Florida Trip 2009

December 27, 2008 - February 15, 2009

What a good year this was. We left Annapolis December 27th on a nice relatively warm day and headed south anxious to get to Key West. Traffic heading south on I-95 was an absolute nightmare! Never before had we seen such heavy traffic. Stop and maybe go, stop and maybe go and on and on. Each day we had to drive an extra two hours longer than planned just to arrive at our planned stop for the night, Finally we got to South Florida and onto Route 1 heading down into the keys. Traffic was light and we thought the rest of the trip, all 120 miles, would be easy. Whoa, we were thinking too soon. After a few miles we encountered a sign saying accident ahead prepare to stop. And stop we did, a motorcycle and car came together. Finally we started moving again until Marathon when we came to another unexplained stop. Well we should have arrived at Sigsbee in Key West about 1:00, we actually arrived about 3:30. But it felt good to see the palm trees, warm weather and sunshine. We got checked in at the office, picked our spot, got set up and headed for the Sunset Lounge for a snack. Another surprise, the kitchen was closed 'for the season'. I guess they think people don't eat between Christmas and New Years.

Lets start our photo journey.

The bottom photo is the only one from I-95 and this was the morning of the third day which started out with light traffic but very foggy. The rest of the photos are on Route 1 on the way down through the Keys.

Only 123 more miles to go.

It’s a beautiful ride through the Keys.  We always enjoy the blue skies and ocean, occasional wildlife (especially osprey and kingfishers that hang out on the electric wires), and look forward to landmarks along the way – Pennekamp State Park and the wild bird rehabilitation center in Key Largo, favorite restaurants, brown pelicans, palm trees everywhere, the skinny highway in the upper Keys, with ocean water on both sides, Seven Mile Bridge, being on the lookout for Key deer, and finally, that wonderful welcoming sign in Key West.  Here we are in the lower Keys and finally arriving at Key West (center). This cat, Bandit, was happy to be there and out of his carrier.

The temperature is about 80, time for shorts and t-shirts. Our dog does not like the water, even when we put her on a little island. This year, we bought folding bicycles in Key West and discovered we need to train for a couple of months before next year’s trip!  It was a great way to get to the Navy Exchange, and cruise around the campground.  Pat made her annual pilgrimage to the Seam Shoppe for tropical quilting fabrics.

We have to walk around and do a few tourist things while the other cat, Beamer, does what he does best, rests in the motorhome. Key West is still decorated from Christmas and New Year's.

While wandering around town looking for a place to watch the sunset, we walked along Duval St. and spotted some fellow campers driving their tricked out golf cart around town, a part of the parade of eclectic locals and tourists.

After looking for a couple years we found the tombstone that says 'I told you I was sick'. We went to the Blue Heaven for breakfast this year where you can take a shower for $1.00 or watch for $2.00. At the end of most days it was the Sunset Lounge for a laid-back drink and snack.

The Butterfly Conservatory on Duval Street is one of our favorite places to visit in Key West.

Some of our other favorite places include the botanical garden, Dairy Queen, and riding around looking for funky sculptures in front of homes, at corner parks, the weather service, cemetary, schools and elsewhere. There are surprises around every corner.

Key West is nice and the trip would not be the same without it however we have to move on. We have reservations in Miami where we get to experience a completely different world from Key West.

We stay in southwest Miami which is about half-way between the Royal Palm and SharkValley Everglades visitors centers. We enjoy going to the Everglades and watching the wildlife.

There is more to do in Miami than the Everglades. This year we went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. This is a large tropical garden with plants and flowers from all over the world. They have a narrated tram ride through the gardens or you can walk the many trails. I would suggest taking the tram ride first and then walking.

We found Fairchild interesting enough that we went back several times. We also took a tour boat ride through Miami Harbor where we got a narrated tour of the sights including the water front homes of the rich and famous.

This year, we decided to try out a few new spots in the Miami area.  Besides returning to our old dependable restaurants in Homestead, we found a new Spanglish restaurant, discovered good sandwiches at the botanical garden, and found wi-fi at Denny’s and the public library to catch up on our email.  Pat found The Quilt Scene, an excellent quilt shop near our campground, with interesting classes and well-known teachers, beautiful fabrics, and knowledgeable staff. 

Biscayne National Park has been on our list of things to do for a number of years.

At Biscayne Bay National Park, we got lucky with the weather and took a boat ride to Boca Chita Key, the northernmost of the Florida Keys, where we climbed the small lighthouse and enjoyed a brief walk around the island.  The weather was good, the ranger’s talk was excellent, and we met people from Maryland on the small boat taking us to the island!  Small world. 

And of couse the Miami Zoo. It seems like the zoo gets better every year. We thought we had seen all there was to see at the zoo, but on a chilly day, with discount coupons in hand, we decided to spend a day there again, and were glad we did.  This year, a beautiful new Amazonian exhibit opened, and we thoroughly enjoyed exhibits of animals, reptiles, and fish from South and Central America.    The new exhibit has nearly doubled the size of the exhibit space at the zoo, and you now need about two days to see everything.  However, the food offerings were pretty dismal, unless you really like hot dogs!

Another of our standard stops is the Wild Bird Center around MM95 on Route 1. This is a wild bird rehabilitation center that also attracts a lot of visiting birds.

Key West

Florida Everglades

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Miami Harbor

Biscayne National Park

Miami Zoo

Wild Bird Center

John & Pat Horm

On New Year's Day the Sigsbee MWR hosted a pig roast for the several hundred campers at Sigsbee and Trumbo Point. Thanks MWR!

In the Everglades, we maintain our (so far) fruitless lookout for the Florida panther.  However we are dependably rewarded with sightings of black and yellow crowned night heron families and alligator babies at Shark Valley, where this year the snowy egrets made a remarkable comeback, in large numbers.  It’s entertaining to watch them fish, and their breeding plumage is so frothy!   Along the long road to Flamingo, we spotted large numbers of roseate spoonbills overhead, near their annual breeding sites.  Flamingo itself is still a disappointment, as it is not yet rebuilt from hurricane damage of a couple of years ago, and the marina store was out of stock on everything from tee shirts to chips.  We keep trying to take a boat ride there, but the weather often does not cooperate in January.  At Royal Palm, the hundreds of alligators showed themselves on sunny days; the anhinga nests were full of young, and the heron were plentiful.  We saw great blues, little blues, tricolored, green, and night herons, purple gallinules, and pine warblers and other small birds that moved too quickly for us to photograph or identify.  At sunset, the skies were full of flocks of birds flying to nighttime roosts.

The Fairchild Botanical Garden left us wondering what they have blooming the rest of the year, if winter is so beautiful – and next year, we promised ourselves to try to attend the chocolate festival and Valentine’s Day concert. 

Comments? Send me an e-mail.