Day 7 - April 4th

We spent the morning at a leisurely pace.  Most of today was spent driving.  Scott decided he could skip the large mammal and reptile museum because he didn't think there would be anything good in there.  He "didn't want to cheapen the Bigfoot experience".  That was more than fine with me and we were on the road by 8:30. 

We drove three hours through clouds and the beginning of rain into Bradenton, Florida.  This is across the river from Tampa and a large thunderstorm was moving through right as we arrived.  We decided to hang out in the camper a while and eat lunch while it passed over a little.  De Soto National Monument marks our 112th park and Lorelei's 55th junior ranger badge.  Luke doesn't always like to do them and doesn't seem to be driven to get them all so he doesn't have quite as many as Lorelei does.   It was still raining so we grabbed umbrellas and headed into the visitor center.  This park marks the spot where Hernando De Soto came ashore to lead an expedition into the New World.  He wanted more gold but the King of Spain was hoping he would set up a colony.  He pillaged, conquered and killed on his was through what is now America and I found it quite ironic that we celebrate someone who did that.  However, had he not been so greedy, we might all have been fighting against Spain rather than England in the American Revolution.  Either way, it is an interesting piece of America's history.  But, I digress.

We watched the park movie.  These are always good and give a lot of information.  While we were in the visitor center, replicas of the Nina and the Pinta from Christopher Columbus' voyage to America were sailing out in the bay.  Apparently they are on a tour and they had a schedule to stick to despite the crappy weather.  After watching the movie, we had an outside activity to do to complete our books and luckily the rain let up enough that we weren't getting wet under our umbrellas.  We decided to divide and conquer so Lorelei and I went one way on the trail and Scott and Luke went the other.  We got our answers and Lorelei and I had our picture taken by a photographer doing a piece on the weather for the Bradenton newspaper.  I'll Google tomorrow to see if we made the paper. 

Once we had the answers, we got our badges and got out of the park.  We had another 2 hour drive to get to Winter Haven, Florida where we are camping tonight.  We walked to Walmart next door to pick up a few things and then spent the rainy evening watching a little TV and playing Clue.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow and we are headed to Legoland Florida.  It is our last day before we start a long drive home.

Day 6 - April 3rd

We woke up at 6 AM just before the alarm.  By 6:45 Scott and I were ready to roll.  The sun was due to come up around 7:15 and we wanted to be on the Overseas Highway when that happened.  It was a beautiful sunrise.  Since our drive down was mostly done in the dark, we were excited to see the pretty drive that everyone says it is.  My expectations for the drive were that most of it would be done over long expanses of road that had water on both sides.  Parts of it were definitely like that but the majority of it is spent on the different Keys with maybe one side of the water visible but often there are trees on both sides.  It is a pretty drive but sometimes like driving through small beach towns in North Carolina.  I would like to camp on some of the upper keys just because they aren't as commercialized and carnival like as Key West.  Either way, the drive was a little sad because we really enjoyed this part of the trip and heading north means we are making our way towards home and reality.

After three hours, we were back on mainland Florida and heading into the Everglades.  We stopped at the East side Visitor Center but didn't have time to venture in to that side of the park.  We drove on across Florida 41 through Big Cypress National Preserve, which is a wetlands area that helps to make up the entire Everglades eco-system.  When fresh water started being rerouted for the people living along the coast, it actually hurt the Everglades because the fresh water is needed to help feed the plant and animal life.  Big Cypress is part of preserving that fresh water.  It's also where there have been sightings of Florida's skunk ape (bigfoot).  So we were all wearing our Bigfoot tees and watching for creatures.  Mostly we saw alligators, over 200, which were casually lying in the waterway beside the road.  Every time you looked over, there was a gator.  We told the kids we would give them a penny a gator and they had fun counting until they got bored. 

We stopped at the overlook and got some pictures of the gators up close.  Next, we went to the Big Cypress Visitor center so we could finish our junior ranger park badges.  They have an overlook where there are occasionally manatees swimming and we were lucky enough to see them.  Obviously not up close but it was still very cool.  Next we headed down into the Gulf Coast Visitor Center for the Everglades for a Mangrove tour.  I guess I didn't do enough research because I was expecting a more swampy experience but this was more coastal and while beautiful and great for birding, we all agreed we were sick of Mangrove trees afterward. 

