Yes, we'd finally made it to the Keys for our long-planned stay at some of the most beautiful state parks in the country. I was sad that I'd had to cancel our reservation at Bahia Honda State Park, the southern most park due to our car troubles, but at least we had 3 weeks ahead of us to enjoy. As I was loading the photos for this blog I realize the majority of pictures are of sunsets and sunrises, but then, there's nothing more beautiful to look at when you're surrounded by water.
We stayed the first three nights at the beautiful Curry Hammock State Park just a few miles north of Marathon, FL. The park is made up of a group of islands in the Middle Keys on the ocean side of Crawl Key. It has mangrove swamps, seagrass beds and wetlands and is very popular area for kayaking and canoeing. It even has a canoe trail near the entrance to the park.
The beach was wide and lovely and perfect for a sunset walk once we got the motorhome set up.
In the morning the clouds had come in and the day was cooler.
Plus a little wind was blowing those clouds across the sky which brought out kite surfers playing all afternoon on the waves.
I walked with Foster away from our campsite and came upon this scene of an egret also out for a morning walk.
We had 3 wonderful days at the park and knew we'd be making plans to return for a longer stay next year. Curry Hammock is a small park with only 35 sites, very quiet with paved roads and gravel campsites. I was only able to reserve three nights since this is such a popular park. We had to move from the state park into the private Grassy Key RV park for 2 nights on Tuesday afternoon. A very nice park and not full so we did have a water view from our site.
The skies were so pretty and blue with a lovely view of the lagoon on the Gulf side of the Key. I sat out under a palapa and read for a while, Paul was puttering on the motorhome. We still haven't learned that blue skies in the afternoon do not guarantee a clear and quiet night. I hadn't checked the weather report for the evening but by about midnight we were wide awake with an amazing thunderstorm rolling through and dumping tons of water along with very high winds. We thought we had everything protected by putting the bikes, chairs and other outside things under the awning...but that was not the right thing to do at all. At 1:00 am PK was outside trying to put the awning down so it wouldn't break and everything was soaked! But, after an hour or two the storm moved on, we went back to sleep and by morning most things were drying out.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and a moving day for us and only 8 miles north to our stay at Long Key State Park. What an amazing site! We parked the RV facing the water and stepped out onto our own sandy beach.
I had baked our pumpkin pie and a turkey breast earlier that morning in my itty bitty kitchen
and about 5:00 we sat down to a traditional turkey dinner with the full view of the Atlantic Ocean.
We were camped in site #26 with shrubbery on both sides giving us plenty of privacy and a fantastic view to the sea. Every site faces the water with lush shrubs on most of them.
A little gate gave us access to the sandy beach. The water was so warm and so very shallow, you could walk quite a distance out and still only be up to your knees at the most.
Sunsets were easy to see from our campsite and usually other campers would walk along the beach and stop to visit, so fun!
Even Foster loved hanging out on the soft sand.
We did take drives back into Marathon for groceries and supplies. Paul still had so many things he wanted to finish on the motorhome so he spent his days getting stuff done. Marathon has a Home Depot, perfect for him. But the real find was a small hardware store that stored almost every thing you could think of from building supplies to baking supplies and everything in between.
No matter where you drive on the Keys you come upon canals and waterways like this one.
I like riding my bike while PK does his shopping at the Home Depot and found this house all decorated for Christmas with a couple of pink flamingoes.
The neat thing about Long Key park was getting up early each morning to watch sunrise!!! Not many places can you watch both the sun rise and the sun set from one location. Wow!
Another day Paul dropped me about 5 miles north of town so I could get a beautiful ride on my bike. I started on the north end of the bike path and rode for miles, so quiet and beautiful. I stopped at this spot just to absorb the beauty of the waters.
These photos can't capture the incredible blue color. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.
We were still at Long Key at the same time my cousin Pam, and her husband Steve, had come to Florida for a two week holiday. They are from Fairbanks, Alaska so the difference in climate was dramatic. We met up and had a fun day and a half together even breakfast on the beach the first morning. The weather wasn't so nice for Pam's visit...lots of rain clouds had moved in so we spent most of the morning just visiting inside the motorhome before taking a drive into Marathon to see a few sights.
A photo we couldn't pass up... Santa and his dolphins.
Then we stopped at the Air Musuem and had a tour of several older planes
and a visit to the Sea Turtle Center and Hospital.
We finished our day at Sparky's Landing at Key Colony Beach for shrimp, wings and beers, sitting under the awning with rain pouring outside.
and our last sunset...
We'd had 14 days at Long Key Park, so relaxing and easy. While Paul put away all his tools and got us packed up Thursday morning, I had time for a morning bike ride to Conch Key and a chance to ride across the Long Key Bridge. Still cloudy but very warm outside.
We were packed up by 1:00 and headed to John Pennekamp State Park, 50 miles north. Foster and I were driving in the car this time rather than putting it on the dolly. For some reason Foster needed to stop so I pulled over to walk him, PK parked the motorhome nearby and then he noticed a bike shop across the street. We hadn't bought his bike before coming to the Keys which had been a big mistake. I had a bike and he didn't...but this turned out to be a perfect serendipitous stop.
Within 30 minutes he had his new bike on the back of the car and we continued our drive north. Too funny!
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