Driving to the Florida Keys

Our last morning on the Celebrity Apex came very early. We had our bags all packed and we were going to head down to Eden to wait but we saw people leaving the ship out our window, so we went to deck 5. We walked right off and pulled our luggage to the parking deck and began our drive to the Keys.

We made a stop at First Watch in Hollywood for breakfast and to avoid some of the Miami traffic. After a quick stop at Target for drinks and snacks, we began the drive. Our original plan was to stop in Key Largo, but we were not hungry yet, so we drove on to Marathon, stopping along the way for a short walk along one of the bridges. We stopped for some lunch at the Island Fish Company, which was very good. We started with some conch fritters. J. R. had the stuffed shrimp and Janie had a lobster roll.

Key West

We continued our drive down to Key West across the seven mile bridge. We had trouble finding parking but finally found a deck with plenty of spaces and then walked to Kermit's for a slice of key lime pie as well as buying some key lime cake and cookies. Our next stop was trying to find the shop where we had bought rum cakes when we were there in 2019. After getting lost a few times, Janie found the right shop and we bought some rum cakes and then headed back to Duck Cay.

Hawks Cay Resort

We drove back to the Hawks Cay Resort and found the last parking place in the parking lot. We tried to check in but there was only one person at check in and she was dealing with a guest. Another person came up and said she would be with us 'in a minute' and then came back 10 minutes later. We finally got checked in and went to our room. The room was okay, but not a deluxe resort by any means.

We had dinner at the Angler & Ale on property. The restaurant was loud and the service was good but the food was not. The fish tacos were dry and tasteless.

We hung out by the adult pool most of the next day and had lunch at the beach bar, which was good. Then we went to cool off in the room. Dinner was at the steakhouse on property. We once again had an employee say they would be right back and then disappear for a long time but eventually we were seated and our waitress was very attentive and the food was tasty.