Day one in the Keys

We spent Thursday and Friday exploring the Florida Keys, a chain of islands off of Florida's southern coast. Originally we planned to stay on the Keys, but changed our minds and opted for Miami Beach because it's a better swimming beach. The Keys are an amazing ecological treasure, and they are fabulous for water sports, but they are not known for sandy swimming beaches.

They did make for a fantastic side trip, however. The Keys are full of funky, kitschy places like a set of gift shops on Key Largo with a giant crustacean out front.



We stopped for lunch at a little place along route 1, also known as the only real road in the Keys. There are a lot of parts of the Keys where you are driving down the road, and there is just enough room for a house or a business on each side of the street--behind which is ocean on either side.

Anyway, for lunch I tried the conch fritters. Conch (pronounced "conk") is a big deal in the Keys, also known as the "Conch Republic." You know those giant, spirally seashells you can put up to your ear to hear the ocean? Yeah, that's conch, and it's a rather big deal in the Keys, as evidenced by businesses named "Conch Cottages" or "Konch Kuts" (a hair salon).

Sadly, I was unmoved by this particular shellfish, as it was quite chewy. Kind of like octopus.



Of course I also had to sample some authentic Key lime pie. By the way, Key lime pie is NOT supposed to be green.

We had planned to spend the afternoon snorkeling off of Key Largo, but we missed the noon tour and didn't want to wait around until the 3:00 outing, so we decided to flip things around and explore the Keys on Thursday, snorkeling on Friday. This meant we needed to get down to Key West in time to catch the Hemingway House before it closed (it's open from 9-5, seven days a week) and to see the sunset, which is celebrated nightly there.

Here is a shot of Bunny in a mangrove swamp:



Driving the Keys is a pretty amazing experience. You can see ocean on both sides of you for a large percentage of the journey. You can also see little islands all along the way.





We stopped to see the beach at Bahia Honda State Park on the way to Key West. I had read that it has been rated one of the best beaches in the U.S. Although it was one of the better beaches on the Keys, we were not overly impressed. Miami Beach is much better in terms of swimming beaches. Still, we stopped for a dip before moving on.

I think that's enough for one post. I will write about Key West another day.

P.S. Happy anniversary Rob! The past 13 years have been the journey of a lifetime!