Travelling Trio

United States – Hollywood (Florida) – Week 1

• By Denise
• March 2, 2016
• No Comments

Our arrival into the U.S was a pleasant experience as were amazed with the wide open spaces – no fences in the front of houses giving a more open look and the wide lanes for driving. Almost all roads we have currently been on are about 1.5 width of New Zealand roads. Having said that – they need to be wide given the average size of the cars here. We are driving a brand new Hyundai Sante Fe and this would be just a standard size car! Going to the supermarkets is easy too as the car-park spaces are wide so that you don’t actually knock the door of the car next door! Brilliant idea!!!

It feels like summer here in Florida with the weather sitting comfortably in the early 20’s and the ocean temperature easy to swim in. Dave, Carter and I have packed away our winter woolleys (may need them still when we head up north to Ohio and Canada etc) and are spending our days in shorts and t-shirts again.

Airbnb Accommodation – Hollywood

Sticking with our theme of self-catering we have booked into another Airbnb in Hollywood. Our hosts moved from Colombia just six months ago and are living in the converted garage (with ensuite) of their cousin’s two bedroom apartment and they look after the Airbnb guests residing in the remaining two bedrooms. While Angie and Gustavo speak English well their native language is Portuguese and so it works well with us helping them with their English. There is plenty of room for our car outside and the location is ten minutes from Hollywood Beach and 20minutes to Miami Beach so it is very central for us.

Today we are at Dania Beach and Carter is loving the new shovel we have bought for him to build his tunnels and castles! I am loving the new beach chair which has given me a renewed vigour to try and catch up on my blog!

As an aside, the thing with Airbnb is that you don’t know who will be your next bedroom neighbours (unless you book an entire home) so two nights ago we were introduced to a family from Trinidad and Tobago. They had just arrived that day and were going to leave on a cruise four days later. However, their first day was a nightmare as their rental car was broken into and they lost two full suitcases, passports and a lot of cash! The time it takes to sort it all out ruins the time they wanted to take seeing the area. Thankfully it seems they have it all sorted now but it was a friendly reminder for us to be vigilant. We have been very lucky so far on our travels and Carter was surprised at how easy it can happen.

We hired Banana bikes for a couple of hours and went touring down the Hollyood broadwalk. This was fun but at the same time a very good work-out for us all. As usual Carter was leading the way – he seems to have no end of energy. In fact Carter has been doing a lot of ‘working out’ trying to increase the size of his muscles and his strength. He has introduced (by himself) a drink before meals of lemon juice and a little water!! It’s cool to see him thinking and eating healthy – but then an hour later he finds a lollie to eat! Aaargh.

Our time in Hollywood is coming to an end and we have thoroughly enjoyed the week here. The final of the 50th Super Bowl was on the TV and the hype surrounding this was infectious. So much so, we set ourselves up in front of the big screen too – only to find there are so many stoppages and ad breaks it took over 4 hours to finish the game – the Denver Broncos won by the way. I think we will leave the American Football for the Americans!

Our last day in South Florida and we decided to take a long trip to Key West. We had to see the southernmost point of the United States and of course experience a taste of the Caribbean without actually being there. Fighter planes streaked the sky while we sunbathed and I wrote this blog. The boys swam in the ocean and enjoyed the calmness of the sea and the very very soft creamy coloured sand. It is so shallow there are no rolling waves – which is completely different to the beaches we have seen so far in Hollywood, Miami, Dania and others. This is a lovely part of the world and we have thoroughly enjoyed our first week in the States.

Beach at Key West

Next stop is Hudson, just north of Tampa where we will still be in Florida and enjoying another Airbnb stay at Dragonfly Ranch. Catch you next week!