Sleep on the sofa
I used to think that I should be able to drive for any amount of time that I would typically be required to.
I was under the impression that given that I have to drive so long for so and so purpose, I would be able to drive.
I realized otherwise during the Miami trip where after a really heavy and tasty vietnamese dinner, I kept dozing off involuntarily
while driving. The quick catch up of fifteen minutes at a petrol bunk had gone for two-three hours.So sleep you must.
The night before any road trip is the same at our home. Half-packed dresses would take over the bed, I will claim that I need
sleep to drive, my daughter would not sleep and would not allow me to sleep either.This 'night before' was the same as well.
So I slept on the sofa like a log, but for only three hours or so.
Forced rest in rest area
So we set off to Fort Lauderdale, 600 miles plus , but was quickly flagged off the road due to 'lack of sleep'.
Car dropped us off at a rest area and we slept as long as I needed to which was about another two hours or so.
Cop time
Wanting to catch up, I had not even started on my drive up that the cop flagged me for real this time as I was driving 92/70
and the worst thing was it was a Georgia state trooper. I had not even touched Florida yet. So he gave me a ticket and that made the
rest of the drive much more streamlined , speed-limited.
Drudgery of the drive
The drive through the very familiar i75 was offering nothing interesting. It was like an abstract lecture where the first five minutes
sounds like the second and so on.The car was driving itself on cruise.I was left wondering why exactly are we traveling. What is it that
travel offers?
Fort Lauderdale room
Finally we reached Fort Lauderdale and lucky as we were, the hotel was across the beach. Our expectations were minimal as the rent
was minimal - the plan was to leverage our resilience. The room interior met the challenge. It felt like we entered a preserved historic house
- some of the highlights were no drinking water in the room, bug marks , bugs. But the room was very spacious - it was like a dorm and Niya liked it.
On the other hand, the location was unbelievably lucky. We had done minimal planning on where to see what but Divya had seen a top five list here
and the beach and the intra-coastal waterway were both walkable from here. The sleep had set us back big time and the first happy sight was the fort lauderdale
beach front and the pleasant ambience all around.
Evening walk in fort lauderdale
The trip was starting off with a debt. We had lot of catching up to do. So we started straight after check in , with the luggage still in the trunk,
even before seeing the room which we had to end of day. It was a luxurious street if you will with all five star hotels on one side and a nice beach
on the other. Breezy winds started giving me answers on why we travel. People were running on the well laid foot path, skating, cycling.
A very active lively atmosphere.
Then we wanted to find the intra-coastal waterway which happened on the parallel road two blocks down. Luxurious houses , water-front ( not sea) ,
yachts but it was night time and not much could be seen.
Next we went to the Las Olas street which is supposedly very happening and hip. So we went there and took in a bit of the sights, drove around
and came back home.
The experience paralleled Miami very much. It is very close to Miami.We felt we might have passed through these places
on our trip to Miami last year as we had taken the A1A road and we could see the same here as well.
So the trip was starting to happen ..
Sunrise
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Next morning, wanting to add more content to the trip , all of us got up early and exited the room, crossed the road and reached the beach,
waiting for Mr Golden Sun to come as Niya chanted .. "Come come Mr Golden sun.. ". Well the clouds hid him but it was still nice and we watched happily
as Niya started showing sure signs of genuine interest in photography. She carefully held the SLR and took time and did controlled clicks which have turned into
rare photographs of Divya and me together.
I dream that she becomes a great photographer like me some day. But then I am not a great photographer either.
That is also my dream. A refurbished poor joke as it is, it does reflect my hopes.
So after a nice morning with family, we set off to our real destination - the florida keys.
Drive to the keys
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The road had changed now, I have never driven this far south. So it was new - new sights, new speed limits.
The keys patrol is very strict - Fodors guide had warned us. Well I did not mind either as I was in the mood to relax anyway and take in the sights,
looking forward particularly to the ocean highway with ocean on both sides. It was a pretty interesting and singular sight. That is when I realized
how important connectivity is. So much money had been put in to build a railbridge which hurricane had destroyed and a second marathon effort
to connect keys by road to the mainland had happened. And it had paid off very well as well as people flock to the keys ever so often.
But what we liked the most was the rustic charm of the keys - no high rises , the slowness had kicked in and I just loved it. That is all we needed - slow,easy.
John Pennekamp state park
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This was our first real destination in the trip so far. It is a very welcoming state park with nice shaded driveway as soon as you enter. 
We took tickets for the glassbottom boat tour and got some snaps taken by our prodigy daughter. At various points of the glass bottom tour, various things kept us interested.
Earlier on, the hostess broadcasted over the mike about the birds of the area, the coral reefs and other general geographic information.
Once the boat went a little inside the ocean, it sped at x knots per hour which translated to 21 miles per hour which felt pretty fast and I tried to
capture the water splashes as the boat gushed through. The color of the ocean turned a surprising tinge once we were at the reef.
At the reef, through the glass bottom( we are not standing on glass or anything), there is a glass section a level below the seating section through which you
can see the corals and fish.
