Adventures in Florida

We just came back from a beautiful week in Florida.  The vacation started out rather rough and didn't turn out as we had planned, but it was wonderful just the same.  Work has been very busy for my husband and I was in need of a mid winter get away.  At first we set out to find a place that was warm and offered an opportunity to snorkel so we headed off to Key Largo, Florida.  We are fond of Hilton resorts and have wonderful memories of our Hawaii vacation two years ago at Wiakoloa so we booked a six night stay at the Key Largo Hilton.  Our flight had been delayed causing our rental car company to give our car away.  We couldn't find our way out of the Miami airport and decided quickly that we hated both the car we were finally given and the Miami traffic.  But we finally made it to Key Largo only to discover that it didn't look much like the pictures on the website, our room overlooked the parking lot and the beach was a tiny strip of sand.  We tried the restaurant for dinner and the shrimp in my salad were harder than the croutons.  But much to Hilton's credit, their service recovery was great.  They refunded us the points we had used for our stay and helped us look for accommodations at another Hilton.  We ended up on Marco Island, a place I never knew existed.  This is a wonderful resort area on the west coast of Florida.  Being a beach snob I have always considered anything that wasn't ocean as second rate, but I was SO wrong.  This place was great.  The water was clear, the waves were manageable and the bottom of the gulf sloped slowly so that you could swim out as far as you wanted.  It was a great place for water sports, shell collecting, birding and general beaching......but not snorkeling.  So that will have to wait for another vacation.