Sleeping Under the Stars

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort, Florida  (high 81, low 72)

 

Yesterday was a little of a laid back day.   We ran up to Marathon and looked at a few private Rv lots, and then decided to go to Sparkey’s Landing for lunch.  It’s a nice waterfront restaurant, that serves good fresh seafood.   I made the mistake of ordering nachos.  Al was smart and had  yellow tail snapper.  His was really good, mine, not so much.

We puttered around Marathon for a while and then went down to Big Pine Key for a trip to the grocery store.  Only in the Keys will you see chickens in the parking lot at the Winn Dixie.  In fact, we even saw a Key Deer there last year.

We planned on picking the boat up today, but they discovered one part they had was the wrong one and would probably have to be ordered from the mainland.  They are now thinking it will be Friday.

So, plan “b” might be a trip down to Key West for the day. 

 

I mentioned on the last post about a new Rv Resort up in Key Largo.

It’s called Point of View Key Largo Rv Resort.   It’s new and there is a minimum of shade or privacy between sites, but there are bushes planted between many sites and in Florida, they will grow very quickly.

The entire campground is rock, including the roads and campsites.

There are some beautiful sites looking right out on the Atlantic ocean.  Million dollar views, with almost as high of a nightly price tag.

In the next picture, if you look down to the end of the row, that is the Atlantic ocean.

I think most of the sites are pull in sites.

This trailer had an unusual cage thing on the top it it.  We found out it was for their cats. 

None of the sites were far from the water, but of course the best sites were right on the ocean.

There is a nice dock.

There is not much of a beach, and there are very few white sandy beaches anywhere in the Keys.  The few beaches are manmade for the most part.  Due to the shallow waters, there is not much beach erosion to form nice sandy beaches.

 

There were even a few vacancies.  Don’t expect that to be the case next year.  As more people find out about this place, it will be harder to reserve a site.

Also, if you go to their website and check out the prices, you might want to sit down first.  It’s not cheap!

 

Since we’ve been here the weather has been terrific, except for the one rainy day.   Usually once the sun starts to set, it starts feeling very chilly for us thin blooded Floridians, but last night night was a perfect evening.

As the sun started to set, we walked to the more westerly of the fishing bridges, for a different point of view.  There are bridges on both sides of the island.   It was a little too dark to get any decent pictures but we watched a few boats coming into the marina and we saw a shark and a skate swimming by.  It was such a lovely evening, that we hated to go inside, so we came back to the Rv and sat outside under the stars for a long time.  The sky was so clear and black and the display of stars was amazing.

I saw something streaking through the sky and remembered a phone app I have called “NASA.”   I initially got the app to determine when they were having a space launch, so that we can watch them.  I doubt we would be able to see them down here but in Tampa we see them all the time.  It’s surprising how many rockets they still launch.

Anyway, the app also finds your location automatically and tells you the best time to watch some of the satellites and the International Space Station as they appear overhead.

It turns out what I was watching streaking through the sky was indeed the International Space Station.  It was really cool.   It’s a great app, check it out.  I have the Android version, but I assume there is an iPhone version as well.

We sat outside marveling in the clear black sky and beautiful display of stars.  It wasn’t too chilly and we both wished we could sleep outside.

Years ago, when we could go on live aboard dive trips to the Bahamas, we would sleep on the top deck of the boat, right under the stars.  It was one of the best highlights of the trip.  Last night made us remember how nice that was and Al decided he wanted to sleep outside.  Our Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks are very comfy and he decided he could use it as a bed. I made his “bed” with a few blankets underneath him, and one to cover him up if it got chilly.  We got him set up with a few pillows, turned the outside LED lights down to dim and he spent the night under the stars.  I don’t think he watched the stars very long though, because I’m pretty sure he was asleep in minutes.

I went inside and watched a little Tv before going to sleep.  I woke up about 3am and decided to go check him to make sure he was okay.  I walked outside in the dark and nudged him to make sure he was okay.  He was fine, but needed to come in for a bathroom break.   He said it was very comfortable and he really enjoyed sleeping outside.

Maybe tonight, I’ll go “camping” too!