Last weekend, my sweetie flew in from Pennsylvania. As always, I asked him what he wanted to do that weekend and he wanted to go to the Keys...fishing, swimming and kayaking. So we did!
First we had to find a place to stay...the Conch on Inn was just a little too scary for us, so we settled on the Seafarer on southern Key Largo. No bad - not great- but not bad. Lot's of ambiance! I'd stay there again.
Ok, so my honey wanted to fish for tarpon from the kayak. It's a do able thing, just not in a tandem kayak! So I took him to Robbie's so he could see some up close. Some of them were in the 5' range...pretty cool!
We wanted to go to John Pennekamp State Park, but they were turning people away saying they were too full. Well...thankfully I knew of a place we could dump the yak and still paddle into Pennekamp and that is exactly what we did. We had a nice paddle through the mangroves and came out not far from the boat ramp in the park. We pulled out next to the first swimming hole and jumped in. The water was bath temperature, but still felt great! After a while, we got back in the yak and headed back to my "secret" put in spot. Thankfully my truck was still there...
Next up? Fishing! We settled for fishing off a bridge and for a couple hours had some fun in the sun...my honey catching all the fish (yeah, I am still a little pissed about that!)...Spanish Mackeral, a jack and a small Mangrove Snapper.
Down some side street...gotta love the colors!
What weekend would be complete without going for a couple caches? There was one located near this place, but some guys were hanging out, so we bypassed it. That hotel has the Conch on Inn beat on the creepiness scale, though!
And just down the road is Jules Undersea Lodge... an actual "hotel" that you have to dive to get to. Google it! Kinda cool...
Leaving the Keys,we made a quick stop at the Botanical Site off Card Sound Road. These flowers were out front, Scorpiontails. I think they're kinda cool!
Still a few hours of daylight left as we headed back to Miami so I suggested a quick run into the Everglades National Park. Of course....we had to stop for a cache along the way! As my honey went bushwhacking to find "Frog Pond" (one of my caches), I stayed and took a couple pics of the storm moving in.
On the way to Royal Palm in ENP, we stopped to check out this little water snake in the middle of the road. Snakes can be so dumb sometimes!
Anhinga Trail
Pretty, huh?
Monday before making the drive back to Ft. Lauderdale Airport, we went to Key Biscayne and checked out Cape Florida at Bill Baggs State Park.
What's left of Stiltsville out in Biscayne Bay.
Well, a couple days later, I decided to go on up to Lake Placid to cut the grass and just chill out for a couple days. This big lady was there to greet me right above the front door. I left her in peace...she didn't mind me and I didn't mind her.
After cutting the grass, thunder started booming and the winds picked up. I sat on the tailgate of my truck drinking some Gatorade marvelling at the gorgeous sunset in front of me...my stupid camera does NOT do it justice. The colors were flaming and intense.
As the first rain drops started to fall, I watched a Black Racer duck into my shed.
That was a smart snake!
And there you have a synopsis of my last week!
