Driving Around Florida Day 3

The Tamiami Trail was an amazing drive, and it landed us for the night at the Miccosukee Casino & Resort. This is a great stopping point before heading south, mainly because they have a huge open parking lot for RV’s and overnight parking (though they do charge you $25 to park). It is just west of Miami (and north of Homestead) which is just outside the craziness of the big city.

If you are new here, as I mentioned in my previous post in Driving Around Florida Day 1, I’m posting a short recap of some of my favorite images on a trip we took to Florida a few weeks ago. If you would like to see the full length post with all the photos you can click through to our Shanty Travelers blog or follow the link specifically for “Day 3” of our trip at A Week Around Florida: Tamiami to Bahia Honda Day 3.

Tamiami to the Keys

The drive down the keys is one I don’t think I could ever get tired of doing. Locals do always seem tired of dealing with the constant flood of tourist traffic, going at tourist speeds, but regardless of the traffic it’s a beautiful drive. I put a lot more of the road drive photos on the full length post, so below are just my favorites for the day.

I love photos of birds in flight (see the post Taking Photos of Birds in Flight) there is something majestic about capturing their flight. We stayed one night in the lower keys at Bahia Honda State Park and the birds were just incredible down there. There were hundreds of birds riding thermals along the beach (I added a short video of the birds down at the bottom of the post), and pelicans dive bombing the ocean for fish.

The photo below was probably my favorite of the day. Not because it was a blatant attempt at an Olukai flip flop ad (I’m not sponsored by Olukai but I do love their sandals), it just matched the serenity, peace, and calmness of the scene. It was so amazing to be walking on a beach in 79° weather in December, by myself, no crowds, no noise, just the sound of the water.

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset that evening. We walked from our campsite down to the boardwalk area to get a better view of the sunset going down towards Key West. This is one of those photos I’m thrilled to have captured because the moment was the most fleeting of moments. It was one warm humid breath and then it was over.

Birds Flying the Thermals

A Week in Florida Series

This is series of travel posts originating from our travel site, Shanty Travelers. As I mentioned above, to see the full length post with all the photos you can click through to our Shanty Travelers blog or follow the link specifically for “Day 3” of our trip at A Week Around Florida: Tamiami to Bahia Honda Day 3.

See you for Day 4 soon, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve so Day 4 will have to wait for 2026 as I have my Yearly Recap post in the works for tomorrow.