Back to Miami

Again our sleep was disrupted by the shrieking and cackling girls next door. This time they returned to their room at 04:20, and it took two calls to reception before they began to quieten down. So it was nearly 05:00 before we could get back to sleep. Otherwise the hotel was excellent, but one lesson learned is to reject a room with a connecting door unless that's what you booked. It won't dampen the noise of unruly neighbours.

Weather forecasting for south Florida must be a boring job, as it always seems to be warm and sunny - it's called The Sunshine State. So we loaded the bags into the car and set off back along the Overseas Highway with the air conditioning working hard. The return journey was no more notable than before, but pleasant enough. We stopped for lunch at the same little beach in Islamorada - a very convenient place. This time, we set the sat-nav to accept toll roads, so we whizzed up the turnpike instead of stopping at about a hundred sets of traffic lights. The system bills you by reading the licence plate, so we expect a few dollars to appear on our hire car account tomorrow, judging by the tolls posted on each section. Some were as low as 25 cents.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn just before 3 pm, parking the car next door for the overnight charge of $20 as before. We did get a small concession from the hotel manager, vouchers for continental breakfast. We were hoping for a cooked brekkie. The room is on a lower floor and up to Holiday Inn standard, ie mediocre. Exactly the same size as the one before. We were expecting a view, and got a dirty flat roof with air conditioning outlets. Well we do have an ice bucket without having to ask twice.

With some time in hand, we did a recce for dinner by walking around the marina area. It was packed with revellers, even at 4 pm, with various musicians, and food being wolfed down everywhere. We were quoted $12 for a mojito, but found another bar where they are $8. Still a bit steep but we could not get below $9 in Key West.

So we aimed for the $8 cocktails and had a pina colada and a margarita, both excellent. Then we were off to Bubba Gump's, which milks the film Forrest Gump for all it's worth. It's basically shrimp (prawns to you and me) with everything. We had crab stuffed mushrooms to start, and shrimp skewers and mahi mahi (with shrimps) for mains. Not cheap but nothing is here. We shared a cup of ice cream and wandered around the port for a bit, then returned to the hotel room. Yippee, the wi-fi actually works in the room! So we checked in online for tomorrow's flight.