Day 38, 24th September 2011. Miami - Key West, Florida

We had been told to be ready to leave by 9am this morning, so after a really good nights sleep, me, Gary and Kirsty were up and about before 8am. We were all ready to go and just sitting on our beds chatting when at about quarter past 8 Mark came in to tell us we were not going to leave until 10.30am now. Although we were annoyed at first, it actually turned into a good situation because we could have a little walk down to the beach and get ourselves some breakfast, so the 3 of us headed out. Gary's foot was feeling a little better now, but we still had to walk really slowly to make sure he didn't hurt it any more.

A flamingo outside our hotel, Flamingo's always mean Florida to me!

On the way down to the beach we passed the tattoo shop from Miami Ink, so I was glad that Gary at least got to see something interesting in Miami.

It seems that nothing in Miami opens before midday, so the only choice we had for breakfast was Starbucks. We got cookies and yoghurts and went to eat them on the beach.

 The beach was lovely and so quiet. Gary just laid in the sun while me and Kirsty paddled in the sea and I rang mum to tell her about everything that had happened with Gary's foot.

We got back to the room at about 10am and got all out stuff loaded up in the van to get ready to drive to the Florida Keys! I was so excited to be going to the Keys because all the times we have been to Florida it's always been a place I've wanted to go but never really had the chance. Gary had to sit with his foot in an ice bucket in the front of the van all the way down there again.
The drive took about 6 hours and it was so beautiful. They Keys are a chain of Islands so we were going over loads of bridges and seeing lots of lovely blue sea.

It rained on and off on the journey down there, with the rain suddenly appearing and then dissapearing just as quickly.

We were going to Key West which is the very last key. We arrived at camp and started putting up our tents, it was the most beautiful campsite we stayed at. We were right on the water, there was a dock right next to the tents, it was just so pretty.

This is the actual view from the tent!!

It was so nice to just it by the water and relax, Key West is such a nice place. The campground had a pool so everyone went in there for a while, the sun came out and it was perfect Florida weather. We then went back to camp to have dinner that was once again CRAP. It was fish taco's this time. The fish actually wasn't that bad but there was hardly any so all I got was a tiny piece of fish about the size of a finger. I was STARVING.

More views of the beautiful campground

After dinner, me and Gary went to have showers and then did some laundry. There was some kind of wresling match on TV tonight and Nick and Dean in the other group asked Gary if we wanted to go. Of course I didn't want to go and watch something like that, I had no interest whatsoever, until I found out that it was on at TGI Fridays. Kait (the other tour leader) drove a big group of us down there in her van, and all the boys went to the bar area to watch the fight, and me and Kirsty got a table to get some food.

It was the first meal I'd eaten since Charleston so I was so happy to get some good food. I had potato skins and I think Kirsty had a burger, and we shared chocolate brownie for dessert. After we had finished eating we went to join the rest of the group in the bar area while the fight finished.

When it was over we got a taxi back to camp and got ourselves ready for bed. We both woke up at about 2.30am and it was so hot in the tent that we had to get out because we could hardly breathe in there. We went and sat on the dock with our feet in the water for a while to cool down. After about half an hour I decided to go back to the tent but Gary stayed and actually slept outside. I wanted too aswell because it was so hot in the tent, but for some reason I was scared to. I don't know what I was scared of though... maybe a massive gator jumping out of the water and biting me haha!