Having seen all that we could see, we headed over to the campground.  Now this particular campground that Scott wanted to stay at also happened to be the Skunk Ape headquarters.  Go here if you want a laugh - www.skunkape.info  A gentleman named Dave is the head of the research center and also part owner of the campground.  Unfortunately we got here too late to see the museum so we would have to wait until the morning.  We went into the campground to get setup and I can say that this is probably the second creepiest place we have ever stayed.  It's close to the one in North Dakota that we thought might have been a meth lab in disguise.  I didn't even get out of the camper at that place.  I decided to brave the bathroom because I needed a shower desperately, drawing inspiration from a friends recent travels to India.  On the floor, there were probably 5 different coats of paint that were cracked and chipped and showing through.  As I was shampooing, I looked up and there was a lizard.  I laughed out loud at myself for being so creeped out and finished quickly.  Most of the people here look like longtime residents and I can't help but wonder what they are hiding from down here.  But I felt cleaner and Scott cooked burgers for dinner and everyone was content.  We spent the rest of the evening reading The Old Man and the Sea and went to bed.

Day 5 - April 2

Today was our last day in Key West and I planned a little adventure followed by a lot of relaxation.  We had a late start to the morning because our kayak tour wasn't scheduled until 10:30.  I was awake at 6 AM, which was at least an hour before anyone else.  Once everyone was up, we ate breakfast, watched a little TV and played some video games before getting ready to go. 

We used Blue Planet Kayak for our tour and their van picked us up at 10:00.  That was a really awesome service.  I must admit that when we got to their location, it looked a little sketchy.  The parking area was a mix of the taxi garage, some docked fishing boats and some offices.  We went to the very back corner of the offices and checked in.  Scott and Lorelei were kayaking together and Luke and I were partners.  We got in our boats and as soon as the guide was ready we were off.  Luckily there was only one other guy on our tour.  The guide took us out into the channel between Stock Island and Boca Chita.  She picked up a whelk and told us all about him.  She netted two sea slugs that promptly inked on her hands.  The kids got to touch them and see them up close.  Next we crossed the channel to an 'island' of Mangrove trees.  Technically there is no soil so it's not really an island because the Mangroves grow in the water. 

Once we got in there, she showed us a Cassiopea (upside down jellyfish) and then we started noticing them all over the place.  Next we saw a nurse shark that she tried to net but couldn't catch.  Then we saw sea stars.  That led us into the Mangroves where we saw the Mangrove crab, we got to hold a sea cucumber, we got to see sea anemone, sponges and tiny fish.  On the other side on the Mangroves, we stopped to check out a conch that stretched out of his shell so we could see most of him.  Weird.  Then back through the Mangroves and out to the ocean where Katie caught a fish and some Longspine black urchin.  She talked about Key West, the channel, the ocean and the trees.  Then we headed back to the docks to finish the tour.  It was a really great experience and I would highly recommend it. 

Once we were done and dropped off at the campground, we ate some lunch and then headed to the pool and did a load of laundry.  After a couple hours, we headed back to get showers and get cleaned up to walk 4 tenths of a mile to Hogfish Bar & Grill.  This was more of a local place and was recommended to me by a friend and one of the cabbies here.  We had alligator bites, conch fritters and their special, the Hogfish sandwich.  It was a good dinner and the atmosphere was great.  Much more like I expected Key West to be. 

We walked back to the campground and spent the evening talking, playing and getting the camper cleaned up for an early start towards the Everglades tomorrow morning.

Day 4 - April 1st

Today was a more relaxed day because we didn't have to get up and be somewhere at a particular time.  The kids got to enjoy lazing around in their pajamas a little, which was good considering that we were going to be walking around Key West for most of the day.

