Day 1
We woke up at a decent time at the Courtyard Marriott in Coral Gables, checked out (without having checking out the rest of the hotel — apparently there was a pool, but we didn’t have time to use it) and headed to the Miracle Mile a couple of blocks away in search of coffee.
After walking past several cafes, we decided to head into Patagonia and started drooling at their Empanada counter.
After our snack we decided to begin our journey towards Crystal River. We decided to drive via Lake Okeechobee on the east side.
Here’s Muffin with our "rust" coloured so-called Compact car …
Notice that the car is missing the front license plates — most cars in Florida did not have them.
Later that evening, we arrived at Holiday Inn Express Crystal River. I was quite surprised by how nice this hotel was — for some reason I was expecting a cheap motelish setup but was pleasantly surprised by friendly staff, comfortable bed, brightly lit and very clean, spacious rooms, etc. Once again we were given a room with two queen beds (do American couples sleep apart?). The nice guy at the front desk gave us extended checkout times for free when we mentioned we were headed to a Manatee swim tour, so we could come back and shower.
After dropping off our bags, we decided to head out for dinner. I hadn’t done any research, so after driving around we ate at a Thai restaurant (Thai Phoon). Luckily, we ate quite well and the food was pretty good. Had some spring rolls, tom yum soup, a red chicken curry, and a garlic basil beef. We were glad we had our vegetable and rice fix.