Wind Wrecker

We’ve been enjoying A LOT of sun (there’s a reason there are many red and dark whiteys here!) in the Florida Keys over the last few days.  We rented a car (the car rental guys thought it was hilarious and couldn’t stop talking about the fact that B-Rod saw and requested a Yaris for our journey . . . . maybe because it seems the majority of rental cars on the road are convertibles. . . or Nissans, yuck!) and took the 2.5 hr journey to Marathon, in the middle keys, which acted as our home base.  Our plan was to go diving, possibly snorkeling, do lots of swimming, rent some kayaks and explore the water world of this area.  We did very little of this.  The winds were really strong over the last few days which made all of these activities less than ideal.  The guy at the front desk of our inn said the wind situation was really unusual, but luckily the winds died down today . . . . . the day that we were leaving the keys!  Wah . . . wah!!  We managed to just enjoy being outside for the most part, relished in the heat and humidity and loved every minute of being by the ocean.

We love road trips and just being on the road and driving around was pretty cool!

The Keys are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other side, and when you’re driving, you get to see both! 

It’s also very easy to begin the day by seeing the sunrise on one side of an island and then heading to the other side at the end of the day to see the sunset.  We didn’t get a really clear view of either because there was cloud cover at the beginning and end of the day, but we did try (well . . . . Rocky tried for the sunrise because she’s the morning person in this relationship!)

Sunrise at our place in Marathon.

Sunset at a tiki bar

We did make it out swimming one day, and realized how truly spoiled we are when we commented on how, though quite lovely, these are definitely not the best beaches we’ve ever been to.  Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t choose them over a winter day in the Hat!!

    
The Keys and road-trippin’ is super cool because of the bridges.  The Overseas Highway is a 113 mile (that’s about 182km for us Canucks) route with 42 bridges including the 7 mile (or 11.26km) bridge.  It’s quite an incredible sight and super interesting to see the old dilapidated bridges next to the new roadways.  

 See how high the bridge is???

This is actually a road bridge built on top of the old rail bridge. It was decommisioned in 1972, and the giant steel girders are now like swiss cheese with rust, and large chunks falling into the sea. Driving across the narrow road in a huge old American car must have been a thrill, as the upper level is 65 feet up. 

We arrived here on a weekend, so a lot of the bridges were filled with people fishing.

Brian made friends (of course he did! Uhhh, for your information RB, they made friends with me! br) with this kid and his step-dad.  They showed us some of the fish they had caught and the kid was super excited to show us the “slippery dick” fish.  His step-dad had to verify that this was in fact the name of the fish.  A bit mad that I didn’t think about getting a picture of it because the slippery dick is actually a pretty colourful and beautiful fish!

We made our way to Key West which is the southernmost point of the US.  It was a touristy town, but we actually really liked it.  As nice as Marathon and the middle keys were, we’d consider staying in Key West the next time around.

It was pretty crazy, but I did manage to muscle my way in for a quick pic at the southernmost point.  The waves were also crashing over the wall, and flooding the road. . . . . . . ugh . . . wind!

The streets were really lovely and really quiet once you got out of the tourist area.

This was a military hospital from 1823-1914.  It is an entire neighbourhood of restored Officer housing and medical buildings, and probably the nicest, lushest and well kept parts of town.

Today we spent some time at a turtle hospital close to where we were staying.  It was originally a motel, and the owner eventually developed a passion for rescuing turtles.  In the hurricane of 1985, the motel was destroyed and the owner had to decide whether to rebuild his motel or devote his time and resources to rescuing turtles.  He chose the latter and his motel has become the biggest turtle rescue centre in North America.

This big guy is having a snooze, and since he can’t see us, he figures he is pretty well hidden,

Something several turtles suffered from was gas. We couldn’t really understand it, but if the are hit by a boat, they develop gas, and since they have gas, they can no longer dive below the surface. They attach weights to the shell, but that is temporary, since the plates on their shells shed, and with it, the weight is gone and needs to be re-applied. . . and the gas situation needs to be addressed using off-the-shelf Beano.

This one was hit by a prop, and has it’s shell stitched back together. It’s a pretty close call, since their spinal column is attached to the underside of their shell, and severing that would be either paralysis (they have a few turtles suffering from this), or death.

By request, I took a few food shots.  Nothing really too interesting here . . . there is truth to some stereotypes and this is the case here.  Lots of fried food, and healthy portions abound.

There is good seafood here, and though this poke was good . . . . doesn’t compare to the best places we found in Hawaii.  

Key Lime pie is everywhere in the area.  We tried to give it a few chances.  Good if you like pie I guess, but it was definitely no mango sticky rice!!

The best thing we discovered . . . . . GRITS!!!  Delicious!  S. Piddy you were right.  We loved them! We even bought some to bring home, just in case we can’t get it anywhere.

That’s it for this adventure.  We may be back some day, but next time around it will be to dive as North America’s only living coral barrier reef is located here, and that is something we’ve got to experience.  Until then . . . . . Dela Frijoles Florida!!