The Florida Keys 2006

If you go far enough south, you just run into the ocean. We stopped short of that, though Carolyn and Allison did swim at the state park on the southern end of Key West. The itinerary (click the links for pictures): we drove south on 75 into central Florida, where we visited Carolyn's father and brother briefly. From there we turned down the Florida Turnpike, ran into a huge traffic jam, turned back, and followed the east coast down past Palm Beach. We shifted westward, skirting Miami, and then finally arrived somewhere worth seeing.

Allison with Grandpa Adams' dog Bear

We stopped at Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, where we took a glass-bottom boat excursion -- highly recommended! The reef was beautiful (which you can't tell from our pictures), the birds were neat, and the fish were -- well, they were fish, and we saw a good number of them around the reef.

The day after that we visited the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, where Allison got to pet and shake hands with a dolphin. I have heard wonderful things about places featuring dolphin-human interaction. However, I do not recommend this particular attraction. Prices were high, the 'shows' were not that enjoyable, and while Allison did find meeting the dolphin quite delightful, she and we found the rest of the experience less than desirable. The dolphins generally seemed to have fun, so I'm not accusing the operators of mistreating dolphins. However, I could easily have conceived of arrangements that would have been more enjoyable for both the dolphins and the paying patrons.

As for Key West, we spent three nights there. The evening of arrival we drove to the Duval Street area, paid an outrageous sum of money to park, and spent the evening sight-seeing. We dined in the open air at a great Thai restaurant. Here are some of our general sight-seeing pictures from all three days -- including the picture of a chicken who looked very much like the one I almost ran over. Yes, there were chickens in the streets! Chickens wandering everywhere! And a chicken that decided to cross the street right in front of me.

The next morning was our trip to Marathon. We took pictures of some of the channels, cuts, and old bridges on the way down. Then it was back to Key West, another huge parking fee, and a visit to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum (their site) -- another highly recommended item! The museum was well laid-out, included a reasonable number of real artifacts and appropriate displays of reproductions. The museum was both historically informative and fun.

We spent our last morning glancing at the ruins of the Zachary Taylor Fort on Key West (one of the most useless military installations ever built, I understand) and swimming off the beach at Zachary Taylor Fort State Park. The beach was okay, the water was warm. Carolyn and Allison had a great time.

Then it was time to spend another fortune to park the car, and for us to spend another afternoon and evening in the tourist centers of Key West. We visited the Hemingway home in Key West (their site) and Carolyn took a slew of pictures of the grounds about the house and the Hemingway cats (descendents of Ernest Hemingway's cats). We spent the rest of the evening wandering in and out of souvenir shops, ate at another open-air restaurant (excellent Mexican food this time), and looking at the galleries of various local artists.

We drove through the edge of the Everglades on the trip back, but have no pictures. We were in a driving rain from Homestead to near Naples, so we didn't have many photo-ops. No alligators (which is okay by me); no more birds (a disappointment); and no nice pictures of the grassy rivers and the cyprus trees (a definite disappointment).

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