Week Two in the Keys

Saturday, Dec 16 … A light rain has been falling most of the morning. This morning stopped at the garden club display of Florida Keys Christmas trees. There were some really unique trees all with a water or Florida flavor to them. Tomorrow is a move day - South Miami Heights!
Friday, Dec 15 … At about 1:00 a.m. was awakened by heavy rain. About 1:30 p.m. we rode the bikes into Key Colony Beach to the Sunset Park. We ogled over many of the awesome homes on the shore in this area. When we got back to the mh we had been gone for almost 1hr 45mins and had ridden for approximately 10 miles.
Thursday, Dec 14 … Took a long walk/jog in the morning. Had to find the town laundry in the afternoon as there is not one in the state park. In the evening, we went back to Sparky’s Landing and had happy hour shrimp, wings and draft beer. This time the weather permitted us to sit outside on the patio overlooking the canal. The waitress said it was ok to throw our shrimp peels into the water. We did and watched the fish swarm after them. We drove around & viewed the Christmas lights.
Wednesday, Dec 13 … As our morning exercise, we rode our bikes the 3.5 miles on the Overseas Highway to the Dolphin Research Center located in the small town of Grassy Key. We decided to come back after our bike ride. Later, we spent about 4 hours at the facility and thoroughly enjoyed it. The Dolphin Research center is where the 50's movie, Flipper was filmed -we saw 2 of the Flipper dolphin decendents. It is a not-for-profit organization with goals to promote peaceful coexistence, cooperation and communication between marine mammals and humans and the environment we share through research and education. There are 19 Bottlenose Dolphins here and to see them up close and witness some the things these animals are trained to do was truly amazing. We watched them take a brush in their mouth and “paint” a t-shirt. They did out-of-the-water jumps, wave to the crowd, “talk” to the trainer, “walk” on water, surf and more. On this day, they had a newborn calf that was born earlier this morning. We watched as it swam & was nursed by its’ mother. The adults weighed from 400 to almost 600 pounds. Even though they normally live into their 30’s, the oldest, Theresa, is estimated to be over 50 years old. She has been at the research center since 1968 and was with the U. S. Navy for several years prior to that. All in all it was right up there with one of ‘the neatest places we’ve been’.
Tuesday, Dec 12 … Another cloudy day but not much wind to speak of so we decided to rent a kayak from the Ranger at the park. At one point, while in clear water only about 18 inches deep, we spotted a sting ray that appeared to be about 12 inches in width with a stinger of about 6 to 8 inches long. We also saw some pelicans perched on a post while quietly gliding through the smooth water of one of the side canals. Boy are they an odd looking bird.
Monday, Dec 11 … Took a drive into Marathon to do some errands. Biked in the afternoon & then sat outside and read and enjoyed the great view.
Sunday, Dec 10 … We did a bike ride of about 4 miles. When we returned to the park, it was time to move from our current site to another so we could stay another week at this lovely park on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Keys. We pulled in forward at this site so we could look out our front window & see the water -another beautiful view for another week. After we got set up, a motorhome (& 1 tent) with 4 adults and 6 kids parked in the site next to us. They speak French - we think they are from Canada but not sure as they speak very little English. We watched several 'kite surfers' on the water - it's like wind surfing but they are attached to a large kite. They even jump off the water & sail (looks like fun but alot of work). Later , we drove the short distance to Key Colony Beach for a lighted boat parade on one of the several canals in town. It consisted of a dozen or so lighted and decorated boats. Some even had live music on board.