In early December, we had a nice visit with our friends from our summer job in Idaho; Kathy and Stuart came down from their winter home in Sebring, FL. We had great fun and a little adventure kayaking the local mangroves. Right here in Marathon, we launched at Sombrero Beach and kayaked the mangrove trails at
Boot Key Nature Preserve. There are multiple trails and tunnels, a great experience and must see in the Florida Keys. We were having so much fun in fact, that I completely failed to take any pictures! All those cool mangrove trails, and not a single picture. Here's some pictures of the local mangrove trails:
Kayaking Mangroves in the Keys
On our next day off, we went north to
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo. We paddled around for a while and then headed up the long and winding "Trail of Tears". It ended in a dead-end as the high tide made the passage impassable...perhaps this explains the trail name, as the tunnel was narrow with no room to turn around, and we were required to drag ourselves backwards by the mangrove branches to get out. Sure my arms were getting tired, and the thought of Golden Orb spiders in the branches I was pulling on may have creeped me out, but I was too busy laughing my a$$ off. A great day and memorable adventure.
We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at
Keys Fisheries; order and pickup your food from an outside counter, then sit at picnic tables on the deck overlooking the big tarpon fish; a large variety of seafood of course, very good...but the thing I will go back for: their sweet potato waffle fries (with a dip of white icing!), insanely sweet and so delicious. Gary says it's too sweet, I say there's no such thing.
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| Tarpon at Keys Fisheries |
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| Cute touristy stuff in the store at Keys Fisheries |
On our days off, between errands we did a bit more exploring of our immediate area in Key Colony Beach and Marathon. Right around the corner from us is the
city of Key Colony Beach where a couple of our favorite restaurants are,
Sparky's Landing (for the 25 cent wings and shrimp deal) and
Cabana Breezes on the Atlantic where Gary found their fish and chips to be very good (until he had the fish fry at Jolly Roger - now nothing comes close). Also in Key Colony, there is this beautiful little Sunset Park which provides a beautiful setting to watch the sunset.
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| Iguana making a run for it up the tree |
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| Gary enjoying fish and chips at Cabana Breezes |
There are often kite surfers on the Atlantic side on a breezy day. We watched this guy catching serious air almost right on the beach, just beside and around the Cabana Breezes dock.
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