Beach Crowd lit up by Fourth of July Fireworks, Key West

Everyone gets fireworks pics. This picture is of the crowd on the beach in Key West for the Fourth of July.

Next stop on the trip was Key West.  We actually took off from New Orleans and drove though to Key West without stopping in Gainsville, we drove all through the night and pulled into Key West at 6am.  We slept in the car in the Days Inn there and then called my friend at 7:30.   My friend has a vacation house in Key West which we were able to use.   The house was beautiful and had it’s own pool.  The original plan was two days here but the house beckoned us to stay a couple more days.  Key West is certainly a different animal.  It reminds me a lot of St Thomas.  There is a culture there that is laid-back-sunny-wonderful.  We spent the fourth of July swimming in my friends pool and drinking.  That evening the fireworks were fantastic and I got some great pictures.   I took pictures of the crowd lit up by the display, a few photos are excellent and I will post them soon.  Key West was so wonderful that I want to go back and stay two weeks, maybe do some fishing….

The drive after Key West was a short, beautiful one, that landed us in Miami Beach.  Our couchsurf deal fell through at the last minute so we stayed in a kick ass art deco hotel on South Beach.  Cost was $48.  We spent the next two days drinking, hitting South Beach and crashing the hotel pools of the properties around us.  I can’t speak of Miami proper, but Miami Beach would be a GREAT PLACE TO LIVE for a while.    Again, pictures will follow,  it is too dificult to do them justice editing them on the laptop.

From Key West we drove to Washington D.C. and visited a good friend that I have not seen for five years.  She had a wonderful condo in a building with a pool on the roof.  We hit the Air and Space Smithsonian during the day and then the White House, Vietnam Memorial and Lincoln Memorial at night.  It gave me chills to see these things in person.  D.C. is another place that will require a couple weeks visit for a proper treatment.

Today we got up early and got back on the road to Des Moines, about 1100 miles, but home is fantastic too…………

Update…   Home safe and sound and editing pictures from the trip!