Jon and I flew from Kansas City to Florida on Friday, July 1st. We flew into Fort Lauderdale but our resort was in Weston FL. Weston is about 15 miles from Fort Lauderdale.
Honeymoon!!!!!
Day 1 – Friday, July 1
We arrived at the airport late because of storms in the area. Finally, we made our way, with our entire luggage, to the Thrifty car rental area. Here at Thrifty we learned just how unthrifty it seems to rent a car. After insurance, fees because we are under 25, and taxes, we spent over $800.
It rained most of the night but we both agreed that it was a nice rain because it was so warm. However, because of the storms the pool was closed for the rest of the night. Our resort room is awesome absolutely wonderful. It has a working Jacuzzi, full kitchen with utensils, a deck, and a huge bed. Once we got settled, we were starving so we went to find some place to eat. We stopped at Substantial Subs and Salads. It was a little shady but delicious! We then went to the Publix grocery store to get some groceries for breakfast and lunch. When we reached the resort again, we watched some tennis, played archeology, and took a bath.
Day 2 – Saturday, July 2
This morning we went to front office to check email and get our Marlin baseball tickets for Monday. Then Jon shouldered on his tennis bag and we went to the tennis courts. It cost us $10 to be on the court for an hour. An hour was plenty long enough because it was super, super humid and we were tired. We had our first experience playing on clay courts. That was an experience. Jon loved sliding around, but Chelsea was just afraid of falling.
After a quick shower and lunch in our room, we headed to Pompano Beach. Our goal was to go snorkeling but because of the overcast sky and choppy water, we were told there was nothing to see and would be wasting our money. So instead, we decided to do something we never would have done, parasailing! The boat ride was choppy, but the experience was amazing. We were up 600 ft in the air and could see blue water all around us. The beach line was great also. Jon pointed out the current and reef below us. On our boat there were two girls and a young boy. One girl, named Tasha was a heavier set women but she was hilarious. To get into the boat we had to step from a banana boat over the edge and down a ladder, however, she took a more interesting way, she just slide on her belly down the steps into the boat. The parasailing was $140.
For an early dinner, we went to Umberto’s of Long Island Pizzeria. It was absolutely delicious. We got 8 pieces of pizza and we ate the whole thing! We watched some sand volleyball, and finished with some delicious chocolate cake.
On our way back to the resort, Jon commented how so many people ran red lights. About two minutes later, Jon himself ran a red light! Whoops! After relaxing for a while, we headed to the pool at the resort.
Day 3 – Sunday, July 3
Today was a little bit low key. We were both a little sun burnt from yesterday’s ocean outing and tennis and were actually pretty worn out. We found St. John’s Lutheran Church in Weston and went to their 8:30 service. They were a small congregation but very welcoming. The service was pretty traditional and they had a unique sanctuary. At the end of the service the pastor asked for any visitors to stand up and introduce ourselves. We definitely stood out as visitors! Jon introduced us and told them we were on our honeymoon. After the recessional, we all headed outside for coffee and cake. Everyone, it seemed wanted to talk to us and give us tips on where we should visit. Jon asked for a good seafood place and we received tons of enthusiasm and many choices.
We returned to the resort in time to watch most of the Wimbledon men’s championship. Chelsea fell asleep almost immediately. Jon watched the entire match and was very pleased with the new champion. After a little lunch, we decided we should go play tennis again. This time we chose to play on the good ol’ hard court. A man (Jim), who we had met yesterday on the courts, was playing tennis also with his wife and daughter. They asked if we would like to play a match. We had a great time, although we lost both sets pretty badly. It was also very hot and humid so we were both tired and sweaty when we were done.
For dinner, we went down to Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. Jon was craving sushi so Chelsea stepped out of her comfortable shell and went to Sushi Rock. We got fried rice, California rolls, and Dynamite rolls. It was one the most interesting places we have ever been too. Chelsea tried both kinds of rolls, decided she definitely did not like the Dynamite rolls but the California rolls were at least edible. Jon ate about 13 rolls before he decided he was to full to eat any more. Then we walked along Las Olas Blvd. It is such a cool street. It is old downtown so there are many restored buildings and some still falling apart. It has tons of fine art shops, jewelry stores, and about any kind of restaurant of any ethnicity you would desire. We decided as we walked that we should have walked before we ate but it was a great experience. We stopped at an ice cream store, which also had chocolate galore. It was like heaven!
Day 4 – Monday, July 4
Happy 4th of July!
In the late afternoon, we headed to Miami for the Marlins baseball game. It was great to see the barbeques going on in the parking area of the arena. We thought about asking if we could pay someone to make us a burger too. Jon enjoyed watching the batting practice. The Marlins played the Phillies and there might have been more Phillies fans in the crowd than Marlins fans. People told us we were crazy to go to the game because it would be so hot and the Marlins aren’t very good. Well, the Marlins aren’t the greatest, but the day was very pleasant and we were very comfortable the entire game. It wasn’t a very exciting game, the Phillies finally pulling off the win 1-0. The fireworks shows afterward however, were fantastic! The fireworks display was about ½ hour long with patriotic songs accompanying them. On our way back to the resort, we were privy to another fireworks display. This show was from all the fireworks on the beach and in parks and homes along the road. They were awesome! Poor Jon had to focus on driving while Chelsea just enjoyed the views.
Day 5 – Tuesday, July 5
Today we left the resort heading for Miami! We went to the Miami Convention center to pick up our Miami Go Cards! For most of the day, we traveled downtown Miami. It was great people watching and Jon got his fill of tall buildings. Our first stop was “History Miami”, a museum of history about the area of Miami. It was located right next to the library and Art Museum. Inside we saw a collection of Florida plates, a huge aviation collection, which was really cool for both of us to go through. Next was a section all about the Miami area throughout history. Chelsea found parts of this very interesting. We did see an old trolley, a sentry post of a fort, and a refugee boat. Next since it was right next-door we headed to the Art Museum. It had some very interesting pieces of art inside. We were surprised at the size of the building. There was a room where two videos were playing at the same time, one was Wall Street and the other was a rebel group from Nigeria getting ready for war. It made our head hurt. After the museums we decided to walk down the street to see what we could find to eat for lunch. We found a very cute Modern Greek place called Regos. We both got a gyro and thoroughly enjoyed them.
Next we were off to the Seaquarium. It was on another island so we had to cross this amazing bridge to get there. At the aquarium, Jon was in heaven. We got our pictures taken with parrots, and then went to watch an awesome show with a killer whale and 5 white finned dolphins. The killer whale is huge but so much fun to watch. Next we went to the reef and Jon identified many of the fish for Chelsea. We also saw the feeding of sharks, another dolphin show, manatees, alligators, crocodiles, turtles, and finally the Flipper dolphin show. Flipper, from the movie, lives at the Seaquarium and along with 6 other dolphins put on a show. It was a great ending to our time at the Seaquarium. We were ready to go because it was a very hot day and were ready to get some water. We had to stop by the gift shop though and that proved successful because we each got a shot glass for the collection with our names on it.
When we returned to the resort, we went in for a short dip in the pool before heading back to decide where to get some dinner.
Wednesday, July, 6
Today was Key West day! We were so excited! We got up earlier than either of us has gotten up in a long time! It was barely even light outside. The crazy thing, always for me, is that it was still warm and muggy outside. We made our way to Miami as it began to rain. Traffic was slow and we were not sure where we were going as we searched for Bayside Market and the 10 American flags. After parking in a garage, we raced to the bus stop as we saw a bus waiting there. It wasn’t ours so we waited in the rain for about 10 minutes for our bus to arrive. Once it did, we were on our way with many other people to visit the city of Key West. We stopped for a bathroom break in Key Largo, where it began to absolutely pour! We were very nervous that it would be raining in Key West and not be able to snorkel, but the bus driver continued to say that the weather would be fine. It was a beautiful drive. We drove on very narrow pieces of land where on one side we saw the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side we saw the Gulf of Mexico. Once we arrived at Key West we made our way to a small little hut that sold burgers and dogs and got our barbeque we missed out on, on the 4th of July. Then we ran to the Fury shop where we checked in for our day of snorkeling. It was still raining on and off but we were assured the snorkeling would still be great. They weren’t lying. Once on the boat, the sun came out and burnt us both. The snorkeling was amazing! The coral was bright and so close sometimes it was hard not to touch it. Jon was in heaven but did a good job waiting for Chelsea while she got accustomed to breathing with the snorkel. We saw a sea turtle, a nurse shark, barracuda, beautiful angelfish of many different kinds, parrotfish, and many, many more. We swam for over an hour and the time seemed to fly by. Once back on the boat, the crew served beer, margaritas, pop, and of course water to us all. It was such an enjoyable experience; neither of us wanted it to end. Once we were back on shore, we had about an hour and a half to explore. We went into many shops, bought a t-shirt for both of us. Had some pizza, a cookie, and some ice cream. Chelsea was surprised at the history they displayed and the decorative museums. We went into the Toy Store, which is a beautifully decorated store and a child’s dream. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as well! We found the game “Liars Dice”, which Dana and Danielle had taught us so we decided to buy it as well.
