The Keys and a lot of rain...and then sunshine!

On Sunday, October 16th, we drove south to Margate (near Ft. Lauderdale) where we caught up with Ken's high school friends, Dave and Betty, their daughter, Tracey, and granddaughter, Kayla. We had a fabulous time chatting and catching up over lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (great salad place!) and then coffee later. We departed Margate southward and within 15 minutes found the edge of a tropical depression that had formed in the Gulf. The rain was horrible for most of our way through Miami, but we continued until we stopped for dinner in Florida City (just north of the Keys). Monte called to warn us about the storm, potential for road flooding, hurricane possibility, etc, and so we sat in the RV in the parking lot under lots of falling rain for almost an hour before finally deciding to press on to the Keys...another 3 hours south.

Miraculously, we found Rt. 1 without flooding or traffic. As we were driving in darkness (and rain), we couldn't see any of the scenery of the upper Keys, but arrived and set up camp in Summerland Key (mile marker 25) during an uncommon break in the rainfall.

It rained most of Monday, though we drove to Key West in spite of it. Many of the stores and restaurants were closed, as they normally are, on Mondays, in the slow season...in a torrential downpour. As such, we retreated to the RV for movies and games.

On Tuesday, the 18th, the weather broke a bit though it was still very overcast, and we headed north to Marathon in search of cheap gasoline and a tasty fish lunch. We only found the lunch. (Gasoline here is averaging about $3.69 a gallon or higher, perhaps in anticipation of next week's FantasyFest goers. And we paid $2.97 a gallon in Mississippi not 2 weeks ago. Grr.) The lunch was tasty indeed, and on a deck overlooking the ocean at the Sunset Grill and Raw Bar. Yumm. The restaurant is next to the eastern end of the 7 Mile Bridge...which is actually just short of 7 miles long. (We feel a little ripped off...only 6 and half miles for a '7 mile' bridge. Pretty cheap, Conehead.) After lunch, we walked a little on the old section of the bridge and then went to a beach to dip our toes in the water. We didn't stay long with the heavy clouds threatening rain so retreated again to the RV for another rainy afternoon of movies and coconut rum/pineapple juice drinks (our new favorite, courtesy of Sean and Dulce in Port St. Lucie). Yum. 

We found wild roosters wandering around the parking lot of the local grocery store cock-a-doodle-dooing at everybody. Ha!

Overnight Tuesday, the rain and thunder and lightning and wind were loud enough to wake the dead...well, maybe not the dead, but they did wake me.

On Wednesday, the rain mostly stopped, though it was still quite overcast. We set out to see some sights and found mostly flooded side streets and parking lots. While driving through Big Pine Key, we spotted two Key deer, an endangered species protected by law. They are adorable and silly-looking because, while they look like (and are actually related to) the Virginia white-tailed deer, they are the size of dogs. I read that they grow to, at most, 32" at the shoulders and no more than 80 pounds. So cute!

We also drove to the same beach we had been to yesterday and waded in about a 1/4 mile following a path of bright white sand out far from the shoreline. Though we were so far out, the water was never deeper than our hips. We could see very little in the water due to the weather and headed back in before the inevitable next rainfall. We later read that upwards of 18 inches of rain fell in the lower Keys during the storm from Saturday to Wednesday.

Crabby!

On Thursday, the 20th, the sun finally appeared and we ran again to the same beach at Veterans Memorial Park, a little narrow beach at the bottom of the western end of the mis-named 7 Mile Bridge. The sun was glorious to see, so we rushed into the water to stroll the white sand through what we could now easily identify as seagrass on both sides of the path. We saw hundreds of fish...scores of tiny fluorescent green ones, lots of little striped ones, a bunch of very fast silver ones, two shaped like needles and one small catfish bent on charging our feet at one point. So cool!

Key Deer

Back on the beach, we found a ghost crab hiding in the grass and so we followed him around taking his picture and, inadvertently, terrifying him, I'm sure. Little guy was very expressive for a crab.

After the beach, we drove around the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key to look for more deer. We were not disappointed. The first one we found on a little side street came right up to the car when Ken slowed down. He sniffed Ken's fingers while we sat there in complete awe. His little head didn't even reach the bottom of the car window! Anyway, we were there for a few minutes taking his picture and letting him sniff our fingers before we drove on. So adorable!!

We did find more Key deer, though none nearly as brave as the first. We must have seen at least 10 of them within an hour's time. We also saw our first iguana at Blue Hole, the only freshwater lake in the Keys. We took lots of pictures of the 4 foot iguana thinking, later foolishly, that they were hard to find and harder to capture on film. Ha. On our way to Key West, we saw literally dozens and dozens of iguanas along the side of the road, in front yards, near businesses, on the bike trail...and in every size from 1 to 4 feet long.

We headed to Key West again, this time in the beautiful sunshine, for dinner and the famous sunset. Let's just say that the sunset was infinitely more satisfying than the meal at a local tourist rip off joint. The sunset is enjoyed best in the company of several hundred other sunset watchers, a mixed bag of street performers and an odd assortment of vendors of tchotchkes of questionable value and origin. It is a great sunset, overlooking the ocean and several large sailboarts. The view is amazing.

On Friday morning we took a long walk around the neighborhood and really noticed all the great textures and variety of the plants here. There are big palm trees with fruits of different sizes and colors, shrubs with thick knife-like leaves, bushes with flowers in blue or coral or pink or white, and these big palms with leaves in the shape of a fan...beautiful!

We decided to go to lunch at the Square Grouper at mile marker 22.5 on Cudjoe Key. This is a great restaurant with great food and a ridiculously cute logo. We totally recommend this place.

Afterwards, on the recommendation of our server, Sheri, we drove to Bahia Honda State Park at mile marker 37 to swim and lounge at the beach there. Great recommendation. The park has 3 beaches, part of an old bridge, several campgrounds, kayak rentals and a little deserted island, too.

We lounged at the water's edge for the better part of 2 hours at Sandspur Beach, enjoying the sun and the cool water. We strolled up and down the beach and found lots of pieces of coral and sea sponge and tons of dead seagrass. (We didn't take anything though, because the little sea birds eat from it, the dunes thrive on it, everybody wins.) We walked up to the bridge's end and then down to stroll on Loggerhead Beach. Such a beautiful day, such a beautiful park.