and now for Key Largo

We had left the third day of our stay in southern Florida open and unanimously agreed that we wanted to go to Key Largo from what we had seen the day before. We headed back south and returned to the Key Largo Welcome Center for information, quickly settling on a couple of boat tours and found we could get discounted tickets and reservations for them there at the welcome center.

Our first stop was at Pirates Cove Watersports for the Eco Tour which travels around Florida Bay between the keys and the mainland and the local channels. Luckily for us, we were the only people there and got our boat all to ourselves. Our Captain was Doug who frequently apologized when we were unable to locate any dolphins or manatees although he seemed quite knowledgeable about them and their habits and habitats.

Out in the bay we spotted a sandbar with several kinds of birds parked on it. It was fascinating to see them standing on this narrow spit of sand, almost appearing, especially at a distance, to be standing on the water. Here and elsewhere there were the darker waters often appearing when manatees are rooting around on the sea bed but they can stay down for quite a while, sometimes as long as twenty minutes. 

We continued back into the channels looking for the elusive manatees. The one above was more of a backwater but there were also a lot of channels through residential areas so people could live by the water with a boat dock and everything right there in their back yard.

Back at the home dock, the tide was out and the step up on to the dock was high ... I didn't quite manage it, catching the tip of my flip flop and falling on to my knees. I acquired a few bruises and minor cuts on my knees, the worst of the fall being twisting my foot and the big toe joint. I already had a bruise on my right leg about midway so guess I was just adding insult to injury!

We headed out quickly in order to make it in time to our other boat tour ... this one the glass bottom boat,  the Princess II out into the ocean to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the only undersea park in the United States.

Fortunately my fall didn't hurt much (yet) so didn't interfere with this second trip.The first part of the trip out to the reef area was quite boring and since I am prone to seasickness I used what tricks I knew to keep it under control: look to where the boat is going, keep my eyes on the horizon as much as possible, and, of course, try not to think about it! I was fairly successful, never feeling slightly more than a little queasy. It was some how reassuring to see those little white sickness bags so clearly sometimes they do have people that get sick.

And, no, my picture of the glass bottom wasn't as good as the one above that I stole from a web site!

We finally got out to the coral reef park and so bits of reef and a lot of different fish including parrot fish and clown fish although I didn't manage to see any of those myself. I did see a couple of rays, also known as skates. I'm not sure but I think the two rays I saw were either devil rays or the cownose ray pictured here.

Again, we have seen reefs and rays and most of these other fish in aquariums and in pictures but it is so much more meaningful to see them in their own natural habitat even when the real thing is less visible or less impressive.

After the Princess returned to dock we went back to Pirates Cove Watersports to reassure them that we had no significant injuries and so I could look around the gift shop and then on to lunch/dinner at Lobster Larry's which sounds like that's where Big Betsy (in my Key West blog) should be!

The next day we headed home and after struggling through good old Miami traffic (ugh!) we were northbound on I-95 where we saw a lot of motorcyclists, many probably headed for Bike Week in Daytona Beach which this year runs from March 8th to March 17th including four with Florida Outlaws MC vests, one of which said 'Probationary Outlaw' which made me curious but you can't find everything online no matter what they say!