Oops, He Did it Again

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort and Marina, Ohio Key, Florida (high 81, low 75)

 

I’ve been doing so well sleeping in later in the mornings.  At least until today. It’s 4 am and I’ve been awake since about 2:30.    Oh well.   We have to take the boat up to Key Largo this morning, so I guess that was on my mind.  It’s about a 70 mile drive, so we set the alarm for 5 am and intended to leave just before sunrise. 

Key Largo is the first of the many different islands throughout the Keys, but we never stop there since we’re in the motor home when we go through.  Today will give us a chance to see some of the sights up there, so we plan to make a day of it.  We’ll leave the boat there and hopefully we can pick it up tomorrow or the next day with it’s pretty new motor.

I found some interesting facts about the Florida Keys.

There are more than 800 keys, stretching over 180 miles.  The longest key is Key Largo, which is 30 miles long.

The word “key” actually comes from the Spanish word “cayo” meaning “little island.”

The third largest coral reef in the world is off the coast of Key West. That reef is 160 miles long.

The temperature in Key West has never dropped below 41 degrees.

Back in 1889, Key West was the largest city in Florida.

The highest elevation in Key West is 18 feet above sea level.

 

We didn’t do much exciting yesterday.  I cleaned house and did some laundry, while Al worked on the boat. 

We took a walk up to the bridge and then around the park.  Yesterday was the day they were trimming the coconut palms.

I personally think this is coconut palm murder.  Notice the before and after.

 

We did find bunches of coconuts lying on the ground free for the taking.

I don’t know why they waited until the busiest time of the year to do the tree trimming.  If this would have been my Rv, I would have been very unhappy.  I guess it’s better than coconuts falling on the rig though.

 

Later in the afternoon we decided to take a drive down to Summerland Key to try to find a little park and kayak launch that we had heard about.

It turned out it was on Little Summerland Key, not Summerland key, but we eventually found it.

It was a beautiful 2 acre piece of property right on the Atlantic, with a cut through to the bay side.  A family had generously donated it to the state. 

This was our first view of the property.

The entire 2 acres is fenced off with a big gate saying no vehicles permitted.  The entire property is gravel and there were plenty of places to park, but for some reason you couldn’t bring your vehicle inside the gate.  You could use the property, but had to park along the road outside.  I’m sure they had their reasons, but we didn’t know what they were.

These pictures were taken from the bridge above the park.  If you looked one way you saw this property with an open view of the Atlantic.  Notice the nice kayak launch?

If you looked the other way you saw this mangrove area which leads to the open bay.  Either way was beautiful and would make for a nice kayak trip. 

This is what the property used to look like.  You can see they also had a boat ramp.

I was talking to a couple who just came back from a paddle.  While I was talking to them, Al got out of my sight and in trouble again.   :)    Just two months ago, he cracked open his head on the slide out.

See all those big pretty rocks?   Guess who decided to walk down them towards the water?

Guess who fell and almost ended up cracking his head on the rocks right as he was rolling towards the water?

Guess who has a bloody scratch on his leg?  He’s lucky he didn’t get hurt worse.

Tell me, what was he going to see by walking out on those rocks, that he couldn’t have seen from the safety of the land?

We decided we would definitely come back to this beautiful spot for a kayak trip.  Yesterday was just a reconnaissance mission. We also decided it would have been a wonderful spot to put an Rv site.   Maybe they could use a volunteer to guard the park? 

 

By the time we got home, it was time for happy hour (for both us and the kitties)   We sat outside for a while and enjoyed the cool breezes.  No mosquitoes here.

Super Bowl Sunday, Keys Style

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort and Marina, Ohio Key, Florida  (high 81, low 73)

 

Our weather continues to be perfect.  There isn’t  much variation from day to day. It’s in the low  80’s during the daytime, and low 70’s at night.    I’m always surprised how consistent the weather is here.  Some people might get bored with the consistency, but not us.   

So, how do you spend Super Bowl Sunday in the Keys?

Well, we started out with some coffee and computer time, then a walk around the island.  Once the sun comes up, it starts getting pretty warm inside, so we have to turn on the AC pretty early.   I love the cool mornings, but they just don’t last long enough.  I’m not complaining though.

It looked like a pretty good day for a kayak trip, but just to be sure we walked over and looked.  We are close to the water, but can’t see if from our site. It’s so nice to be close enough to check out the conditions first.  We can also tell whether to launch on the Atlantic or Bay side.

Sometimes you get that perfect day, where the winds and currents are light and the water is crystal clear.  Unfortunately, those days are rare, and yesterday was not one of those days.

We decided the beach launch site was a little choppy, so we opted to launch from the marina, which is blocked from the wind a little.  The water in the marina was very clear, but since the tide was high, we couldn’t see all the tropical fish in the mangroves.

We headed out of the channel and again found some pretty strong currents.  I don’t know what’s up with all the strong currents.  It’s not supposed to be like that without a full moon.

We paddled over to the old dilapidated dock.  It’s not safe to walk on,  but no one told the cormorants.

 

When we kayak in the Keys, we like to putz around and look at the fish and birds.  More floating, than paddling.  Unfortunately, the current kept trying to take us out to sea, so we couldn’t relax much.

The water wasn’t real clear either, so  we looked for a place to sit back and relax.

It looks like Al found one.

His thinking was that he would take a short nap, and I would watch to make sure he didn’t drift too far.   Wrong.  If he’s taking a nap, I want one too!

We decided to head towards the Atlantic side, going underneath the bridge.

We got underneath the bridge and headed towards the Atlantic side, but soon realized it was pretty choppy there too.

We puttered around this area for a while and found some pretty blue water.

Naptime again?

We stayed out a few hours, then decided to go home and have a late lunch.  I made another BLT on Cuban bread.  Yummy.

After lunch, we went into town for some wings (real ones, not vegan substitutes) for Super Bowl.  He had planned on fresh Key West shrimp, but they guy that normally sells them at the flea market wasn’t there.  Darn.

 

When we got home, Al connected the new boat lights, and after a bit of tinkering, we have trailer lights again.  Yay.

While he did that I read a little more of my Steve Jobs book.   What an interesting guy he was.  He wasn’t always the nicest person, but he was definitely interesting.

By this time it was time for the big game, so we went inside.  Al watched the game, and I went to “my room” and watched a movie.   I’m one of the few people in America that isn’t interested in watching the Super Bowl.   I watched Bruno Mars this morning, and the best commercials I’ve already watched on Facebook.

So, that’s how you spend Super Bowl Sunday in the Keys.

Tomorrow is the day we take our boat for it’s new motor.  We are very anxious to get it back so that we can get it out on the water.  The kayaks are nice, but the boat is better.