Hog Heaven in Islamorada was recommended by friends so we headed up there for lunch on our day off. Cute decor with an island theme inside (wicker motorbikes and bamboo on the walls), I am sure it is a party scene at night. We very much enjoyed the peaceful ambience on their dock and relaxing on their private little island with sandy beach.
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| Ready for lunch at Hog Heaven |
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| Their private marina - pull up in your boat! |
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| The bar in back; seating towards the bar and also looking out over the marine in to the Atlantic |
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| Gary fish-watching as we wait for our lunch on the dock |
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| Relaxing on the sandy beach |
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| A calm day on the Atlantic |
Just across the road from Hog Heaven is
Windley Key Fossil Reef State Park. This was a limestone quarry on some of the "highest land" in the keys. A quarry anywhere else in the keys would hit water about 3 feet down, whereas this is 15ft elevation. They even have hills! The rangers are helpful, the visitor center has excellent and informative displays about the formation of the keys and the limestone quarries. They also provide a guidebook for all the trail markers so you can learn about Florida trees, barbwire cactus, and the fossilized reef which makes such beautiful limestone. I went in and chatted with a ranger while Gary wandered about outside the building. So...he missed the ranger's helpful warning about "Poisonwood", a tree which is purported to be "worse than poison oak". Of course, I don't go around touching stuff anyway...not with the plentitude of spiders and scorpions and other critters in the keys! So I walked out of the building, met up with Gary, and we hit the trail. Immediately Gary is on the side of the trail, hands all over a tree trunk and practically hugging the tree...what the??? Okay, well some like to learn the hard way.
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| Gumbo Limbo "tourist tree" wood is very soft and was sought after for carving carousel horses |
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| the quarry wall |
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| amazing fossilized brain coral |
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