We slept very well at our last night in the Homestead Travelodge. After dressing and doing some German lessons, we walked to the motel’s breakfast area for tea and cold sugar cereal. It was busier than yesterday with a family of five, two couples and a grouchy old guy. He was clearly a Florida resident since he was wearing a puffer coat despite temperatures in the upper 50s, but he certainly had a northeastern accent and attitude. He was talking loudly on his cell phone in speaker mode. He was having a dispute with someone over a credit card surcharge. It was impossible to hear anything in the room other than his rants. We finished our food and returned to the room.
We stopped at Dagney Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park where we walked the two mile loop through the park, stopping to read labels on many of the plants. We continued south but were running early and couldn’t check into our rental house until 4 pm. We stopped at a couple of state parks, looking for a place that we could spend a couple of hours with something interesting to do. The state parks all charge a fee to enter so we wanted to choose well.
We had driven about halfway down the Keys when we came to Long Key State Park. Mary looked it up online and it appeared to be a good place for us. It was a little after noon so the timing was perfect to find a lunch spot. We had quite a spread of lunch choices between all of the things we picked up at Aldi and what Jodi and Grant brought. After lunch, I helped a family find a geocache in the park and gave them one of the geo coins that I brought to Florida with me. A friendly park employee stopped by and gave Mary, Cindy and Jodie information about hiking trails and interesting things to see in the park.
We took the advice of the ranger and walked the nature trail along the island’s perimeter. With the sun up and the temperature in the 70s, we were very comfortable on our walk. The park has great campsites that are typically reserved over a year in advance. There are plenty of picnic spots and a few wading areas. The Keys have few beaches like the mainland, but there are small areas for wading. While walking we spotted a large iguana. These nonnative lizards have become very common thriving in the warm climate of the Florida Keys. After our walk we asked the helpful ranger for dinner recommendations in the lower Keys He suggested Castaways on 15th street, near the Seven Mile Bridge on Marathon Key.
We got organized and continued driving south on Route 1, stopping at one of the fishing piers that are on most of the bridges between the islands. The air had warmed considerably into the mid 70s, but there was a breeze making a long sleeve shirt feel comfortable. We stayed at the pier only long enough to shake the dust off and stretch before finishing our drive to the rental.
Finding our accommodations, Pelico Paradise, was easy since Sugarloaf Key isn’t large. The house is on a Pelico Road not far from the island’s school. It is a large two story home on concrete piers situated on a spacious lot. It has a sitting area, kitchen, dining area and master bedroom on the first floor. The second floor has four additional bedrooms including another master suite. Two of the bedrooms had an individual outside deck as well as spacious decks on the front and rear of the house. The house is well equipped with everything we might need for our stay. There is a fire pit in the yard, a small pond with small fish and even kayaks under the house. We were certain that we would be comfortable here for our stay. Mary and Cindy found the house on Vacasa which is like AirBnB and VRBO. We relaxed for a bit and walked around to familiarize ourselves with the property before making dinner plans. As Castaways was 20 miles back on Marathon Key, Mary found Mangrove Mama’s with good reviews just a short distance from our rental house.
We arrived around 5:30 and had no problem getting a table. We ordered drinks, mostly margaritas, then our meals. Mary had Mahi tacos, and I had a seafood quesadilla. We shared our meals and enjoyed them. My quesadilla reminded me of the seafood enchiladas that a had in the southwest several years ago. Grant and Jodie enjoyed their grouper sandwich and chicken quesadilla respectively, but Mark and Cindy didn’t think their meals were anything special. Cindy had the broiled grouper, and Mark had the Angus hamburger with onion rings.
We chatted and told stories for about an hour then Grant turned in for the night. I called Steve Minor with directions to the rental and with our plans for Tuesday. Mary, Cindy, Mark, Jodie and I played Phase 10 until after 10 pm. We had one interruption in the game when an alarm sounded outside. Mark and I went outside to the source of the alarm where a bright red light was flashing. There was a sign on the alarm telling how to silence it, giving us an idea that this occurs frequently. The sign also directed us to not use any water for 15 minutes after silencing the alarm. We later learned that the alarm was related to a pump for the wastewater system. As usual, Mary dominated the game and I was in a distant last place when we paused the game at 10 pm.
We took the advice of the ranger and walked the nature trail along the island’s perimeter. With the sun up and the temperature in the 70s, we were very comfortable on our walk. The park has great campsites that are typically reserved over a year in advance. There are plenty of picnic spots and a few wading areas. The Keys have few beaches like the mainland, but there are small areas for wading. While walking we spotted a large iguana. These nonnative lizards have become very common thriving in the warm climate of the Florida Keys. After our walk we asked the helpful ranger for dinner recommendations in the lower Keys He suggested Castaways on 15th street, near the Seven Mile Bridge on Marathon Key.
We got organized and continued driving south on Route 1, stopping at one of the fishing piers that are on most of the bridges between the islands. The air had warmed considerably into the mid 70s, but there was a breeze making a long sleeve shirt feel comfortable. We stayed at the pier only long enough to shake the dust off and stretch before finishing our drive to the rental.
Finding our accommodations, Pelico Paradise, was easy since Sugarloaf Key isn’t large. The house is on a Pelico Road not far from the island’s school. It is a large two story home on concrete piers situated on a spacious lot. It has a sitting area, kitchen, dining area and master bedroom on the first floor. The second floor has four additional bedrooms including another master suite. Two of the bedrooms had an individual outside deck as well as spacious decks on the front and rear of the house. The house is well equipped with everything we might need for our stay. There is a fire pit in the yard, a small pond with small fish and even kayaks under the house. We were certain that we would be comfortable here for our stay. Mary and Cindy found the house on Vacasa which is like AirBnB and VRBO. We relaxed for a bit and walked around to familiarize ourselves with the property before making dinner plans. As Castaways was 20 miles back on Marathon Key, Mary found Mangrove Mama’s with good reviews just a short distance from our rental house.
We arrived around 5:30 and had no problem getting a table. We ordered drinks, mostly margaritas, then our meals. Mary had Mahi tacos, and I had a seafood quesadilla. We shared our meals and enjoyed them. My quesadilla reminded me of the seafood enchiladas that a had in the southwest several years ago. Grant and Jodie enjoyed their grouper sandwich and chicken quesadilla respectively, but Mark and Cindy didn’t think their meals were anything special. Cindy had the broiled grouper, and Mark had the Angus hamburger with onion rings.
We chatted and told stories for about an hour then Grant turned in for the night. I called Steve Minor with directions to the rental and with our plans for Tuesday. Mary, Cindy, Mark, Jodie and I played Phase 10 until after 10 pm. We had one interruption in the game when an alarm sounded outside. Mark and I went outside to the source of the alarm where a bright red light was flashing. There was a sign on the alarm telling how to silence it, giving us an idea that this occurs frequently. The sign also directed us to not use any water for 15 minutes after silencing the alarm. We later learned that the alarm was related to a pump for the wastewater system. As usual, Mary dominated the game and I was in a distant last place when we paused the game at 10 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment