As you can see from the title, I didn’t make it very far today — though I sure drove a bunch of miles.  I’m going to have to trim this trip.  Most likely the states on the way home, as well as maybe the FL panhandle & some west coast destinations, will have to wait til next year.  I should’ve known that two weeks would not be enough from the size of my stack of maps before I left home.

I managed to drive about halfway through the Keys towards Key West before I needed a nap last night.  Pulled over at a quiet spot and fell immediately asleep for a few hours. Then back on the road.  It rained a little bit in the morning but then mostly sun for the rest of the day.  The drive back from Key West seemed to take forever — slow drivers and construction.  Then once in Miami, tons of traffic.  So I’m feeling rather frustrated that we’re here another day.  Although there’s so much good stuff in Miami, I could easily spend another week just exploring.

The dogs got a little beach time and two dog parks.  Both smallish but plenty adequate.  The one in Key West, Higgs Beach Dog Park, was not on the beach but very close by.  In fact, Grem almost found her own way to the water by slipping through a gate.  I called her before she made it through the second gate (freedom!) and she came running back (knowing I had cheddar cheese today).  A good thing as she would’ve been in traffic — sheesh! The second dog park was at the end of the day in Miami Beach. The Flamingo Bark Park had better fencing and lots of fun downsized agility equipment.  That was a bonus for all my dogs as none of them have seen equipment for more than a year.

Nik and I have developed our own style of agility over the years with natural and manmade obstacles. I can pretty much send him over, around, and through anything. Here he’s “hup hup”-ing a low fork in a tree.

And here he is chilling in the communal drinking bowl with his blue dinosaur (he’s favorite toy at the moment).  He knows most of these dog parks have a hose and water set-up.  So when he really starts panting after running for maybe 20 minutes, he goes to look for relief.  If they don’t have a kiddie pool, he makes his own.

I had about 10 stops to make in Key West before turning back around.  There was interesting architecture but just not the style I need for the website (deco/streamline and mid-century).  There were way too many people, gift shops, etc. — not my kind of place.  Here’s a detail from one building that caught my eye:

There were about 10 other stops in the Keys.  This sign is probably not enough for the website but still merits inclusion here.  Note the bubbling martini glass between the U and O of “Liquors”.  This was in Marathon:

My camera doesn’t quite capture the beauty of the emerald green water in the Keys.  I tweaked with Photoshop but it’s still not quite right.

The Overseas Highway is loaded with restaurants and gift shops.  These figures are pretty tacky but still cute.  I’ve seen a number of these manatee mailboxes in use on this trip.

I’d love to spend a few days around Miami Beach just shooting windows.  These photos taken from the van while stuck in traffic.

The Miami Beach Art Deco hotels on Collins and Washington have all gotten their due with restoration and landmarking.  There are probably hundreds of photos of each of them at Flickr already.  I’d like to come back sometime and focus on the overlooked side streets.  Here’s a gem of a house that I doubt has gotten much attention.  I love all the little details.