Jacksonville and on to the Keys

After visiting Charleston and Beaufort we had an uneventful trip to Jacksonville. We did get a picture of a plan tree in front of our hotel 

Palm tree in front of The Holiday Inn in South Jacksonville.

 Tuesday the home we had decided to rent was not ready, so we went to the Keys. It is a long drive to Key West so we decided that Key Largo would be a good representative  for the keys. On the way we stopped at Palm Beach to see the houses and the beach. We saw no big homes but did get to see the beach and Atlantic Ocean.  Just as we got to the west side of Miami we hit a toll road. The nice lady in the booth asked for 45 cents at the first stop. From that point on we had our picture taken. The signs said they would mail us a bill.

Palm Beach

Palm Beach looking at the beach

 When we got to the hotel it was not all that impressive. It looked tight and one story. The store in the lobby was closed and there was no action around the bar and dinning room. A very nice lady said that because we were card holders she had upgraded us to a pool room. As she was telling me the best way to get to the room was to drive to the back of the hotel we saw Trish and Kelly coming in the front door. The nice lady said leave the car were it was at the door and take the bags to the room. The three of us had a very nice walk to the room.

This is the walkway to our room.

The pool

 The hotel while on the main Florida Keys road also bordered a lagoon. Boats in the lagoon came in from the ocean. They were met by the pelicans.

Pelicans

The boat in the picture below is the African Queen built in 1912 and featured in the movie with Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull.

More pelicans and the African Queen

The lagoon

The street behind the hotel

A pelican

A little frog I almost stepped on.

The other end of the pool just in front of our room

Just as we were leaving Trish noticed we had a banana tree outside our room.

At the end of one of the roars there was an opening and we could see some of the nicer homes with there private beaches.

Right behind me as I took the shot above was a coconut tree.