Long Key State Park

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.

Mark and Cindy went to the nearby McDonalds for breakfast then picked up a dozen Dunkin Donuts, including an apple fritter for me. Mary and I were in the Genesis with Cindy while Mark rode with Grant and Jodie. We made a detour to Robert is Here, a mega fruit stand and tourist attraction between Florida City and the Everglades. We took some snapshots and bought some snacks before driving to US 1 to drive south on the Keys. We made a brief stop on Key Largo at an information center that turned out to be a tourist trap, so we broke out the box of doughnuts and continued our drive. 

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.

Everglades National Park

We slept well at the Florida City Travelodge. The motel checks all of our important boxes: clean, quiet, comfortable. We walked to the breakfast area near the registration desk and found the choices to be disappointing with only three sugar cereals, a little fruit, toast and little muffins to offer. There wasn’t even butter, jelly or peanut butter. We had tea, cereal and a banana before returning to the room.

We got in the car to drive toward the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park. We passed Robert is Here fruit stand but didn’t stop, planning to visit on our way out of the Everglades this afternoon. We entered the park and stopped at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center for information and to visit the displays. I purchased another annual senior pass at the entrance gate. I will probably turn my two expired annual passes next year for a $40 price reduction on a lifetime senior pass.

We stopped at the Royal Palm Visitor Center to walk around the Anhinga Trail and Gumbo Limbo Trail.

Ibis

 No one was in the ranger station when we arrived.  We covered the rental car to prevent the numerous black vultures in the parking lot from destroying the windshield wipers and rubber gaskets on the car. We saw vultures pulling at tarps covering other cars in an attempt to peck at window and door seals or anything made of rubber.

Because of the cold snap, no alligators were visible along the Anhinga Trail, which is very unusual. We also saw very few birds, perhaps because of the cold wind. We did watch a few turtles and fish swimming before we moved on to other trails in the Everglades.

Tree snails

We walked a lot of the trails including the .5 mile Pinelands Trail and the Mahogany Hammock Trail, where we enjoyed finding the tree snails on the cypress trees. The snails are only active during the wet season (spring and summer), but Mary is quite skilled at locating the dormant snails on the trunks of small trees in the hammocks. We were walking on a short trail to a hammock when we heard a young couple hooting like they were looking for an owl. After they started on the path back to the parking lot, I made an owl call that brought the two of them back to the hammock looking for the owl. I was laughing, but Cindy was scolding me to stop. The two looked and looked for the owl and eventually gave up and got about half way to their car, when I called again which brought them running back to the hammock again. We left the area and moved on to visit other areas of the park.

Swamp lily

We went to the Flamingo Visitor Center for lunch. Mary got her National Park Passport stamped for the Flamingo site as well as the southernmost point of mainland US. Because of storm damage, the visitor center is still housed in a temporary facility while the building is being repaired. We had our lunch of peanut butter and crackers near the marina, where a manatee played among the boat slips and an osprey flew with a fish in talons overhead. The osprey nest nearby had young hatchlings awaiting the meal. The usual crocodiles that can be seen at the marina were not there because of the cool and overcast weather.

We walked along the 1 mile Guy Bradley Trail from the marina into the Everglades. We saw a hawk and an osprey very near the trail. We also found several plants that we couldn’t identify so we took snapshots and planned to look them up soon.

On the way back out of the park we stopped at the Eco Pond Trail, a half mile loop around a freshwater pond then on to the Snake Bight Trail that leads to the Florida Bay. We thought that this trail was 0.5 mile each way, but it turned out to be about 1.8 miles each way. Although the walk took longer than we expected, it was a nice walk to an observation platform overlooking coastal mudflats. We saw a number of wading birds feeding, although at a distance since the tide was out.

It was time to leave the park by the time we got back to the car. We drove back to the Travelodge in Homestead cleaned up, met Mark’s sister, Jodie, and his brother-in-law, Grant, for dinner. Because we had such an excellent meal there the night before, we went back to Mario’s Cuban Diner. We all had great meals and enjoyed the conversation. We visited back at the motel, packed to leave for the Keys in the morning, and then turned in for the night.

Lewis and Clark National Historical Park

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

We were able to sleep in until nearly 5:30 this morning. Our room at the Coos Bay Super 8 was much quieter than we expected so we both slept well.

