Recovering from Keys Disease (02-16-13)

Our leaving the Florida Keys coincided with a cold front that arrived.  Both events served as a “wake up” call to me. I literally felt like I was coming out of daze that had gripped me for the 6 weeks that we were in the Keys. Life in the keys is slow, warm, sunny and revolves around eating, drinking, and the water.  Low temperatures at night were in the 70s, so putting on pants and a jacket were a fairly rare occurrence. When we left, the temperature at night dropped into the 40s, with a high in the mid 50s the next day.  What a difference!

Luckily, before that all happened, we were able to squeeze in a few fun outings.  We took a snorkel trip out to Sombrero Lighthouse one day.  It’s a half hour boat trip out to the reef, and I enjoyed every minute of the trip.

   Not everyone did, however, because by the time we got to the reef, the seas were a bit rough and a few people weren’t feeling very well.  I had a little trepidation about heading into the water with 2-3 swells, and Paul could tell I was a little nervous.  I put on a BC vest to keep me more buoyant, even though he and I had both opted for full wetsuits. The water was pretty warm, but any water can feel cold  when you’re in it for an hour.



  I was completely surprised by the whole snorkel experience.  First, the water roughness wasn’t much of an issue. It was “swelly” but it wasn’t too “choppy”.  Secondly, having snorkeled in awesome snorkel locations all over the Caribbean, I wasn’t expecting Florida to measure up.  I was pleased and surprised by the quantity and variety of fish we saw. 

   We had dinner out another couple of times, taking advantage of the warm weather and all restaurants on the water. 

We also enjoyed the wildlife that came to visit while we were eating our $.25 shrimp at Sparky’s Landing. Actually, Paul ate the shrimp- he said they were great.  I don’t like shrimp.

 

So, immediately after leaving the Keys, life snapped somewhat back to normal.  At least, what we consider to be normal for us.  One of the perks of the cooler weather was that we could sit by the campfire.  The weather actually felt nice, kind of like “Fall” was in the air.

We  took advantage of being near Everglades National Park to hike several of the nearby trails.  The 2 mile long Marsh Trail took us past a flock of Roseate Spoonbills, beautiful pink and white birds.... 

 ...

 and a small meadow full of butterflies.


 

  Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk is a mile long walk through a swampy area.   In addition to the turtles, alligators and exotic birds, we saw a young Bald Eagle.  Unfortunately, neither of the parents were around, but it was still neat to see the eaglet.