So our first morning waking up in Florida... Obviously it was a very early wake up despite going to sleep at 1am.
I was hoping for great things and a whole night's sleep as we had got to bed so late but no such luck! I woke up at 3. 30am and could not get back to sleep. Grace was up at 4. 30 and I gave up then really, Mick obviously didn't have any trouble and he got up at 7.
I found a picture of the room I had taken. The room was very comfortable and had everything we needed including views of the runway. I would recommend the Hilton, if anyone is looking for an airport hotel. It was booked as part of the holiday with BA too, and it's really not far from the airport.
The runway is in the photo above just the other side of that water you can see.
We had a cup of coffee from the coffee maker in the room and Grace had a cereal bar to keep her going. We had a team meeting and decided that we should just get out of Miami and get over to our destination for the next 2 nights in Fort Myers Beach. We packed up and did a little rearranging and were soon checking out just before 8am. We saw this little family of ducks on the way to packing up the car... I saw her and the little ones across the road.. She was dicing with death out there!
I sorted out my phone as I can't remember if I said I was using Google offline maps. This had worked well last night and I knew I did not have enough downloaded to take us all the way to Fort Myers but I just needed to get on the I75. We worked it out and had a very easy drive in terms of levels of traffic, but in hindsight we had not eaten and alligator alley is not the most exciting road on the planet and I found it a real struggle. We soon made it round after a little detour and a stop to get the Fort Myers map on which showed us the final part of our journey. I had done a little research and we were looking for a place called Truly Scrumptious that I have been following on Instagram. I knew roughly where it was and managed to spot it as we went by. Oh my the houses along here as you drive along, massive and certainly amazing! It was 11am now and I can only describe Grace as hangry... Goodness when we missed the turning and had to do a little detour she nearly had a complete meltdown she was so hungry! I had remembered we were supposed to be doing the number plate recognition game so that helped to smooth things over!
We made it in to the restaurant and managed to park directly outside which was great as we had all our bags in there.
So we ordered coffee and Grace orange juice, she also ordered the French toast which she had already decided she was having when we left Miami! This was from the kids menu and was $6. 99, she absolutely lapped it up and ate the lot!
She also had breakfast sausage but wasn't keen on this.
Mick had the eggs benedict, above which came with fruit and breakfast potatoes, this was $12,. 99 and he said it was absolutely amazing.
I had the veggie omlette which came with a muffin and again breakfast potatoes, super delicious at $11.99. Wow we felt so much better after this, it certainly did the trick and what a super place. They do the breakfast menu all day and are open through lunch and just serve ice cream in the evenings and what a fantastic selection they had.. I should have got a picture really apologies. If you are in the area certainly worth a visit.
Our hotel the Sandpiper was not far, only a couple of minutes in the car and we arrived just after 12. I thought we were chancing our arm with getting a room this early but you never know. I went to check in and were told it would def not be before 4pm but we could use the facilities, which was perfect and we could leave our bags. We want and got the bags and got all the things we needed out of the cases. We went to change in the restroom and I noticed the sign on the door saying they were out of order.. I asked if we could just get changed and she said that would be fine... Trouble brewing... And I hadn't realised yet what it was! We went out to the pool and Grace is straight in and there was no one there!
There is a reason for this...they are having work done on one of the blocks there and the water is turned off and the toilets are therefore not working...now when I had checked in she made a point of saying we could use the sister hotel at the other end of the beach but we knew we liked everything here and I didn't think anything of it... Now I realise why! Mick wanted the toilet and literally had to go across the road to a launderette! This was no good so when he came back I said about the other hotel and suggested we just cut our losses straight waya and go there before we get settled.
So we bundled in the car going in search of the other hotel. The other one the Pink Shell was really nice, it was huge and much more lively and Grace had a great time and then the heavens opened lol It was a bit of a shame but that's Florida for you... We took cover but the sun never really appeared again. Grace got some freshly made potato chips which were really really good, made to order and $4. 20 I think.
The chips look quite dark in the photo... Really good I managed to resist and just have 2
At 4pm we decided to head back and see if the room was ready. The car at the Pink Shell is all valet parking only for free which was nice so we were soon back in the car and checking in to our room which was now ready.
We showered and went the 2 minutes back up the road for a few supplies from Publix. It was lovely having a little mooch around but time was against us with that jetlag clicking at our heels so we didn't take too long. We were back at the hotel for 5. 30 and Grace had some chicken tenders which she got from the hot counter and I put together a salad which we had with a hot chicken. We will have the other half tomorrow I think. The other 2 got some ice cream for dessert and I had a nice cup of tea. Its now 7pm and Grace has just fallen asleep and Mick is not far behind by the looks of it. I will go and watch something on TV for a bit and try and catch up on some sleep.
Tomorrow we plan on going to the Miromar outlets so I hope you will join us for that. Thanks for reading... Bye