Around the State (and what we ate) - A Florida road trip report-COMPLETE 9/23

[mickey916]

Some Trip Statistics​

Number of Days: 33 days
Total miles traveled: 5910 miles
Total cost: $9653.52
Number of Hotels Visited: 20
Restaurants: 78
Donuts Consumed: 14
Weather: perfect
Memories made: countless

 

[footballmouse]

Lol, I watched Nate's latest trip to Shady Maple and I had to tell my kids about this amazingly huge buffett. Of course we live in Cincinnati so it doesn't look like a "night out" kinda dinner for us.

Great trip report! I couldn't wait until you posted the next one each time.

 

[mickey916]

Lol, I watched Nate's latest trip to Shady Maple and I had to tell my kids about this amazingly huge buffett. Of course we live in Cincinnati so it doesn't look like a "night out" kinda dinner for us.

Great trip report! I couldn't wait until you posted the next one each time.

Thank you for hanging in there until the almost end of my report! I'm glad you've enjoyed it. I really enjoyed writing it. I'm going to do a "lessons learned" and "best/worst" post. I'll also give an update on where we're headed in 2024 since this trip was an exploratory one for future trips.

 

[mickey916]

Best/Worst List​

Best Ice Cream: Sally's Ice Cream in Flagler Beach (Peace Pie in St. Augustine in second place)



Best Key Lime Pie: Blue Heaven in Key West

Worst Key Lime Pie: Florida Keys Steak & Lobster in Marathon

Best Dessert: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake & Pipistrello Cake (tie) at Gideon's


Best Dinner(s): Columbia in Tampa, 'Ohana in Orlando, Shady Maple in Lancaster, PA, Village Tavern in Pembroke Pines, Liliana Columbian in Jacksonville, NC (It's impossible to pick just one of these).

Worst Dinner: Florida Keys Steak & Lobster restaurant in Marathon


Best Burger: El Diablo at D-Luxe Burger, Disney Springs


Best Cuban: Fritas, Key West


Best Breakfast: Mangrove Mikes in Islamorada (especially the French toast sampler)


Best "doughnut": Cinnamon roll from Jupiter Donuts (does that count?). If not, then Island Donuts in St. Augustine Beach.


Coolest experiences: feeding the tarpon in Islamorada, Charlotte Motor Speedway tour, driving through Everglades, Bulow State park, Whetstone chocolate tour, Robert is Here in Homestead Florida, Turtle Hospital in Marathon

Best hotel: Springhill Suites Miramar Florida and also the Best Western Hibiscus in Key West
Worst hotel: Hampton Inn Palm Coast. Also Black Fin Resort & Marina was pretty bad but the marina made up for it.

 

[mickey916]

Our Observations
​

The whole point of this adventure (besides having fun and eating tasty things) was to explore various parts of Florida to determine where we might like to spend a little more time. Previously, in addition to Orlando, we spent one week in Marathon/Key West and two weeks in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. My DH also visited Tampa many times on business. Other than that we really had little experience outside Orlando. As we traveled, we tried to get the flavor of each area and didn't worry too much about "doing everything". Our thought was if there's still things we want to do in a particular area, that's a good indication we should revisit it some time.

Here's what we discovered in our travels:

1) First and foremost, we still love Orlando, especially Disney. I've always been a Disney fan but my DH has found that he enjoys it very much as well, especially the treats!
2) Ironically, our least favorite areas turned out to be the ones we had visited before: Marathon, Key West, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We are not nightlife people or city people and those areas were just too crowded, too difficult to travel around, and too expensive. We also found our least favorite meals were in those cities.
3) We discovered we really enjoyed taking walks and seeing wildlife and that many of the areas we visited had great nature walks.

4) We realized that having a kitchen area so that every meal didn't HAVE to be out at a restaurant is a huge advantage. After a while on the road we got pretty tired of eating out.

5) With the exception of the aforementioned areas in item #2, we found service to be excellent in most restaurants and people in general to be very friendly.

6) Our favorite areas (besides Orlando) ended up being the Palm Coast area and the Space Coast area on the Atlantic Coast and the Sarasota-Bradenton area on the Gulf Coast. We also liked the Treasure Coast and may revisit that area some time. We still need to venture up the panhandle some time too to check out that area as well.

7) We learned that staying on the outskirts of some cities might be a cost savings but can also be less safe so it's important to check the neighborhoods.

8) In terms of areas on the way down/back, we loved Charlotte, NC and still love Lancaster, PA. Charlottesville VA was also really nice.

Based on these conclusions, we booked reservations for next April as soon as we returned home from this trip. This time however with advance planning and more time spent in each area, we were able to book condos through VRBO. Also whenever possible for hotels, I booked Residence Inns or Towneplace Suites to have kitchens.

Here's next year's April/May itinerary:
Day 1: stay in Chesapeake, VA
Day 2: stay in Charleston, SC
Day 3 - 7: Condo on Ormond Beach
Day 8 - 14: Orlando (right now we're booked at the Towneplace Suites Flamingo Crossings but hoping for a decent discount to stay on property at Pop or POFQ. Also if our sons decide to join us for this portion of the trip we may shorten Ormond Beach and spend the weekend at Universal. I have one night booked at Royal Pacific just in case)
Day 15-19: Condo on Cocoa Beach
Day 20 - 24: House in Bradenton
Day 25 - 29: Cabin in Fanning Springs State Park (a new area for us to explore)
Day 30: Augusta, GA
Day 31 - 33: Charlotte, NC
Day 34: Harrisonburg, VA
Day 35-36: Lancaster PA
Day 37: home

We can't wait for this next adventure...only 191 days left!

Thank you to everyone for reading along! I can't wait to document our 2024 trip! In the meantime, maybe I'll do a brief report about South Dakota....Thanks again!

 

[GSDGlitter]

I grew up in Florida and lived in or near all the areas you visited and we often visit family and friends still living in Florida, it was fun to see glimpses of those places. I totally enjoyed your trip report - you have a really nice writing voice - and will be looking forward to your next adventure. Definitely keeping your best-of list for our next trip south!

 

[mickey916]

I grew up in Florida and lived in or near all the areas you visited and we often visit family and friends still living in Florida so it was fun to see glimpses of those places. I totally enjoyed your trip report - you have a really nice writing voice - and will be looking forward to your next adventure. Definitely keeping your best-of list for our next trip south!

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed my report.

 

[mickey916]

Update on Car Break-In​

Ugh...I received a subpoena today that I have to report to Tampa for two full weeks in November for the trial of the guy who broke into our car. That's just craziness! All I can possibly attest to is I was woken by a Sheriff to be told my car was broken into. I observed the broken window and nothing was stolen. How on earth is that helpful in any way? I suspect this two week appearance in Tampa will be completely at my own expense...but if the State of Florida wants to pay for it, I'm in! I can't imagine though that I really have to go. Ironically I also have jury duty up here the week prior...good thing I'm retired!

 

[mickey916]

Great Updates!​

I ended up speaking with the Assistant Attorney General on the Tampa case and he agreed my testimony isn't needed and placed me on "standby". He also said in the off chance they did need me they would cover travel expenses.

Then, last night I got an email about the Southwest 50% off sale and out of curiosity I checked airfare to/from Orlando for Nov. 28-Dec 6. We had about $60 in credits already and between that and the sale, I scored two round trip tix for me and DH for a total of $200! Looks like there will be another trip report of delicious food coming soon! We'll be staying offsite and only spending three days in the parks but I can't wait to report back!