The Florida Keys, October 13-16, 2008

Marine Tally:

2 rays jumping out of the water

1 huge ray just under the surface

3 sharks cruising

2 turtles surfacing for air

Rod wanted me to take off a weekend in October so we could go somewhere and celebrate my birthday. We dropped off Bonnie at the kennel and headed south on the Turnpike. Our plan was to stop in Florida City and get a hotel room, but, that lasted only until we got down there. We didn't stop there...but kept on going to the Caribbean Club in Key Largo. We got some pictures of a very cloudy sunset, but, even with no pinks, oranges and purples, it was still neat.

We even stayed at our honeymoom hotel--actually our real honeymoon was at a Tampa Bay Bucs game in December of 1985, but, we did a ceremonial honeymoon in the Keys later the next year! The Key Largo Holiday Inn is pretty cool--it's the home of the original African Queen, don't ya know. They even have her docked at the marina and I think they still take her out every once in a while. Right now though, I would say the birds have the best "view" of her...they must have to spend a fortune scrubbing bird doo off her!

We headed out from Key Largo to Bahia Honda Key the next morning. The drive down the Keys is really spectacular...these pictures won't begin to do it justice, but, you will get the idea.

We wanted to spend plenty of time at the State Park, but, we could not officially check-in until 3 pm. We walked up to the old Flagler bridge lookout. While we were there a big ray of some kind made a couple jumps and then a bit later we saw two big black tip sharks. We NEVER see that kinda of marine life up there...but this time we were at the right place at the right time. Yippee. I only wish I could have gotten a picture of any of them!!!

Unfortunately it was a windy day, so the waves were really big for the Keys. Think Daytona Beach waves...and they stir up the water so you can't really snorkle. So, we sat on the beach and just enjoyed the sun.

Our campsite finally cleared out...actually we had to ask them to remove their screen room so we could set up ours. We told them to just leave the boat trailer as the site was so big, we would not need the room. We set up quick before the no-see-ums attacked and then just enjoyed the site and the view. When we got hungry, out came the camp pots and the "Camp Ground Slop" ingredients. It sounds awful, but, honestly it is so good especially after cooking it over an open fire. And NO I won't change the name to something gourmet sounding. Camp Gound Slop is a tradition and you don't mess with tradition.

We went to bed early and slept great except for the little dog barking and the racoons chattering and getting into things all night. I hoped they weren't getting into anything we left out...but come morning we find that they have tried to get to the garbage bag tied up in the rafters of the screen room....but they weren't quite successful.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the beach. It was still so windy and wavy we knew we weren't going to be able to snorkle. So, I just layed on the beach mat for a while until a big rain cloud moved in...and then we sat in the shelter for a while just enjoying the breeze. About 11am we decided to head back to the campground to hit the showers before heading into Key West.

Key West was pretty quiet, luckily. We made a couple of our usual stops (Southernmost Point, US 1 Mile Marker 0, etc.) before parking and heading down to Duval St. This time we stopped in a Sloppy Joes first to listen to Terry Cassidy play for a bit. We had an excellent waitress, Paula, who took very good care of us. She even suggest a good place to try the fish tacos...which we will have to do next time (Fogarty's). About the time Terry was finishing, we decided to do a little shopping--Rod went to the bookstore and I did Fast Buck Freddies. Rod came out with a couple books, but, I used unusual restraint by not spending any money at FBF's. Big surprise.

After a while we went back down to the west end of Duval stopping in Ricks Bar to get the best deal of the trip--2 big beers for only $3...for both. Yippee. Then we stopped back into Sloppy's for the part of the Pete and Wayne Show before heading down to Mallery Square for sunset. It was a clear sky, so sunset was not as spectacular as it has been in the past...but nice non the less.

We made it back to the campground safely with a full moon guiding the way. We were so happy to find they have changed out the old padlocks for a new push button system. Last time we were down here, we had to use flashlights, a magnifier and a young gal's eyes to be able to see the numbers to let ourselves in the campground at night.

We slept soundly and woke up early and started to pack up the campsite. It was a good trip...but now it was time to head back to Orlando to spring Bonnie Dog from puppy jail.