Tuesday was an easy going day, marked with a miniature golf game between Steve and Vicki. Steve won, probably because he brought the wrong putter for Vicki. Who keeps an unused putter in their golf bag? V: Hey, that extra-wide-head putter holds my golf towel. Makes perfect sense to me.
We also played a game on Tuesday night. Steve won, but there was some confusion about the rules. So Vicki was looking for a revenge round in the future. V: He beat me in the rematch but I killed him in Catan w Cities and Knights. We all have our giftings.
Wednesday, we dropped Lexie off at doggie day care again, she was very excited to go. V: she didn’t even look back at us, very excitedly went inside to find her doggie friends.
After that we went to Biscayne National Park, where we walked around for a couple of hours before our snorkel trip. We enjoyed the peaceful space on Biscayne Bay, peaceful even with the Miami skyline in the background.
Vicki rented a shorty wet suit, Steve wore the full length wet suit gifted from Dan. Wet suits were a good idea, the water was in the 60’s. We had two snorkel stops, one by a rocky bottom and the other near a sunken barge and mangrove trees.
Vicki spotted more fish than Steve, including a decent sized trunkfish. But Vicki got too cold after the first immersion to go out the second time. So Steve soloed to look at the sunken barge (lots of fish in the barge, and a turtle) and to swim along the mangrove roots. V: the water was beautiful but frighteningly cold even in the wetsuit. I’ve got great extremity circulation but it took about 3 hours to get feeling back into my frozen fingertips.
We stopped at the Boca Chita lighthouse, which was a party island for the rich back around 1920.
On the return trip our boat was surrounded by a pod of dolphins (and their calves). Sorry, no pictures. Dolphin appearances were quick and unpredictable. V: Biscayne National Park was one of the most beautiful national parks I’ve seen, and the biggest I’ve seen so far because with 172,971 acres, the park is 95% water based. The land area includes 4825 acres of undeveloped mangrove shoreline and 4,250 acres scattered across 42 keys.
Friday was the snorkel trip to the reefs outside of Key Largo. The boat, Sundiver III, zoomed us out quickly 5 miles offshore to the reef. The water was warmer, but much rougher (1-3 foot waves) than Key Biscayne. Some people on the trip got very seasick!
We saw some awesome fish swimming around the reef. Vicki again saw more fish than Steve, and Steve stopped taking pictures so he could see the fish rather than try to take pictures. V: The pictures didn’t do justice to what we saw and those fish just would not pose for us.
After the snorkel trip we went to John Pennekamp State Park (https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/john-pennekamp-coral-reef-state-park), eating at their food truck, visiting their museum, and walking around the beach. This state park is definitely worth visiting again.
The road to and from Key Largo was along US 1, with palm trees and water on both sides. V: there was a detectable different vibe once we got on Key Largo. We look forward to exploring more Keys in the future. We’ve been to Key West on a separate trip. We’re talking about driving the Keys like my sister Lauren did in February but I don’t think I want to do that in the Winnebago on all those skinny bridges.
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