Day 2.9: Orlando, FL to Hollywood, FL

We made the smart decision to sleep through the dinky breakfast and instead got up around 10am. We packed up our belongings and drove a few minutes to Wawa, where Arielle got her beloved iced coffee and Abe ordered his choice banana cream smoothie, which, thanks to the much-advertised Siptopia promotion, cost only $3 for a large!

We had planned to find a toll-free route to our next destination but saw that it would add 36 minutes to a trip that would otherwise be just over an hour. Unfortunately, the first tollbooth we went through took only the SunPass or exact change (in coins), so we had to get an envelope to mail a check for $1, which just seems silly. The second toll took dollar bills and made change, and then we passed a sign that noted that EZPass was now accepted, which got us through the next three tolls. Apparently the state of Florida is very slowly incorporating EZPass, with just one small 40-mile stretch outside Orlando currently doing so. We arrived at Fishlips, a restaurant in Port Canaveral, to meet Pam and Ron, who, if you read this blog back in August, were our gracious hosts in Nashua when we attended Elly’s wedding. They’re also the parents of number one blog fan Nancy, who we’re so glad is reading this post. We heard all about their rented home in Cocoa Beach over a very tasty lunch of Cajun Redfish (Abe) and Butter Crusted Cobia (Arielle) sitting outside by the water.

We walked around briefly before setting out further south, this time without any tolls. It took us about two hours to get down to Stuart, where Abe’s grandfather Marty, better known as Pop-Pop, is spending a few months this winter at the Marriott Resort Hutchinson Island. This enormous property, located over two bridges, offers him a great view of the ocean and the pool, which he looks at as he sits and reads on his porch every day. We were amused that, immediately after we got off 95, every sign referenced Martin because we were in Martin County, an apt place for Pop-Pop to be vacationing. After catching up inside his hotel room, we drove back over one of the bridges to Josephine’s Cafe and Bistro. Abe got an ahi tuna appetizer, which was underwhelming, the zucchini fries, which were decent, and the manicotti, which was pretty good. Arielle ate some of his minestrone soup and got the caprese, which she liked.

We had a nice meal with Pop-Pop and then continued south down to Hollywood, stopping for gas and slowing down due to an accident close to where we were getting off, ultimately arriving at the residence of our friends Andrew and Lauren a little after 10. We unloaded many items from our car and settled into the familiar spare room we had stayed in many times before, chatting briefly with Andrew before heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 250