Florida Keys: August 17, 2021

My trip to the Florida Keys in August was not an RV journey at all. However, I wanted to tell the story, and series of events behind a two-week journey that I spent with both of my sisters. 

It was the only time of year that the three of us could coordinate a time to spend together. Even though it was peak hurricane season, we took a chance that the weather would cooperate, and we were lucky, with just occasional showers here and there. We got through with flying colors!

We had several activities, and enjoyed not one, but two snorkel trips to Looe Key. We arranged boat rides for two trips here. The first captain took us to a place that was so pristine, and beautiful and the reef was within an arm's reach. In the meantime, Eileen did some scuba diving. The colors were stunning, and there were tons of fish and coral, including several shark, and lobster sightings! Our second trip was equally beautiful, but it was not quite as impressive, since this particular captain took us to a different reef that was farther below us. So colors and perspective were less vibrant. The captain uses discretion based on traffic, and wave conditions. We tried to get to the ocean almost every day, and the one good thing about going to Florida in August, is that the water was like a bath. So warm! Nice. We never felt a chill, even soaking in the water, literally, for an hour or more! 

One of the major highlights was to go to the Dolphin Research Center, in Marathon, to swim with the dolphins. I did this about 20 years ago, and was so excited to be here again. You can't help but smile when you're with these dog like creatures of the sea. They're so smart and they've been trained so well, it was an absolute blast. We saw some of the other shows with the sea lions and I could tell that the property had really improved since my last visit with more paving and amenities.

During the second week of our timeshare, we got lucky and spent a week in our own little stilted pod house, just a few hundred feet from the ocean. We swim there every day including snorkeling, where we did see another shark. It wasn't far from our pod where we found a reef, including orange coral. Though the water wasn't super clear here, as it was surrounded by residents. We were able to use some kayaks for free here, and took it all around the perimeter, including some small islands, more like large rocks. We knew why these kayaks were free, because there were slow leaks, with all of them, and I wound up bailing out plenty of water. 

There were some parks nearby, and we stopped at one thinking we would spend some time at the beach. However it wasn't crowded at all, and we wondered why. By the time we got to the water, we realized how smelly and swampy it was, but only after I ran in quickly to splash some water on me. I was in desperate need to cool down. Unfortunately I then stepped into what I thought was quick sand and lost my shoes. I found them. Ick. We kept moving further down the beach until we came to a boardwalk trail. Low and behold, they had outdoor showers there. Thankfully, I could wash the quicksand, and smell off. I completely wet myself down, head to toe so I personally could hike this trail in the blistering Florida humidity. it was only three months since my knee replacement, so things were going pretty well, although I was pretty slow.

We visited Crane Point Hammock, and hiked another trail that took us to a pier.

Here we could sit and dip your feet in the lagoon, where the fish would come and give you a pedicure! Eating all of our dried skin cells. This was the first for me, and it tickled and actually felt good! Weird but good. We continued on to more lagoons, feeding koi like fish.

We enjoyed dinners out every night. And had leftovers too. So no cooking for us except breakfast. Even though we had a kitchen, it felt like we were on a real vacation to not to do all that much cooking, other than an occasional leftover warm-up. 

Our trip to Key West was an overnight trip, pretty much encompassing our trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. It's nearly a 12-hour day with a boat ride to the National Park and the fort built there with several hours to explore the grounds and snorkel on the beach. It's unusual that I have done this unique trip twice in my lifetime. It was Eileen's birthday, and we had a nice dinner before heading back to the Blue Marlin Motel, then a swimming pool dip too.

So I think the funniest, and most memorable part of the trip was a simple beach day at one of the roadside beaches, in a very narrow part of the keys. I had a habit of taking my fold-out chair into the water where I would sit just enjoying the water up to my waist, while Carol and Eileen were floating out in front of me. And just like that, I saw something that looked like a very large log drift by. I got up and with real concern, and nervously proclaimed, "what the hell is that?"  My sisters turned around, just as a huge splash occurred, and all three of us shrieked, and ran for shore. I pulled my chair in front of me as a defense weapon, and shamelessly wet myself, and by the time I knew it, my sister Carol was behind me, towards the shore. I had never seen her move that fast...ever. During all of this, it occurred to me that it was a manatee, thankfully, and that it wasn't in fact a shark. We all shared a great laugh over this event. Too bad we didn't see him while we were snorkeling there just before this happened!