We loaded the bus again at 5:45 and continued back to Miami. It was so cool to see the city in the dark and enjoy the lights and buildings. The Bayside Market is a huge indoor and outdoor mall. We wandered through the mall briefly and then made our way to the car and back to the resort. We were dead tired but we had so much fun that we both chose this to be the best part of our trip so far.
Thursday, July 7
Today we arrived on the Jungle Queen tour boat using our Miami Go card. It was chilly and rainy but as we made our way down the Nu River we passed multi million dollar houses, cottages, and vacation homes. Our tour guide gave us lots of interesting information about the homes and the people who lived there. We also saw the millions of dollars in yachts, speedboats, sailboats, and other toys. It is interesting the think that when the Jungle Queen began giving tours, the river was covered with jungle rather than homes. When we arrived at the Jungle Island it was still steadily raining so we quickly made our way to look at the exotic birds, monkeys, and alligators they had there. We also watched some alligator wrestling. That man was crazy! He stopped his act early though because the rain made the alligator tense and unpredictable. While the rest of the kids (a summer camp was touring with us) got soaked, we decided to go back to the boat to wait. We were chilly so wrapped ourselves in our towels we had brought for snorkeling.
We ate lunch at Bahia Cabana. It was a hotel/bar/restaurant that the tour guide had recommended. It was very good! It was still raining though so we called the Sea Experience to make sure our next adventure was still on.
After we ate, we walked along the shore to Sea Experience where a boat waited to take us snorkeling. Jason, one of the two experts on board, told us not to be disappointed by the reefs we saw after experiencing the Key West reef the day before. He did say though that in the water, the rain wouldn’t matter. There were only 10 of us on the boat and only 8 snorkeled. The boat had a glass bottom so you could also be on board and see the reef and fish below. It did stop raining as we made our way to the reef although the sun still didn’t really come out. Jason was right, the reef wasn’t quite as spectacular but the water was warm and we did see many fish. There were two big schools that seemed to like the area we were just as much as we did. The captain, Doug who was in the water with us, fed them some crackers. He threw one right in front of Chelsea, who squealed a little as the swarmed her. She decided that she loved looking at them but not some much touching them! We also discovered sea lice. Chelsea was itching so we made our way back to the boat where we sprayed clean water and also some vinegar on our itchy skin. We were glad we got to go snorkeling again, even if it wasn’t as good. We also had fun talking to the people on board and Jon took TONS of pictures of the huge yachts and houses.
When we landed, we headed back to the resort. Jon conducted his interview with Irvine while Chelsea did some laundry and talked to Ashlea about her wedding plans and excitement. The interview went well so when it was over, we headed out to a nice seafood dinner. We went to Bonefish Grill. It was a nicer restaurant than we had anticipated but it was delicious! Jon got a special of the night, salmon, steamed veggies, and mashed potatoes, and a beer. Chelsea got Chicken marsala, grilled green beans, and a mixed medley of corn, lima beans, and seasoning, something all entrée’s came with and unique to the area, along with a margarita. Bread was complementary, and we asked for 3 baskets full. Our waiter even gave us to loaves to take with us The manager came over to ask how everything was and somehow we told her we were on our honeymoon and they gave us free dessert. We ordered something that was similar to a banana split. Bananas in a rum sauce with a fried tortilla and vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed but we managed to find room to finish the whole thing!
Friday, July 8,
Checkout day :( We packed and cleaned an checked out of our awesome room. We said goodbye to the building, turned in our keys, and took a couple more pictures. We went back to the Country Club to take a picture because we had forgotten to document our time there, along with the outside of Bonefish Grill.
We went back to make Pompano Beach so we could take a picture of Umberto’s Pizza place. We still had some time to kill so we decided to go to St. Paul Lutheran Church in Boca Rona. Jon had played against assistant Pastor there when he was at the Seminary. It was a beautiful pink church and school. The pastor was not in, but a nice man gave us a short tour and talked with us for a while. Then it was off to the airport where we said goodbye to our rental car, and waved goodbye to Florida to head back home to good ol’ Nebraska
We loved our honeymoon! It was fun; it was full of adventures, of newness, and of love.
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