our trip to find out what people thought were the best places to eat, visit, things to do, grocery stores, etc. We also lived by our navigator because Florida Freeways are confusing.
The Peeps at YELP gave Gator Park the best reviews out of all the parks. The price is pretty reasonable as well ~ You get an AIRBOAT ride (where you the alligators come right up to your boat!), animal show and the chance to walk all over their park being tourists taking pictures for $22 (plus $3 off with the tourist book coupon).
GO BEFORE 10 am and there is a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free admission in one of the FREE tourist books you can grab anywhere:D
I think I need to “learn” to take less pictures or maybe not give The Husband the camera because we have over 1,000 pictures to sort through ~ oops.
We had an hour before the Airboat Tour so we spent a little bit of time in the gift shop.
Think these are real? Kinda creepy either way!
I tend to lean towards the “cuter” gators…..
I seriously wanted to bring this back to make my dad drive around with it on his dash board LOL…so funny!
The Husband has a “fear” of all reptiles/amphibians ~ he is actually kinda freaked out in this picture but I couldn’t resist
We met their “pet” rooster that likes to be pet like a cat or dog – lifting it’s tail and turning around to have you pet it again and again.
Random Peacocks where everywhere….
But, we realized they were just trying to keep us away from their babies – they were so cute!
The tour guide didn’t get why I took a picture of this tree, but, I think it’s just funky and fun.
The everglades go for miles and miles….The long grass is called Saw Grass ~ if you slide up on the grass it doesn’t cut you, but, if you slide your hand down, it cuts like a knife (or something like that).
Flowers and lots of BUGS!
This was the cool AIRBOAT we all hopped into for a spin. They give you ear plugs as well.
Our tour guide – he was very knowledgeable and pretty funny in a Laffy Taffy sort of way too.
This bird was our other “tour guide” ~ it stuck with us the entire ride flying back and forth but always landing right in front of us on the boat.
I don’t know how you all live in the HUMIDITY ~ it was SO HOT in Florida….here is our picture BEFORE our tour even started LOL.
We went on the very first tour because we read you may see more gators before the “airboat tours” scare them away. Our guide said it will still too early, but, we did see about 5 gators on our 35 minute boat ride.
They just swam down the river right by us…no big deal!
Miles and miles of grass….
With random birds flying around….
This fruit is some type of swamp fruit ~ Apple? (I forgot the name). You have to wait a month before it ripens and it’s supposed to taste like vanilla custard.
I can totally see how Melissa could spend hours out here when she lived in Florida. It was SO peaceful.
Our guide did “crank” up the AIRBOAT to go as fast as they go for awhile and makes sure you get a little “swamp” water mist on you….That was sorta fun going all these random directions. The funny thing about the everglades is that the water doesn’t smell since it is a constant flowing river….that’s what he says, but, I wasn’t really going to jump in to find out.
Especially when the gators swam right up to our boat!
Next up it was time for the animal show where our guide bought out a few “creatures” that roam the Everglades.
Tarantula ~ freaky!
Tortoise (land) and Turtle (water)
I think they look pretty annoyed he is holding them
Do you know the different between the male and female? The males shell is dented so he can go for a ride easier….Seems so wrong ~ HA!
Skunk!
Then, he brought out his “pet” alligator! I think he is smiling
Alligator wrestling isn’t what I thought…I had visions of them tossing and turning in the sand…..but really this is all it involves.
If you put your hand on an alligators head (because you are crazy like that)….
It calms them and puts them in a “sleep” trance.
This little guy ran right by us after the show ~ I think he might think he is an alligator too.
We all thought it was totally worth the $$ for everything you got. There are not many places you can go to ride in an airboat, watch alligators swim by, see tons of birds, saw grass and cool animals. The tour guides keep everything pretty entertaining and it takes about 1 1/2 – 2 hours to do everything so the rest of your day is free!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Wordless Wednesday as it includes another fun picture from our trip!
Night all!
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