Key Largo and Biscayne National Park, Florida

 End of January, 2021

Here Fishy Fishy…Biscayne Bay National Park and Key Largo

We spent a few days in the Key Largo Area just to enjoy the personality of the Keys.  Key West is hyped up with history and architecture, but Key Largo is layback with an attitude of take it or leave it.  I loved this area of the Keys.  It is filled with kitsch and good food. 

Our first stop in Key Largo was at the Rain Barrel Artisan Village to visit Betsy the lobster.  This set of stores (art and kitsch together) supports the restoration and maintenance of a 30-ft tall and 40-ft long fiberglass sculpture done by Richard Blaze (1980), in the front of the store.  Fun to see all the artwork in the little stores behind the lobster.  

We then moved down the road to the Lorelei Bar and Restaurant to see a Wyland-painted mermaid called Lorelei.  This huge relief was painted by the famous Californian Wyland in 1980.  The tarpon gills were meticulously glued onto the glistening tail one by one.  My family has always had a fascination with mermaids.  She was no exception.  The Lorelei was a character of German legends. She was an enchantress who haunted a steep rock on the bank of the Rhine River.  She sang sweet songs to lure fishermen to their death on the rocks. When attacked by warriors, she called the foam from the river to the top of the rock to carry her down current, never to be seen again. What a great legacy for the restaurant to carry. 

Rock crab is in season so we tried a few crab claws paired with a key lime martini.  Oh my!

We ended up at one of the most popular tiki bar and restaurant in Key Largo; it is called” 88.” This was such a fun spot on the beach.  We went for dinner, drinks, and the sunset.  None of these disappointed.  The music was also pretty great.   This place is how I imagined the Florida Keys would be…relaxed, personal, and very good food.  Of all the key lime pies that I tried in the Florida Keys, this one was the best.  My partner also tried hogfish and I had a local beer and calamari and approved.  We saw the most beautiful sunset here, which made the memory very special. 

The next day we were ready to do a little snorkeling at the 3^rd largest coral reef in the world; Biscayne Bay National Park is one of the largest national parks in the U.S.A. and it is all within the bounds of Florida Bays and Atlantic Ocean.  Just as a side note, while walking up to the visitor center, I spotted and photographed a small frog framed against a royal palm.  Such a beautiful contrast. 

I am realizing that there are quite a few really good contractors that work with the National Parks to bring you great experiences.  For Biscayne Bay, their diving and snorkeling contractors are right there at the Visitor Center.  We booked a 2.5-hour snorkeling experience for $89, which I thought was a pretty good deal.  The day was little windy and cool, but the snorkeling was spectacular out on the reef; diversity and number of species and ages was so high (e.g., different sizes of many different reef species).  We also rented body suits and I recommend that on a cold day.  We were able to stay out longer.  In fact, after spending time on the reef, we got to go snorkel one of the mangroves on the east side and the water was pretty darn cold, but I think that might have been the highlight of my snorkeling in Florida.  This is the ecosystem that serves as a nursery and hiding place for many species including manatees and alligators.  I saw huge and tiny fish.  

After we finished the captain made for shore, trying to beat a storm back to shore, so the ride back was pretty cold, but I was nicely distracted by a talk with the interpreter, who has learned about nature through Women Outdoors.  So nice to hear that she wants to do a Pilots license.  Exciting to see the next generation of naturalists. Florida is turning out to be quite the place for exciting and fun things to do.  

Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

January, 2022

In 2010, I worked on an oil spill that occurred in deep waters near Louisiana. We were tasked with detailing, and protecting wildlife and habitats affected-all the way to Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, which is a small island SE 70 miles offshore.   It seemed like such an exotic location, but I never really got a chance to go see it.  Naturally, it made it onto my life list for retirement.  This last month, while visiting Florida I booked the National Park catamaran/ferry Yankee Freedom that goes out to the Dry Tortugas National Park.  I had really high expectations; great birding, great historical value, and beautiful reefs for snorkeling.  Guess what?  This National Park exceeded my expectations. 

We drove down at 3:30 a.m. from Florida City to the ferry in Key West.  The hotels are so expensive in Key West it was hard to justify just one day,  The ferry is not cheap either ($190/person), and parking was $35/day at the ferry dock. So, be prepared to shell out the bucks.  They do feed you a bagel and then lunch though, so you don't have to worry about that.  It takes about 2.5 hours to reach the National Park.  We were lucky in that it was a calm day, but we were prepared with Dramamine just in case the waves got high.  We had cancelled 3 days earlier as the high winds and 9 ft. waves did not appeal to either of us.  The ferry company will refund %100  of the fee if the weather is bad.  Make sure to bring your National Park pass, and they will refund the fee onto your card when they check you in.

A little about Dry Tortugas National Park.  It was initially named Las Tortugas by seaman who were trying to identify the island area as a place with the (las) turtles (tortugas) for abundant food.  Later it was changed to Dry Tortugas to identify that there was no fresh water on this small island. Fort Jefferson was built on this island in response to the English who invaded Washington D.C. (don't ask me the year) and President Jefferson decided to build a stronghold in this part of the world as ships that might invade from this area would have to go past this area to direct their ships in the right direction for the SE United States.   

We landed about 10:30 a.m. with about four hours to explore...it was not enough time.  We walked completely around the island on a really cool path.  I have to say, the beaches there were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  The pictures actually looked dreamlike.  There were so many shells and abundant life on the beach.  You don't often find this on the shores of Florida.  Larger shells had been collected and displayed by visitors.  I had to laugh.  There were so many hermit crabs looking for new shells on the beach...it reminded me of what crab condos might look like.  

We took an initial 15 minute quick tour of Fort Jefferson, but there was a longer one given by the boat interpreter.  We toured through the Fort Jefferson by ourselves after our beach walk.  The top view was spectacular.  You could see for miles out in the ocean. Much of the Fort, such as the lighthouse are under Park restoration, but the angles of the Fort were so picturesque.    

By the time we were finished, I was ready to go swimming and snorkeling.  We grabbed our snorkeling gear, and walked to the south part of the island.  I snorkeled all along the south wall of the Fort, and saw quite a few fish including brown squid.  The water was so clear...you could see for a long way while snorkeling.  We did not have enough time to snorkel around the Fort wall.  I am sure we would have seen turtles and other really cool fish. 

We boarded back on the boat at 2:30 p.m. and we all agreed there was not enough time.  You can actually camp on the island.  The next time, we will bring camping gear...and there definitely will be a next time.   We arrived back at Key West about 5:00 p.m. I felt like I had been in a dream all day.