A Florida honeymoon: June 2011

I proposed to Emma over Thanksgiving weekend at Zion National Park, and by the time we'd returned home we had a wedding date of May 31st. That gave me seven months to plan the groom's best job of the wedding: the honeymoon. We didn't have much fundage at all, and because of Emma's immigration status (applying for permanent residency after the marriage) we couldn't leave the country. We first looked at cruises to Alaska but they all had at least one Canadian stop. We couldn't risk it. I then compiled a list of places I thought would make a nice and romantic honeymoon. It was just coincidence that they were also places I'd never been. Among the candidates was a trip to the Northeast, another along the Pacific Coast Highway, and Hawaii. She chose Florida. Apparently when the British think of holidays in the US, Florida looms large.

 We found a great deal on flights to Orlando ($450 round trip for both of us) and as luck would have it, Emma's good friend had a condo in Fort Myers we could use. Or romantic and inexpensive honeymoon was set. One of our favorite trips was the drive down the Florida Keys to Key West. The drive down was slower than I thought - in a lot of areas the speed limit is only 35 - but e bridges and the keys were really different in character. Key West was a bit touristy and a bit bohemian. We'd decided to go on a catamaran ride to visit Dry Tortugas National Park, and it was one of the highlights of our trip. It's an old Civil War fort in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico that was used as a prison for a few years afterwards. It's also a huge bird and fish sanctuary, and we had a great time snorkeling around he barracuda. The catamaran only holds about 150 people, and it's the only official way to get to the park, so we had the island to ourselves.

Other favorites included Everglades National Park, where we took a boat ride into Florida Bay, seeing dolphins, manatees, and alligators swimming among the mangrove forests. We also really enjoyed the Corkscrew Nature Sanctuary near Fort Myers, which has a fairly extensive trail that winds into the swampy Everglades, and where we saw alligators, wildlife, and stands of cypress trees up close.

It wasn't just nature that held us in thrall - our two-day sojourn in Miami proved fun as we toured the mansion Vizcaya, saw south beach, and went to our absolute favorite fruit smoothie stand over and over. Two of the most unique things we did (for us at least) were the Florida Aquarium in Tampa and the Space Center on Cape Canaveral. The aquarium had an amazing array of aquatic and terrestrial life, and the best part was that we were actually inside the habitats. Emma was particularly drawn to the otter exhibit that afforded a close-up view of their den complete with younglings. At Cape Canaveral, we were able to see the last space shuttle on the tarmac preparing for its final flight to the International Space Station.


We also visited the fantastic white sand beaches of Sanibel, toured a lighthouse, ate delicious food including some amazing Cuban food and seafood, and visited the Orlando LDS temple. We also took it easy, watching movies and swimming in the community pool of the condo where we were staying.  We also drank a lot of chocolate milk (after the first one we bought, which was so horrible we threw it away and never purchased that brand again).  With about 2500 miles driven, our honeymoon was definitely adventurous, but it was also intimate and romantic. And the silver lining was that I got to visit 23 new counties, including all those south of Orlando. It was definitely a trip to remember!