We started packing up after our usual breakfast of raisin bran and yogurt along with a cup of hot tea. We did our morning German lessons and watched a little of the local news then got on US 101 northbound for Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The morning was extremely foggy on the coast, and we had a difficult time seeing so we proceeded to take it slow. Because the air conditioner in the rented Ford Fusion wasn’t working, the defroster didn’t work well either. That made the issues of the fog even worse. Overall, we do not have a very high appraisal for the Ford Fusion and will be happy to see the last of it at the end of our vacation.

Coastal Oregon beach

When we arrived at North Bend, Oregon we learning that the Headquarters for the area was closed due to COVID-19. We took a few snapshots and read the signage before getting back into the car. We stopped at a nearby beach in the Oregon Dunes area and walked along the beach, hoping to see some sea life in the tidal pools. The area we were in had a lot of volcanic rock surrounded by fine sand, but there were not many animals in the surf. We walked among the rocks and watched as people were launching balls for a dog to fetch. Since the tide had started coming in, we decided to walk back to the car before becoming stranded on a rock in high tide.

Hecata Head Lighthouse

We continued north on the 101 and stopped at a few more beaches just for a quick walk. These northern beaches are much rockier than the broad sand beaches of Southern California. Many sea stacks and large boulders line the shore. We saw hundreds of pelagic cormorants swimming and roosting on rocks. We looked for seals and sea lions but didn’t see any until we got to Yaquina Head Lighthouse. This structure built in 1873 has been protecting ships along the coast since. The lighthouse initially had a kerosene light, but it now has electric bulbs that change themselves if a bulb burns out. The lighthouse now operates completely autonomously with no keeper.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Because of COVID-19, we were unable to go up into the lighthouse but were able to walk around the grounds. We took a few snapshots through the dense fog then took the trail down from the lighthouse to the rocky shoreline. We watched as the powerful waves pounded and rolled the fist-sized basalt stones. When each wave retreated, we could hear the stone tumbling in the surf. It is easy to see how the stones became rounded.

As we were watching the waves beat the beach, we saw several harbor seals floating in the surf. They seemed to enjoy the rough seas and swam about as if the water was as smooth as a lake. We walked back up the many stairs from the beach, stopping to read the informative signs along the way. We made our way back to the car and ate our lunch of Ritz Crackers and peanut butter as we drove toward Tillamook, Oregon.

Lewis & Clark's Ft. Clatsop

We had intended to take the tour of the Tillamook Creamery and purchase some locally produced ice cream and cheese curds from the dairy cooperative. However, when we arrived, we saw a long line of people waiting outside to enter the building. We decided to pass up Tillamook for the day and move on to the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park near Astoria, Oregon.

This is the site where the Lewis and Clark expedition overwintered from December 1805 until March 1806, after reaching the Pacific Ocean. This site, only seven miles inland from the Pacific, had access to fish from several streams, wild berries, abundant game and friendly natives. Structures have been reconstructed at the same site as the originals using the carefully drawn renderings from the expedition party. We purchased the National Park Service’s Senior Pass for $20, allowing us unlimited access to all National Parks through October 2021.

Elk herd near Astoria, Oregon

We took the short trail out to the site of the camp then walked a longer trail to canoe launches along the river. Signs along the trail gave information on many of the plants and how the expedition used them. There were few noticeable invasive plants in the area but were mostly plants that would have been seen and used by the Lewis and Clark party.

Just outside the historical site, we saw a herd of wild elk. We counted at least 70 animals grazing and resting in a field. There was one large bull elk and all of the others appeared to be females or juveniles. We had never seen that many wild elk congregated in one place.

We left the historical site a little before 5 pm and stopped at the Walmart in Astoria. I needed to replace the sunglasses that had broken on the trip, and we picked up grocery items that we would need for Saturday’s trip along the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. We continued driving north on 101 into Washington for nearly two hours until we arrived in Aberdeen, Washington. Before going to our room at the Aberdeen Travelodge, we stopped at Arby’s for a couple of turkey reubens. We were both hungry, and there were few choices in Aberdeen. We took the sandwiches to our room and prepared for bed.

The room was typical of motels in this price range. It was a bit noisy, and the television didn’t work. At least, the outlets in the room worked so we could charge our phones and other devices. Since we only needed the room for a place to sleep and shower, we couldn’t really complain.