Frankly, it is not that exciting a sight but still quite unique and something new. Ocean life was supposed to be much more as I had
known nothing at all so far. The hostesses were feigning excitement as some fish could be seen crossing from one section to the next. Many kinds of fishes,
many kinds of corals, pretty good. The speed of the boat was fun.
We contemplated kayaking and gave up as the sun was so hot.
Key West Inn, Key Largo
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So we checked in against the reasoning that once checked in, you have a place to stay for sure. And we only checked in, anticipating worse than
the fort lauderdale room.
Fish House
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I think this is the best part of the trip. We had two lunches here - fresh well prepared fish. We are from Kerala and we love fresh fish and right now, we live
in Atlanta inland where it is hard to get fresh fish.
The key lime pie was awesome , the lobster was awesome , the grouper was awesome , the wahoo
was awesome , the yellow snapper was awesome , the coconut ice-cream was awesome , the ambience was great.
A perfect ten for the fish house restaurant which happened to be very close to where we stayed.
With so many choice of restaurants, we chose the fish house a second time and we made the right choice.
Completing the ocean highway and sunset at keywest
The USPs of the trip were the ocean highway and the southernmost tip of the north america continent as a whole. Wanting to complete the best part early,
we drove to the key west, the ultimate destination. We crawled through the roads at 35-45 limits respecting limits as the ticket and the guide note was well
respected. It felt like going through Kerala roads with nice greenery around and just two roads - one to and one fro. The ocean highway presented interesting sights
as we hit nice bridge curves and sights of the old rail bridge complemented this at various points.
So we reached keywest through various keys and went to the southernmost point. A lady offered to take our picture and got our family pic at the southernmost
point of north america. She also pointed us to 'Mallory street' where the sunset celebration happens. We reached Mallory street and the clouds hid the sun but
the nice sky colors was good enough as was the crowded ambience there. So we sat on a wall facing the sun till it got dark. Walked through the street. Niya was tired
and I had to carry her on my shoulders. We walked through the streets in search of restaurants. We passed the historic 'Smoky Joe's Place' and kept seeing bars and more
bars and hardly any restaurants. We settled for a burger restaurant finally as we still had two hours of drive back to Key Largo.
Key West Inn
-------------------
Once we reached back at 12 am , we were surprised to find a new looking double storied stay behind the doors of an old looking building.
That was a pleasant surprise, well just because we had a false anticipation in the first place I guess.
Niya Ill
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Meanwhile Niya had started showing signs of not being well…
It was a pretty long day with lot of driving and good vacation credits. So we slept till as long sleep wanted to stay with us.
Saturday
As Friday was a long day, saturday started slow. Niya was not too well - so we were considering calling the day off but luckily she became her bubbly lovely self
quickly. We got here gatorade to recover lost fluids/salts and we were off this time to Bahia Honda national park after the second fish house lunch and key lime pie that I mentioned earlier.
Bahia Honda
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Bahia Honda met John Pennekamp eye to eye, two beaches - one on gulf of mexico and one on the atlantic. I played with Niya for nearly an hour
in the atlantic side. Water is calm till more than my height.I missed not knowing swimming but it was good fun and beautiful waters.
Next, we took the trail to the bahia old railway bridge, we could walk to the end of the broken bridge,
somehow I was very fascinated by the sight ,
a bridge gaping in mid air, 'True Lies' style.
Niya, ill as she claimed she was, was on my shoulder for most. I also wanted to do the butterfly trail, curious to see
american butterflies. Divya wanted to take rest. But Niya followed me and I told her that she has to walk if she must come with me. 
So daughter and father
walked the park in the wrong direction to get some better views of the broken bridge and on the way back , reached the garden after sunlight had gone.
Sunlight or no sunlight, we did not see any butterflies but the pictures posted were not particularly good looking - so I was not disappointed.
True to her honor, Niya never asked me to carry her even as I could see that she was getting tired.
that we had to travel back tomorrow and you need your sleep.
On the drive back, we stopped at the seven mile bridge, another abandoned bridge and got our family pic taken by a friendly elderly couple.
Barracuda Grill
This restaurant was a Fodor's choice restaurant. So we tried it. Fish House was better but this was good too.
Tuna and chicken wings and key lime pie. Key lime pie at fish house was much much better.
The drive back was awesome, blessed with sleep, drove back easy all those ~750 odd miles and felt great. We started around 6:30 and reached home around 8 PM
after a breakfast , lunch and a rest area break. I see a star in me rising in the creative sport of 'long distance driving'.
The answer to the question 'What does travel offer?' in a very every-day sense is that it offers multiple interesting events through out the spectrum of travel as opposed
to say a movie or a dine-out. At a slightly deeper level, it gives you a sense of things in a much truer way. For example, any amount of reviews you read of 'The Fish House'
cannot match having eaten the fish there. Or the charm that the keys offered to me as I was present there could never have come to me through any number of reading/videos.
Let me get some sleep now. Chao.
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