It’s been a deep freeze here the last few weeks. The big snow from a couple weeks ago is still on the ground, with big plies of it on the sides of all the roads turning dirtier by the day. It’s even been to cold for road salt to work.
Jeannie and I managed to get in a little getaway in the form of a trip to Florida. Last year we went all around south Florida, to the Keys, the Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami beach. This year we decided to focus mainly on Key Largo and Key West.
The morning we left New York City it was eight degrees out, and we had to get up super early for our flight. Unfortunately, the flight was canceled, and they booked us on a later flight with a connection in Atlanta. There was a snowstorm in Atlanta, so the second flight was delayed. By the time we got to Key Largo it was after dark and we were exhausted. The original plan was to have lunch at the beach bar next to our hotel, but instead we had dinner there and then pretty much went straight to bed. Even though it was cold out, it was forty degrees warmer than at home! On the plus side, I watched the new Spinäl Täp movie on the plane and it was very funny.
It was cold in Florida too! When we got up the next morning it was thirty-eight degrees out, and got up to the mid-forties that day. Each day was warmer then the last but it was far to cold to go into the water until the last day. The first day we went to a local state park with mangrove groves and some nice nature walks. They also had alot of info on the coral reef offshore and all the different kinds of sea life to be found there. This was obviously aimed at divers. They had snorkeling trips but they were cancelled that day. They had kayak rentals but it was too cold for that. We also checked out a local bird sanctuary that had a trail on the bay side of the island too. The bay was windy and the water choppy. I thought it was just an urban legend that iguanas start falling out of the trees when the weather gets cold, but they were all over, lying on the ground in a stupor.
The hotel had a really nice grounds like a garden. It was too cold for the pool, but the hot tub felt amazing and was a good place to watch the sun go down. That night we found a great seafood restaurant called the Fish House. Half the menu was a matrix of different kinds of fish and ways to prepare it.
The next day, Monday was full of activity. Our first stop was a place called Theater of the Sea, which had live dolphin and sea lion shows, plus turtles and alligators and birds and other things. The alligators didn’t do much because of the cold. It was a fun place, much more low key than a place like Sea World, and you got a bit a behind-the-scenes look at the training and care of the animals. In addition to the shows there’s rescue and rehabilitation going on. The site was a former quarry that had been flooded with sea water, so they all had lots of space in a set of interconnected pools that were like inlets. As park guests we moved around to the different pools, one for the dolphins, another for the sea lions, etc., and at one end they had an area for the show with bleachers set up.
Next was a glass-bottomed boat tour of the reef. This was pretty cool too, and we saw alot including lots of different kinds of fish, rays, a shark, sea turtles, and of course coral and sponges and other things. After that we walked around the marina for a little while admiring the rich people’s houses and boats, and had a late lunch at a dockside bar. The last stop of the day was a sunset cruise on a little eight-passenger pontoon boat. Since it was still pretty cold and windy out on the open water of the Florida Bay, the captain took us thru the channel to the ocean side, but at point in Key Largo there’s a lagoon and extensive mangrove groves between the island and the ocean. So we got to check out the mangroves by boat after all. We went back to the Fish House for dinner that night since we like it so much.
Tuesday the plan was to make our way out to Key West in a leisurely fashion, taking in the sites along the way. There was a place called the Discover Center that was a museum about the history of the keys, and also had nice beach to walk along. Up the road a little further was the Dolphin Research Center, that had alot of dolphins, many of them rescues, and training going there too. I guess maybe someday some of those dolphins will turn pro. There were a couple of state parks too. The first one I think was on Long Key, and it was a beautiful sunny day so we put on shorts and sandals and waded into the ocean to get our feet wet (still wearing light jackets). The second one was called Bahia Honda, and had more beaches plus a section of the old train bridge from the 1930’s that you could go walk out on. Pretty neat.
We arrived in Key West late afternoon. Our hotel was the Hibiscus, very nice, and just a couple block from the beach where they have the marker for the southernmost point in the continental U.S.A. We walked around for a while and watched the sunset over the ocean, then went out to dinner.
Wednesday we got up early because we were doing a day trip to Dry Tortuga. The boat leaves port at 8am, and you have to check in for boarding around seven. So we got up at six while it was still dark and walked over to the marina district as the sun was coming up (on the opposite side from where it had set, strangely enough). Key West had a large population of wild chickens, so every block there was one or more roosters crowing cock-a-doodle-doo. It was about a half hour walk, and it’s a very picturesque town.
Dry Tortuga is the westernmost of the keys and can only be reached by boat or seaplane. It has a long history as a strategic outpost in the age of sail, and is now a National Park and home to an historic fort build in the mid-nineteenth century. The boat ride was seventy miles, a little over two hours. The boat was quite nice with breakfast and seating inside and out. It was warm enough to be comfortable sitting outside and watching the ocean go by. When we got there the first thing we did was took a tour of the fort. Our guide was very knowledgable and engaging. The fort was huge, so we explored it on our own for a while. Then we got our lunch from the boat and ate it out in the dock area. After lunch we explored the rest of the island. There were seaplanes pulled up on the beach and you could see them up close, which was cool. From time to time you could see them take off and land. Beyond that was more beach, and a population of frigate birds make their home on the island. We were temped to go swimming, but it was not quite warm enough. They also had snorkeling, which was also tempting, since we didn’t get to go out on the reef back in Key Largo. Apparently there’s some interesting sea life among the ruins of the old coaling docks. When we got back to Key West it was happy hour, so we found a dockside bar and got a bunch of appetizers for dinner.
Thursday was our last day, and the weather was finally warm. I started the day by finally going for a swim in ocean at the beach near our hotel! The water was beautiful and clean and clear and beach was pure white sand. I was only person in the water that morning. After that we walked around town and checked out some book stores and art galleries. Then it started to rain and the temperature dropped again. We hit the road back to Key Largo, hoping to get ahead to the weather. We got a late lunch or early dinner at the beach bar next to the hotel we’d stayed at a few days before. All the iguanas that had been on the ground around there were gone, hopefully back in their trees. Then it was on to the airport and home, and luckily no delays or complications this time.
Back in New York it was still bitter cold, and nothing had melted at all. When we got up Friday morning it was six degrees out! It was cold all weekend. We were thinking of going skiing Saturday but it was supposed to get down to zero up at the mountain, we we bagged it. Just as well, they closed the mountain due to the extreme cold.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to break freezing in the afternoon. I wonder if it’ll be warm enough for a bike ride.