Today we had a lazy morning before heading out to taste some wine. We went by Castle Hill Cidery but they weren’t open, so we went on to Horton winery. After buying some wine we stopped for lunch at Barbecue Exchange on a friends suggestion and it was great! The pork was tender and the sauces are delicious. After lunch we realized many of the wineries we planned on stopping at weren’t open we continued on to Veritas, a beautiful winery but we didn’t find the wine appealing. Our next stop was at Blue Mountain Brewery for a sampling of their beer. They produce a good variety of beer and we picked up a six-pack of their Classic Lager. Our last winery of the day was Cardinal Point.

On the road we spotted Jessica Ln and stopped for a picture.

We met a friend of Jessica’s for dinner at Horse and Hound Gastropub. The burgers were great, and they have some good beer on tap. After dinner we went to Wild Wing Cafe for a few more drinks and good conversation. Now we are back at the hotel to get some rest before tomorrow.

This past weekend we got to spend time with my (Matt) cousin who is in town for just a couple weeks. His wife’s parents got a cottage in the Outer Banks last week and we went down for the weekend. There was 20 of us in a huge cottage which included 7 kids ranging from 7yrs to 2 months old. Man what a wild bunch, and what a lot of fun. It was a great and relaxing time, thanks to Ron & Wendy for inviting us. I should have some pictures up on flickr soon.

Wednesday, my cousin Rusty and her husband Daniel picked us up and we had lunch at Le Tub, this really neat rustic place on the canal. They had plants growing out of old toilets all over. We sat outside and enjoyed the day. All of us had their signature 13oz Burger, it was really good but I had to spend the rest of the afternoon fighting off a food coma. From there we had a guided driving tour of Miami, Coral Gables, and a couple other areas. We took a brief pit stop at the Belmont hotel, which is apparently haunted, Daniel had stories to back up the claims.

From there we drove out to Schnebly Redland’s Winery outside of Miami. It was an amazing place, they do not use grapes at all in their wines, some of the varieties include three different Avocado wines, Mango wine, Guava Wine, Lychee wine and many more. Their tastings work out great for locals, the first tasting is $6.00 and includes the glass. After this initial tasting you can bring your glass in for free tastings any time. After sampling what they have, we bought a bottle and spent some time in their beautiful garden area. There is a little lawn, with waterfalls in the back going down to a large fish pond. around either side are Tiki Huts with picnic tables and lounge seating. It is a really great place to hang out with friends and family and of course good wine.

After leaving there we headed back to my cousin’s apartment. It is a nice place on the ground floor with a tiny yard area. They gave us the walking tour with their two dogs, around the marina, pool, and tennis courts. From there we went back to Ft Lauderdale Beach and had a couple drinks at various bars finally stopping to have dinner and a Fish Bowl at LuLu’s Bait Shack.

Thursday was our big snorkeling day. We were actually early to the dive shop (South Beach Divers). With our gear and directions in hand we headed to Key Largo, stopping to get some water and Gatorade at a Winn Dixie, and lunch at Subway. Once on the boat we found a place and headed out to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The first mooring station we stopped at had a mild current, enough to frustrate you after a little while. It took Jessica a little while to get comfortable in the water, but once she did we had a great time taking pictures and checking out the fish. The second mooring spot had no current and we had a blast relaxing and looking at the fish. The corals were amazing to see in person, I really wanted to touch them but kept my hands to myself. Once back on the dock we rinsed our gear and were thinking about heading further down the keys, but we were exhausted from our fun in the sun and decided to head on back to our room. That night we ended up at Lulu’s again and closed it down.

Friday we spend the morning relaxing on the beach and trolling the shops for souvenirs. After lunch we decided to beat the heat and humidity and headed to Sawgrass Mills, a huge outlet mall about 45 minutes from our room. We were there for 6 hours and still didn’t get to all of the stores we want! Oh well, there is always next time, Rusty and Daniel offered their spare room whenever we want it, which was great of them and we will definitely be taking them up on that offer. Friday we had a romantic stroll on the beach and called it an early night seeing as checkout was at 10am.

Saturday morning we were up and checked out by 9:30am, we stopped at the Super Target outlet, found some clothes for both of us, piddled at a couple other stores and got on the road. By this time we were ready to get moving. Our last stop was a couple hours north at a rest stop to find a geocache, to drop off a travelbug that wanted to go to space centers. The rest stop was close to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. We had thought about actually going by the center but we just wanted to keep moving so this would be as close as we could do. The plan was to stop and get a hotel room for the night but we wanted to keep moving and decided to just drive on through to home.

After getting a slight sunburn we headed to the SPCA Wildlife Care Center where my cousin Rusty works. It is quite the operation, they take in everything from owls and hawks, to raccoons and opossums and even rabbits and hamsters. We saw one of the people hand feeding baby birds in an incubator. They have baby opossums, raccoons and squirrels, that they nurse until they will hopefully be able to release back into the wild. We met their release coordinator who was boxing up some opossums to release that night. They had a couple owls that were really amazing to see. While we were there I got a coconut for Jessica, she wants to see what fresh coconut is like. 

On our way back to the Hotel we stopped for dinner at Grumpy Gators, a neat local place. We had fried alligator strips for our appetizer, it was good and a little chewy. We were so worn out from the beach we called it an early night. 

So far today we have had breakfast and are waiting for my cousin to get here to show us around then we are going to head out to the southernmost winery in the US. We will let you know what we think.

Slowly making our way south,  looking at some amazing houses and catching glimpses of the turquoise water we arrived at our home for the next week. It is a neat little resort right across the street from the beach. Next to us, across the side street is a Ritz Carlton, with Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s parked alongside. Just past the Ritz are 3 blocks of bars and beach stores, most of which have 2 for 1 happy hours. 

Us at Nikki Marina

Sunday we had brunch at Nikki Marina, a really nice place in Hollywood Fl. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was very relaxing. There was a 2 person band playing American and Latin music. We spent about 2 hours enjoying the food and listening to the music. Once we left on our way back we stopped in a Wal-Mart in Miami, something I would avoid in the future, people were everywhere, parking was a nightmare and we just got what we needed and left to find a regular grocery store. 

We stopped at this Liquor store to pick up some drinks for our room, and the guy was giving out samples of premixed Bacardi Mojito. We bought a bottle of the Mojito, and some Rum and were on our way. That evening we went out to LuLu’s Bait Shack and split an 84oz Fruit Punch Fishbowl. 

Jessica Finishing our Fishbowl

Today we enjoyed the crystal clear ocean, goofed off in the pool, walked around and did a little shopping. We saw a man fishing for Coconuts with a 30ft pole that had a hook on the end. It looked much harder than you would think. 

We are having a great time and enjoying having this time together.