Sunset Over the Mountains

 

Blairsville, GA ( high 55, low 28)  30% chance of snow

 

We had such beautiful weather last week. The skies were blue, temperatures in the upper 60’s and no wind.   That has changed abruptly, and we now have a chance of snow, tonight and tomorrow.  We’d like to see some snow, so that’s okay with us.

We  planned on leaving this Sunday, but not surprisingly, we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to drag ourselves away.  We love it here, and the color is still pretty nice.  We’re not as brave as Merikay and Craig, and prefer to drive through Atlanta on a Sunday, but I guess that won’t happen.

The other evening, we drove over to Brasstown Bald mountain to watch the sunset.  We’ve taken a lot of sunset pictures over the ocean, so we decided it was time to get some from the top of the mountain.

We weren’t the only ones there.

We chose to stay in the parking lot, instead of walking up the .6 mile paved trail, which goes straight up the mountain.  We had done it earlier in the day, and it was a tough one.  I think it was more due to lack of oxygen, but I could never seem to catch my breath.  They have a bus that takes you up, but they stop running at 5pm.  The pictures would have been much better, but it would have been a cold and dark hike back down after sunset.

 

We stood around and waited for the sun to go down.  It was getting pretty chilly.

The interesting cloud formations made for some nice photos.

 

 

 

It’s funny how the different light brought such different colors.

Soon, our sunsets will look more like this.

 

Kayaking at Geiger Key Marina

Big Pine Key, Florida

Our time here in the Florida Keys is quickly coming to an end, so we’re frantically trying to get every thing done before we leave. 

We have to keep reminding ourselves that we will be back and some things will have to wait until next time…..which will probably be late March.

Yesterday, we decided to head down towards Geiger Key Marina to do some kayaking.  This is the place that had the wonderful restaurant where we so enjoyed their (expensive) Hogfish Sandwiches. 

I emailed HeyDuke to see if they wanted to meet us and maybe do some kayaking. They are staying nearby for a few weeks, so I thought it might be a good chance to meet them.  Unfortunately, they were not in the Keys yet, but still on their way.  Maybe next time.

We launched the kayaks at the free boat launch by the marina and campground. 

There are a lot of mangrove islands there and we thought it might be a fun place to paddle. 

We paddled by the campground and restaurant. This guy here has the best site, doesn’t he?  His Monaco looks very similar to ours, so I tried to imagine it was us staying there!

A lot of sites have tiki huts, which are nice but cut into the space you have for your rv.

The next photo is a waterfront view of the restaurant where we got that wonderful food. 

Unfortunately the tide was at it’s lowest and we had trouble maneuvering around except in the channel.

There were a few boats zooming by and one of them got the finger (after he was far enough that he couldn’t see me) 

Polite boaters slow down when they approach a small watercraft.   A***holes don’t slow down.

The other direction from the restaurant was a few houses.  I thought this shot of the pink house was interesting with the reflection on the water.  I used my new favorite Picasa editing feature…vignette.

We stopped here and had a sandwich. 

We would have had a better time if we had a little higher tide.  There were a lot of fish in the mangroves.  Unfortunately since it was a Saturday, there were too many boats.  Next time we come back, we will make sure we aren’t there on a week-end or a low tide.

We discovered a nice little beach across from the Naval Air Station, and nearby Geiger Key Marina.

It had some nice shady areas where you could bring a book and a chair.

The shoreline was rocky, which may be a good spot to snorkel (once the water warms up)

There is no pretty white sand, but the water was clear and pretty.  We’ll bring the kayaks there next time.

You can drive only so far and then have to park and walk if you want to go further down the beach.

We found some interesting things along this walk.

We headed back up towards Big Pine Key.  There was some sort of marathon run on Highway 1.  There were hundreds of runners running some sort of relay.  There were many, many vans, and lots of traffic.  It really held up traffic.

I guess we’re getting old.  We just can’t seem to go like we want to.  By the time we got home last night, we were both pretty tired.  We read went for a walk around the campground, read a while, watched some tv and then both were in bed by 10ish.

We got up at this morning to watch the sunrise over the water.  Not many more morning left.

It was daylight out, and we thought we had missed it.

We have to walk up towards the bridge to see the sunrise.

Here it comes, as beautiful as ever.

I like the sunset better, but this is pretty nice too!

I have been taking pictures of our campground.  I’ll do a campground review soon. 

Sea Kayaking

Sunshine Key
The weather yesterday was beautiful with temps in the mid 7o’s.  The seas were calm, the water and sky was clear.  It looked to be a perfect day to kayak.
We walked over to the old bridge that is now used as a fishing or  walking bridge.  It runs along side the main bridge.  Here in the Keys they don’t destroy old bridges, they just use them for recreation.  To the right of this old bridge is the main bridge.

The view was beautiful.  Our campground can be seen from the bridge.

Right under the bridge there is a little beach area in the rv park that would make a great kayak launch point.
After we watched the sunrise, we decided to kayak this area later in the day.

We put the kayaks in here.


If you go right and under the bridge, you’re in the Atlantic ocean.  If you go left you are in the bay.
We went right.

The water was shallow and clear….and beautiful.


Notice the 3 little stars in front of my kayak?  I don’t know where they came from.  click on the picture to see them better.

We went offshore a bit looking for some rocky areas that may harbor some of the elusive Florida lobsters.  We never did find the right spot.
We stayed near shore and circled around the island.  The tide was coming in and pushing us right along, making for easy paddling.

We expected to see some tropical fish, but we didn’t see any fish at all until we got over to the other side, near the mangrove islands.



Mangrove islands get their start when a pod from a mangrove bush drops off and floats around until it finds a place to root.  Here is the start of a  brand new mangrove island.

This is what it will look like soon.

and then this.

Mangroves are very important because that’s where fish lay eggs and their young stay until they are old enough to be out in the ocean.
We finally saw the familiar American flag that’s at our campground.  We had to cross under the other side of the bridge to get back home.





I thought it was kind interesting looking underneath the bridge.

It reminded me of some ancient buildings.


This big guy was waiting for us when we came out.

Here we are back at the campground, on the other side.  The campground and marina take up the entire  island.  These are some sites on the water on the bayside.


Finally, we got back to our starting point.   We just had to load the kayaks and drive a block to our campsite.


It was a nice trip, even though we didn’t see many fish.
We went back home, had lunch, a short nap and then we decided to take a drive to Bahia Honda State Park.  Its only  about a mile down the highway.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the water.   That’s a great day when you watch the sun rise and set over the ocean.
Now, to the untrained eye, it might look like the sunset is the same as the sunrise, you can only see the sun melt into the ocean in the evening.
These people were all heading to the best spot to watch the sun “melt” into the water.
There were a lot of tourists,  We saw Japanese and some people we thought were speaking Russian.


Are you ready for it?

There it goes.  It’s melting into the water.


Almost gone.  Another wonderful day in paradise.