Interesting Scenes from Around the Florida Keys

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 85, low 75)

 

Al is at physical therapy, and I am home waiting for the truck to deliver the new toilet.  We are hoping the installation won’t be a big problem, but with Al’s bad shoulder, and the tight space in our bathroom, we’re not looking forward to the job.  Rick has offered his assistance for the installation, but we sure hate to have to take him up on his very kind offer.   Replacing your own toilet is bad enough, but to do it for someone else?   Ewwww.

I have been taking some photos here and there in our travels and I wanted to post a few.

 

Key West is an interesting town with interesting people and places to photograph.

This is houseboat row.  I think it might be fun to live on a houseboat, don’t you?

The drive around the Keys is always scenic.  I have no idea how many bridges there are.

I believe these are Mimosa.  We had them in south Georgia and I never knew they grew here.

This is a shot from our rv site of the full moon last week.  It was huge and orange when it first appeared.  I never quite captured exactly how beautiful it was.

 

We got some pretty good rains yesterday, as you can see from our view from the window. 

 

The March winds are blowing.  According to our Weatherbug App, we have 32 mph gusts.  I believe it.  We don’t mind, since we can’t take the boat out anyway.

After the rain, we decided to take a drive over to the Sugarloaf resort tiki bar for happy hour.  It was an interesting place, with a nice waterfront view, which I neglected to photograph.

We started seeing iguanas as soon as we drove up.

This guy was eating something in the grass.

As we walked out towards the water, we noticed this popular pelican roosting area.

Notice the blimp behind the pelicans?  That’s Fat Albert, which is used to monitor drug smuggling.  I think they also keep an eye on the illegal boats coming here from Cuba.  If you missed yesterdays blog about that, check it HERE to see an actual boat that arrived in the Keys with 17 Cubans onboard and learn about the wet foot/dry foot policy on Cuban immigrants.

Along the pier, we noticed a small nurse shark peacefully swimming by.

It was an interesting area.  When we walked back towards the tiki bar, we had to cross this bridge.  Uh oh….there were two iguanas resting on the bridge and I wasn’t going to walk there unless they moved.  Fortunately, as soon as we approached, they jumped off the bridge and onto the mangrove shrub, and away from my path.

As we walked further, we noticed two larger ones on the rock embankment.  Our approach scared them away.  One made a running dive into the water and swam underwater all the way to the other side.

I missed the jump, but here he is swimming.

The next picture shows how far he swam underwater.

Here he is, safe in a mangrove shrub.

Here are a few larger ones.

The iguanas are not native to the Keys are are causing trouble with the native species, but they are definitely interesting creatures, especially the large ones.

 

update:

The new toilet arrived right on time, but it was Friday the 13th, so things went downhill from there.  I’m not ready to post about our issues now.  More later.   grrrrrr       We’re off to the Seafood Festival in Marathon today, so it should be a better day.

Sunrise-Keys Style

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 85, low 75)

 

It feels like summer.  The AC is running 24/7.  The winds are blowing though, so it helps to keep us cool. 

We decided to take a drive and watch the sunrise. It was nice and cool as the sun started to rise.  We need to do this more often.  It’s the very best part of the day.  (except maybe for happy hour)

We headed “uptown” towards Veterans Park.  The Overseas Highway, which is Highway 1 runs kind of east west, but in a southerly direction.  If we’re heading to Key West, we call it downtown, and to Marathon, it’s uptown.

Unfortunately, there were too many clouds for a great sunrise.

The birds were not complaining though.

We’ve been around oceans most of our lives and this is the first time we’ve seen this creature, and we don’t know what it is.

It’s not a crab, but he dug his way into the sand.  This would have been a good “the end” shot.

We think this is the same thing, but this one was dead.  It almost looks like an eye.  Do you see it?

There were Portuguese Man o War everywhere.

Aren’t they beautiful?

 

You always find a lot of life along the beach.

I’m not sure what these are, but they look similar to anemone.  They were in shallow water.

 

This boat was new since we were here last.   Notice the mast with the buoy on top?

 

Cuba is closer to the Keys than the nearest Walmart, and this is a very popular destination for refugees. 

 

Cuban refugees can stay as long as they have “dry feet,” when they arrive.

The wet foot, dry foot policy is the name given to a consequence of the 1995 revision of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that essentially says that anyone who fled Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. After talks with the Cuban government, the Clinton administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people found at sea. Since then, in what has become known as the "Wet foot, Dry foot" policy, a Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (with "wet feet") would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore ("dry feet") gets a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status and eventually U.S. citizenship.

 

How would you like to take a “cruise” on this boat?  Here is the motor.

The exhaust and rudder.

You can see it wasn’t real spacious for the 17 people it carried.

 

These boats are all over the place.  There were two at the storage facility where we keep our boat.

 

We took a walk down the narrow strip of beach.  It was low tide fortunately.  The Keys aren’t know for their beaches.

Can you see the yellow object on the little mangrove island?

It looks like a kayak to me.  Wonder where the kayaker went?  We couldn’t get much closer without getting pretty wet and the breach dropped off into deeper water.  Since I had my camera, I decided I wouldn’t go any further.

It was a beautiful morning for a walk along the beach.  There were so many of these tiny shells that you couldn’t avoid stepping on them.

This next shell is a tulip shell. His foot was out and we wondered if he was feeding.  We usually throw them back further into the water, but left him where he was since the tide was coming back in.  These are beautiful shells, but this one had green algae on it

 

Coconut palms are the most beautiful of all the palms, I think. 

There is no shortage of coconuts this time of year.

There is a guy here who makes his living selling fresh coconut water.

Want a sip?

This banyan tree was huge and gorgeous.

 

We walked the beach for awhile, then over to Coco’s restaurant for a $4.00 breakfast.  (It’s in the Winn Dixie Plaza, Sherry and David)  They also have wonderful Cuban sandwiches.

We’re back home, with thoughts of working on the boat, but there is some rain coming, so we may have to have a nap instead.  :)