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| Birds on the wire |
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| John Pennekamp Park |
We spent the next couple of days cooped
up in the condo, because a front had moved through bringing rain, wind, and near
record thermometer plunges.
Jane painted, and Capt. Larry worked on the blog and
the taxes, organized several folders of pictures, and concocted some new dishes
in the kitchen. We also had a date and went to see the movie
The Revenant. Not a good date film, as
Jane didn’t like the violence and Capt. Larry was impressed only with Dicaprio’s
performance and the cinematography. We should have seen
Sisters.
When we finally got a nice day,
we headed up to Key Largo to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, America’s
first undersea park.
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| Cannon from the shipwreck |
The park was created to protect and preserve a portion of
the only living coral reef in the continental United States. Extending three
miles into the Atlantic Ocean and 21 miles along the Florida Key chain, it is
named after a Miami newspaper editor who worked to see the reef preserved and who also helped establish the Everglades National
Park.
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| Lots of kayaks... |
Within its mangrove swamps and tropical hammocks, the park is home to a
wide variety of tropical vegetation and shorebirds, as well as the sponges,
shrimps, crabs, turtles, lobsters, and hundreds of species of fish that inhabit
the coral.
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| ...and wet suits! |
Snorkelers, divers, kayakers, and anglers flock to enjoy the park’s resources,
and we were surprised at the numbers of visitors for a mid-week afternoon.
At the visitor’s center we saw a video
about the coral reef, and then toured the nature exhibits. The 30,000 gallon saltwater
aquarium was quite impressive. One can spend an injudicious amount of being transfixed by undulating fish. It's like staring at a fire. Leaving the center, Jane headed for the gift shop while Capt.
Larry strolled over to Cannon Beach. Artifacts from a 1715 Spanish shipwreck adorn
the beach and feature an anchor and cannon from the wreck.
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| The glass-bottomed boar |
At the marina, a
glass-bottomed boat was preparing to take its last flock of observers out to
view the reef. We didn’t have time to join this tour, but it is something we
would like to do on another visit. By now, Jane was finished and empty handed
(nothing exciting) so we headed back to the condo. Along the way, we stopped at
an art supply store where Jane signed up for an art class for next evening.
It started to rain as we arrived at our condo.
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| Jane's jellyfish painting |
We spent the next few days
wishing for better weather and narrowing our list of places we think we’d like
to rent for next year. We experimented with some new recipes and saw the
hilarious movie
Dirty Grandpa. It was
our last week in the condo, but we enjoyed the routine in spite of the weather.
We made another run up to Florida City to pick up some staples, and went to
nearby shopping centers to pick up things we thought we needed, but more for
something to do.
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| Long line at the stone crab festival |
We sent some emails to some property owners expressing our
interest in renting their properties next year on a return visit. A couple of
days passed and we got a call from the owner of the house that was our number
one choice for next year. The house is a 2BR/2BA with an enclosed porch, Jacuzzi,
outdoor kitchen, and immaculately remodeled recently. To top it off, it is
located exactly opposite the Harry Harris Park with an ocean view of the
Atlantic. We had seen this property on several of our walks, but didn’t think
we had a chance of renting it. We were floored when the owner called us and
gave us a price break to boot! We received the rental agreement and sent our
deposit in right away and hope that this may be the place we return to in
future years. Life is unexpected, but usually really good!
Feeling really good about our unexpected
good luck, we struck out to the Key Largo Stone Crab Festival. By the time we
arrived, about an hour after it opened, we found that we had to park about
one-half mile from the entrance.
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| Black Ceasar at the festival |
We entered and found the relatively small
grounds overrun with people. This was not going to be anything like the Key
West Seafood Festival. We arrived around noon and decided to have some lunch. Stone
crabs were what we had a hankering for, but a fish sandwich with pork ‘n beans
and coleslaw is what we settled on..
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| Been there!! |
The line for the stone crabs was over 45
minutes long, and we decided to opt out and get some stone crabs at a local seafood
restaurant later. We had our lunch and listened to a band play, then perused
the vendor offerings. Unlike Key West, the vendors at this venue were not as
artsy, original, or suited to our tastes for us to buy much. Jane did buy a
couple of things to decorate our beach home, but after one pass through the
grounds, we decided to head out. Back at the condo, we got a text about the
rental agreement for next year’s rental. We couldn’t find the email until Capt.
Larry looked in his spam folder. There it was along with a message from our
condo owners telling us of our check out time on Sunday. We had rented the
condo from 1/3-1/31 and figured we would check out on 2/1. However, we only
paid for 28 days and counting on the calendar, we were short one day
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| Back in the Everglades N.P. |
and had to
leave one day earlier than we expected. And we had to pack everything up on
short notice!
We checked out of our unit the following
day and drove up to Florida City. We decided to go back to Everglades N.P. and
drive completely through the park to the visitor’s center at Flamingo.
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| Entering Mahogany Hammock |
After stopping
again at the Ernest Coe visitor’s center and collecting our second stamp, we
started to drive the 38 miles to Flamingo. Along the way we stopped at the Mahogany
Hammock, a stand of huge mahogany trees that were not detected during the logging
activities in the Everglades and are now preserved.
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| Large mahogony |
Our half-mile walk through the
stand provided several surprises.We left and drove on to Flamingo and were
surprised by the facilities the park offered at this remote site.
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| The license was from Quebec!! |
We collected
another stamp at the Flamingo Visitor’s Center, viewed the exhibits, and had
lunch. As we left we toured the marina and headed back to the park entrance. It
was a good addendum to our first visit and the first park we visited in the
National Park Service’s centennial celebration. We headed back to Florida City
and checked into a motel for the night. Tomorrow we would be in our new condo.
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| Last sunset at the condo |
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