Day 3: Snorkeling, Sightseeing, and Not Sleeping

We started Day 3 off bright and early with a drive up to Key Largo for a snorkeling trip from Pennekamp Coral Reef Park. I was really looking forward to snorkeling among the reefs and it was the main reason that I decided to head south for the warm waters of Florida for my trip.

The boat we boarded at Pennekamp took us out to North White Banks Reef. This underwater world was amazing! I saw so many colorful coral and tropical fish out there. The water temperature was in the low 70s, so my wetsuit came in handy. I did begin to feel the chill right before we climbed back aboard the boat. We were out there an hour and a half but I refused to come out of the water until I had to. I just gave way to the pulsing and swaying of the water and all its creatures. Back on board, people were discussing the animals they saw and I was so sad to know that I missed seeing a Tiger Shark who swam up to and skirted the reef! Boooo to that!

Before leaving the park, I went over to Canon Beach and swam out to the buoy that marks a Spanish Galleon wreck. The wreck didn’t actually happen here (130 ft. offshore) but was moved and recreated here so that snorkelers could easily enjoy it. So what did I see when I swam out there? Nothing! Not even my hand! The nearby mangroves had fogged the water into a reddish muck! I learned something about myself, too. If I can’t see underwater, I can’t breathe underwater, either! I guess it’s a form of claustrophobia, but whatever the case, I quickly removed my snorkel and mask and swam right back to shore.

It was late morning when we left Largo for Key West again. We further explored the island and took in all the sites. We weren’t able to tarry there for very long after sunset as we needed to go to bed early so that we could get up extremely early. When I say early, I’m talking about 4:45 a.m. early! We needed to take down our tent, get dressed and ready and leave by 5:30 so that we could make it to back to Key West (Yes, again!) by 7:15 to check in for our trip out the Dry Tortugas.

The only stop we made on our way back to camp was by the Key Deer Refuge. The Key Deer is an endangered sub-species of the Whitetail Deer that live only in a small section of the Keys. What makes them unique is that they stand only 2 ½ feet at the shoulder full grown! They are so cute! I wasn’t expecting to see one, but we pulled the car in a turnabout and there she was! I wish that I could’ve gotten better picture, but I didn’t want to scare her away, so I took this through the windshield of my car.

Driving across the many bridges back to the campsite was long and tiring. I can’t explain how excited I was going to be to get a nice shower and fall immediately asleep—I’m talking still with wet hair kind of immediate!

Back at camp, showering's done. I’m feeling wonderfully tired and settle into my sleeping bag. It’s about 10:15 p.m. and I can still hear the noise of other campers despite the passing into the quiet hours, which began at 10:00 pm. I try to tune them out. I almost fell asleep three times…except that every time I am nearly there the squealing and screaming and yelling of these kids in the playground jolted me awake. I yell out the tent, “STOP SCREAMING!” and try to fall asleep again.

It was no good. The brats were being brattier than ever! I looked through the tent’s window and to my total dismay and raging, high blood pressure, I see the IDIOT mother playing with them! It’s nearly 11:00--an hour past quiet time began--and this stupid excuse of a mother was out there encouraging her children to be a distraction! I was so pissed off! No one interferes with my sleep!

I slide on my shoes and storm out of the tent. I am hardly to the playground fence when I began to yell, “Hey! Quiet hours began at 10:00! There are people trying to sleep here and no one can with all this yelling and noise! I have to get up very early tomorrow and I don’t think you would like it if I were as disrespectful of you by being loud while you’re trying to sleep! MY GOD! BE QUIET!” Can you believe that this pitiful excuse of a parent didn’t even respond to me!?! But at least they were quiet after that. As soon as my blood pressure dropped back into the normal range, I found sleep at last.

...And that’s when the storm blew in with the thunder and high winds. And as heavy a sleeper as I can be, I just might have slept through it all if I had the time to fall into a deep enough sleep--like if I had fallen asleep when I planned to before all the racket! Damn kids and their dumb mom!

As I plugged my ears from the thunder (and blamed my alertness to it on those kids) I began to plot my sweet revenge. Stay tuned for the excitn conclusion of my trip. For now, here's some photos...

Isn't this a sexy picture of me sporting my snorkel? It's pretty hot, no? I should've bought the tee shirt that said, "I think your snorkel is sexy." haha.
Come to think of it, the picture up top of me sweating away in my wetsuit is a good one, too.





Here's best friend. At least she doesn't look quite as bad as the closeup shot of mine.








Click on these next three and you can see all the fishes hiding in the coral.





























Here are some Key West sights...
A typical house you would find in Key West complete with the typical cats you find there.
I'm not sure why, but Key West is full of cats everywhere.
It's also full of...








Chickens! I don't know what is up with all the chickens! I swear I don't remember seeing this many the last time I visited. They were everywhere this time!









Yay! It's the original Margaritaville! I love me some Jimmy Buffett!






The "new" Sloppy Joe's Bar. I am planning on writing a post about the place that was the original. It's a very cool building and full of colorful history.





This Ernest Hemingway's home. I was SO sad that we didn't have the time to tour the home. I did see a few of the famous 6 toed cats that are all descendants of his cats.






Here's Mallory Square, home of the Sunset Festival, where you can see singing dogs, cats jumping through hoops of fire, men juggling knives while standing on stilts, drunkards, gypsies, fortune tellers, and oh yeah...a great view of the sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico.




Yet another stunning picture of myself. For the life of me, I can't understand why I didn't hook up with a hot man while on vacation! It must have been that I was soooo busy. No time for that. Yeah, that's it.
Anyhoo...here I am a mere 90 miles to Cuba. I was closer to Havana at this point than I was to Miami or anywhere else on the mainland of the US.





The lovely Key West Lighthouse rising above the Banyan trees that suround it.

Just looking at these pictures helps me to forget about this freak cold front we are now all dealing with on the East coast.

Wish I were still there. :)