Aaand we crashed the drone into the ocean (Florida Keys Road Trip Day 3)

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Yeah, I feel like the title says it all on this one 😫

Florida Keys Road Trip: Day 3

Where We Camped

Fiesta Key RV Resort & Marina

Ah, our first ever ocean front RV campsite. Typically, I would say “I’m not paying extra for a waterfront site! We can just walk to the beach.” But since this trip was sponsored in part by Encore Resorts and we didn’t have to actually pay for lodging, I say, “YOU HAVE TO CAMP OCEANFRONT.” There really is nothing like opening your curtains to see the ocean outside your windshield.

A few amenities to expect:

• Pool
• Hot tub(s!)
• Beach
• Marina
• On site restaurant (Read more about that here)
• On site store
• Free coffee

Where We Ate

Breakfast: Cooking in our Cruise America

Okay, this story is embarrassing and hopefully not at all indicative of my cooking skills.

We had basic breakfast foods in the RV: eggs, bacon, bagels. (Here is where I note that Cruise America rigs do not have coffee makers and you have to pay extra for cooking utensils, another reason to go with a peer-to-peer rental company.)

So I start our bacon in the pan, realize there are no tongs to flip the bacon, and get distracted outside by Heath, who is Facetiming his parents.

I join in talking to his mom about how we saw lobsters scuttling around in the crystal clear water and how cool that was.

Five minutes later.

Heath walks back into the RV, I have completely forgotten I have highly combustible food on the stove because I’m still watching those dang lobsters, and our bacon is blackened, stuck to the pan and it will NOT come off. HOWEVER. The smoke alarm did not go off. (Although, it did go off later when I was cooking and nothing was burning.)

Side note: our RV smelled AMAZING. Nothing like the smell of bacon to wake up in the morning!

Lunch: Robbie’s of Islamorada

I had fish tacos. Heath had fried fish. Mostly the table served as a place to dry out the drone while we stressed out that the drone would never fly again. But the food was good and we were able to sit in the shade by the water 👍🏻

Dinner: Lazy Days

Lazy Days y’all. This was our favorite restaurant of the trip. Heath and I incidentally both ordered the same thing: “stuffed mahi mahi” AKA grilled mahi mahi with a GIANT crab cake and some kind of delicious sauce. It was incredible.

HUGE portions is the theme of the Keys. I ate leftovers from this meal for two days! And it was every bit of delicious after being microwaved in our Cruise America.

Plus if you watched the end of the video above, the live music provides the perfect dance-the-night-away-on-the-beach vibes. If you’re planning a trip to the Keys, put this restaurant on the list.

Everything we ordered (as seen in the video):

Drinks:

Key Lime Pie Martini

Grand Gold Margarita

Appetizers:

Lazy Conch (SO. GOOD.)

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail

Conch Fritters

Entree:

Served with soup du jour + caesar salad

Stuffed catch du jour (mahi mahi)

Dessert:

Key Lime Pie! Duh.

Things to Do

Snorkeling

When I hear Florida, I think of beaches, but the Florida Keys are known for their snorkeling and reefs. During our visit it was really windy, which made for murky water around the reef. Instead of going out ocean side, we snorkeled around the bay side and the water was still beautiful.

We took an eco-tour with Captain Sam of Keyz Charters. We left from Robbie’s Marina, which was really a marina + restaurant + a ton of shops. I definitely recommend stopping in! Captain Sam took us out with a mission to find wildlife. We saw dolphins, sharks, stingrays and TONS of birds! She knew a ton about local wildlife, so we really felt like we learned a lot. 

Feeding the Tarpon

Feeding the tarpon is another must if you stop at Robbie’s. Tarpon are huge, and I mean HUGE fish. You can see Heath and friends feeding the tarpon in the video above, because words really can’t describe it. You will not see me feeding the tarpon, because the idea of feeding a dead fish to a fish that is the same size as me is horrifying.

History of Diving Museum

I’ve never scuba dived and I never plan on it because I don’t want to drown or be near sharks or have a fish touch me ever. But we had the chance to explore the history of diving museum, which was actually really interesting!

In addition to seeing what diving gear looked like hundreds of years ago–yes people have been diving for that long!–you can see what diving looks like in countries across the globe. It’s really fascinating.

Plus, you can hear all about the Spiegel Grove, which is a crazy story. The Spiegel Grove was a U.S Navy Landing Ship Dock intentionally sunk back in 2002 to become an artificial reef off the Keys. Let’s just say things went very wrong during the sinking process, and it makes for a great story.

Look back at Day 1: Arriving in Miami Beach!

Look back at Day 2: Renting from Cruise America

Coming up next: RELEASING A SEA TURTLE BACK TO THE OCEAN