We got dressed and caught a taxi to take us to our first stop around 9:30.  We visited Ernest Hemingway's house and the famous six toed cats.  Many of the cats were lazing around and the kids enjoyed finding and petting them.  We also discovered that this particular piece of land is a crab spider haven.  We noticed the webs immediately and the admissions lady told us for whatever reason, they congregate the most at Hemingway's.  I didn't know much about Hem's (what people affectionately called him) personal life so taking the guided tour was good.  He was an interesting man and 60% of his life's work came out of his writing studio in Key West.  I don't think I have read much of his work in my adult life but I remember A Farewell to Arms being required reading in high school.  Of course the kids had never heard of him so I bought The Ole Man and the Sea to read to them aloud on the rest of the trip.  One interesting thing to note was if this house been in the National Parks Service domain, we wouldn't have been allowed to touch so much of it.  They probably wouldn't have left the cats there either.  It was just an interesting distinction that both Scott and I noticed.

Next, we stepped across the street to the Key West Lighthouse and Museum.  We have climbed several lighthouses and the spiral staircase with 88 stairs in this one was no problem.  There were great views of the entire city and there was a fair breeze, which felt really good given the fact that the day was heating up quite nicely.

It was 11:30 by the time we left there and we were getting hungry.  We stopped where all of the locals eat, Denny's on Duval.  Ok, so it wasn't fabulous food but everyone got what they wanted, including sweet tea.  Then we walked across the street to the ice cream shop for dessert. 

Next, we strolled leisurely down Whitehead Street.  I had already noticed that a lot of street names were women's names.  Julia, Amelia, Virginia, and OLIVIA are just a few (yes, I took a picture).  As I have researched later, there are stories about how the streets actually got their names so that's a book I will have to pick up.  Would have been nice to already know the stories before, guess I should have done more research.  On our stroll, I also noticed that every street is filled with trees and flowers.  It not landscaped like the yards back home, these trees and native plants take over the yards and houses.  We later talked to a cabbie who said that plantings were highly encouraged and people were even given incentives to do that.  It is one of the things that appeals most to me about Key West.  On of the unappealing things is that the houses are so close together.  I felt like there was no room to breathe.  When I expressed this feeling to Scott, he said he also had the same feeling, like being trapped, especially knowing you are on this tiny 8 square mile island. Reflecting on this a little more, I think perhaps that is what the water is for.  If you really want to breathe, you go out on a boat and enjoy the uninhibited sea air. 

We arrived at the Southernmost Point Buoy after a few blocks.   Immediately, I noticed there was a line.  Can you imagine, a line to take a picture?  It was so funny to me.  Especially considering the fact that while this big buoy says southernmost point, it actually isn't the southern most point.  The Naval base and a state park are.  But, like all good tourists, we took the required picture just to say we had been there.  By this time it was getting hot.  A general sweaty feeling all over and we were ready for some air conditioning.

So we stopped into the Butterfly Conservatory and that turned out to be a real treat.  We have been to a couple; one in California, another at the natural history museum in Raleigh and another in DC.  This surpassed all of those.  There were so many butterflies flying around.  The Blue Morpho's were too many to count and they flitted and floated all over the place.  There were striped ones and black ones and tiger striped ones and some moths that were the size of my hands together.  It was awesome.  I would highly recommend this, especially if you have a little girl who loves them so much.  Lorelei "wants to have her wedding in here". 

Next we wandered up Duval Street from one side of the island to the other (approximately 2 miles).  Stopping into whatever shops caught our eyes.  We were on the lookout for earrings for Lorelei (dangling manatees), a hacky sack for Scott and whatever else.  We stopped and had a slice of Key Lime pie; the kids didn't like it.  We had drinks in Jimmy Buffett's original Margaritaville,  Around 5:15 we made it to Mallory Square.  We sat in the shade waiting on the street performers to show up.  The kids chased the pigeons and the Key West chickens and roosters. The kids saw a magician, a sword swallower, a unicycle riding firestick juggler and Luke got paid $6 to be in the show of a juggling tumbling act called The Red Trousers Show. 

We watched the sunset complete with dolphins popping up to say hello.  As we were walking away from the square to catch  a taxi back to the campground Luke turned and said "I feel like we have just been to a carnival".  That pretty much sums it up.  We were hot and sticky from an exciting day.  Showers and our bed had never felt so good.