Recently Jake and I rented an RV with all four animals (2 dogs & 2 cats) and traveled through the Florida Keys. It was definitely an experience we will never forget! We rented the RV through Cruise America for a pretty good price – it was MUCH cheaper than staying at hotels and paying pet deposits though! We enjoyed traveling in an RV as it was so convenient for us and we will definitely be RV traveling again!
Our first stop was Lake Okeechobee – biggest lake in Florida. Jake thought this would be a good halfway spot to Key Largo (he didn’t want to do 8 hours of driving in one day). We stayed the night in Lake Okeechobee and the next day we rented an air boat!
And of course on our way to Key Largo, we had to stop at “Robert is here fruit stand.” We read so many awesome reviews online that said to stop here before you head to the Keys, so that’s what we did & we were so glad we made the stop. When you walk in, you have the option of ordering a smoothie made with all their fresh, just picked fruits.. and of course we did! We shopped around and checked out all of the neat, large and unique fruits and all of the jams, honey and spreads you could think of!
Once we finished shopping, we realized that there was a mini zoo behind the fruit stand! They had a large amount of exotic birds, turtles and goats! We finished our smoothies while petting the animals and then continued to Key Largo.
If you are interested in shopping any of their products, check out this link: https://www.robertishere.com/collections/all
Once we arrived in Key Largo, we immediately headed to the beach closest to us. We enjoyed a few hours at the beach before finishing the night with dinner and (lots of) drinks at Sundowners.
The next day, we went on a kayaking tour of the mangroves with Paddle the Florida Keys. We were extremely lucky to be the only ones on this tour as we got to experience more of the mangroves! Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable, friendly and adventurous. At first, I was a little nervous to be on a kayak since this was only my second time, but she made me feel comfortable and once we got out into open water, I was excited!
The next day, we checked out some locals shops and one in particular stood out. The Rain Barrel. It was a collection of small crafty shops with some very unique items. We walked around and checked out each store…until we ended up at the bar! Yes! There’s a bar in this place – so you can walk around & drink. Totally reminded us of Savannah & we loved it. We ended up staying a little longer because the drinks were SO good. LOL
Our next stop was Robbies – so we could feed the tarpon. This was also a neat area as they had a variety of shops available, a restaurant & a marina to rent water toys.
This was an interesting, yet scary experience! I never thought I would be afraid of birds, but I definitely do not like pelicans anymore. They were feisty – one even bit some lady’s hand! They said to stick your hand closer to the water to feed them, but it didn’t seem like anyone was courageous enough to do so. LOL
After feeding the tarpon and grabbing lunch on the water, we stopped by the beach to let the dogs run around and play.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset dinner, yet again. 😉
The next day we kept our adventure going and eventually made it to the popular 7 mile bridge. For some reason, I thought it would feel longer than it did, but it was neat to watch! Luckily, it was a smooth ride for us. 🙂
We finally made it to Key West! Of course our very first stop was to go to the southern most point (which later we learned wasn’t technically the southern most point), but there was such a long line to take pictures, that we just took a couple of selfies and found the nearest bar. LOL
We weren’t able to take many pictures of Key West since it’s kind of hard holding a dog leash in one hand a beer in the other. LOL
Our last fun adventure was in Key West and we rented jet skis and toured the island with Key West Water Tours. It was interesting to get a different persecutive of the island. We definitely saw more in those two hours than we could have the whole weekend – highly recommend doing this tour as well!
We took a bunch of videos on our GoPro and combined them into one clip – check out our Instagram to watch!
One of my favorite memories from this trip was the Key West sunset on our last night. It was absolutely magical. Not a cloud in the sky, weather was perfect and it was incredible to see the amount of people stopping from their busy day to sit down at Mallory Square/Sunset Pier and watch the sun set. I wish I would have taken a picture of all of the people, because you would have been shocked! We enjoyed a fabulous Cuban meal at Mallory Square with the best view ever. It was the perfect way to end our trip.
I think Jake and I are already looking forward to returning to the Keys. LOL If we ever win the lottery, I’m pretty sure we will end up somewhere down there.
Have you been to the Florida Keys? If so, please share your memories with us!
SIMPLY SHEMWELL 