A Packed Weekend

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!  

Anne's Beach

Anne's Beach in the Keys

Hemingway Days in Key West

From the Miami Herald:

 

The Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla. -- A white-bearded 64-year-old Florida man won this year's Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest, an event in Key West's annual Hemingway Days festival that ended Sunday.
Charles Bicht, of Vero Beach, triumphed over 123 other entrants in the late Saturday night competition, a highlight of the annual celebration that honors the literary giant who lived and wrote in Key West throughout the 1930s.
"I've been looking forward to this for 12 years," said Bicht, who credited his win to perseverance after 11 unsuccessful attempts. "Nothing can compare to it."
Look-alike hopefuls in sportsman's and fisherman's garb reminiscent of Hemingway competed onstage at Sloppy Joe's Bar, favored by the author during his Key West years.
After preliminary rounds Thursday and Friday, a judging panel of former contest winners chose Bicht from 25 finalists during Saturday night's final round.
The retired construction project manager said he shared several traits with Hemingway.
"I enjoy women, I fish and I drink, but I don't write," Bicht said.
Bicht also has a tie to Hemingway's former Key West home, now a museum in Key West's historic Old Town. His daughter, who cheered him in the contest during all 12 attempts, was married on the home's grounds during the 2009 Hemingway Days celebration.
Other events included a short story competition directed by Lorian Hemingway, the author's granddaughter, a wacky "Running of the Bulls" and a one-man play chronicling Ernest Hemingway's life and adventures.
The festival's Drambuie Key West Marlin Tournament was won by a Panama City attorney who came to Key West because of the Transocean/BP oil spill.
"They closed my fishing down," said Clayton Syfrett of closures off the northern Gulf coast caused by oil slicks that fouled waters for months. "Normally, I'd be fishing around the oil rigs for yellowfin tuna."
The 450-mile voyage to Key West paid big dividends for Syfrett's angling team when Timothy Trase Travers, of Titusville, caught and released a blue marlin, estimated to weigh 400 pounds, to claim the top $25,000 cash prize.
Besides offshore sport fishing and imbibing at Sloppy Joe's, Hemingway wrote some of his best known works while living in the Spanish colonial home on Whitehead Street. They include "To Have and Have Not," "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

A Weekend Trip to the Keys

It's been a while since I've posted, but honestly, nothing much has been going on around here. A couple weekends ago, my love decided to leave the cold weather of PA and come camping with me on Sugarloaf Key. The weather was perfect...while points north got pounded with rain, we enjoyed sunshine, cloudless skies and cool nights.

After waking up in the KOA, we headed south to our first stop at the Bat Tower. (Yes, I have a cache hidden there)...an interesting bit of local history that alot of folks would never have seen if not for geocaching.

Next, we hit the cemetery in Key West. Filled with beautiful, odd, creepy, whacky and beautiful gravesites and tombstones, this one has always been a favorite of mine.

The alpha and the omega...the beginning and the end of United States Highway # 1...Mile Marker "0".
Caching at Fort Zachary Taylor. The cache was a DNF, but it was fun to explore and check out this old fort. That's a Disney cruise ship in the background.

The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder...

Ack! Latrines!!

The beach at the fort...gorgeous! Even saw a couple dolphins jumping.

After checking out Duval Street, grabbing some Cuban food for lunch, Key Lime pie and a Yuengling at Sloppy Joe's, we headed back north a bit in search of another cache on Wahoo Key.

I'd gotten this cache years ago, so I stayed behind...parts of the bridge are missing now, but it is still a very sturdy old bridge...a bridge to nowhere. Wish I knew the story behind it as there is nothing on Wahoo Key. We'd never have known it existed if not for caching! A beautiful spot to view the sunset.


Stopped for another cache in Islamorada...the Hurricane Monument. Hard to imagine the remains of over 300 souls lie here.

Thw "World Famous" Holiday Isle...home of the bestest Rum Runners evah!



One last quick dip in the brine before heading back to the airport and back to Pennsylvania!

I really need a roof rack! Santa, are you listening???

I cannot wait to go back. People either love the Keys or hate them, and I for one, LOVE them! We kayaked to Indian Key, came upon a sea turtle, saw the African Queen, saw leaping rays and dolphins, waters of colors that I can't even begin to describe...a trip to the Keys is ALWAYS good.

A Visit to the Upper Keys

My husband, the squirt and I decided to take a drive down to Tavernier today. Nothing was planned except to visit my step-daughter and to check on a couple of our caches down there. After that, we made a stop at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. They care for injured, sick and disabled wild birds. Some of the birds there came from other places that were overcrowded, but most came from right there in the Keys. Fish hooks and monofilament are the cause of most all of their injuries.

A Screech Owl, Barred Owl, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks...

I was excited to spot this quick moving Diamondback terrapin. I've never seen one before. Just wish I could've gotten better pics of it!

This Brown Booby is named "Byron". Not 100% sure what he's in for, but it looks like it may be a problem with his left leg.

This Roseate Spoonbill was rescued from the median strip on US1. He looks like he's in rough shape, doesn't he?

A cormorant and a beautiful Barn Owl, who's an amputee...

"Samson and Delilah", a pair of permanently injured Great Horned Owls. They are bonded and are used to raise orphaned baby owls. Can you see their lunch in the crook of the tree?

This American Kestral was so pretty. He'd been shot by a BB gun and his shoulder is fused. I really thought my pics of him would come out better than they did.

For a small donation of $5, I highly recommend everyone stop at the bird center. The exact address is:

93600 Overseas Hwy.

Tavernier, Florida 33070

305-852-4486



Our next stop was John Pennekamp State Park. Although the main attraction of this park is the coral reefs, there are still some nice things to see without renting a canoe or kayak, or going out on one of their dive boats.

They have a very nice visitor center with tanks filled with some pretty cool stuff...like one of my favorite foods in the whole world...Spinytail Lobster!!! (these are just babies and anyone who knows about lobster know the babies are the best to eat!)

This guy was too cute. Thanks, Misti, for id'ing it as a jawfish.

Living Brain Coral.

Ok, this shot is nothing really. Just a trip down memory lane for me. When I was little, I used to row my 10' jon boat up to this dock, tie it up, jump out and get some ice cream. I'd sit on the dock and think I was The Shit. Not a tourist. I actually got here in my own boat...I was a CAPTAIN, dammit!!

There are two beaches at Pennekamp. One is really set up for snorkeling, and the other is more of a typical coconut palm lined little cove. Beautiful. I would've taken pics to show you, but there were so many people. They also rent canoes and kayaks, and small boats.

The main attractions, though, are the dive boats that go out to Molasses Reef and a huge statue of Christ that is...I don't know...maybe 20 ft. underwater. You do not know what you're missing until you've been able to see the reefs and all the life that lives in them.

Like zoos, I think most people have to actually SEE something before they can understand it and care about it. If you go to the Wild Bird Center and see the awful damage caused my fishing line...and you go to the reefs and see the damage boats and people can cause...it will hit you, and you'll care just a little more.

No one who visits the Florida Keys should leave without stopping at these two places.