1249 April 1, 2025 Sea Life

Another campground walk this morning.  I saw people peering into the water along the seawall.  I stopped to look and saw spiny lobsters sticking their heads out. 

I also saw lots of bigger fish.

We packed lunch and drove to the Old Seven Mile Bridge with our bikes.  We had a great ride.

At mm1.4 I saw shadows moving through the water.  We stopped to look and saw about half a dozen rays.  We watched them for a long time before moving on.  On our return trip, the rays were still there.

We took our picnic and found a table in the shade and along the water.

This afternoon it was hot.  I put on my bathing suit and went to the pool.  I did about 10 easy laps and it felt so nice. This guy visited the pool to get a sip of water.

I grilled mushrooms and onions and peppers and shrimp and made tacos with black beans for our dinner.

We went out to watch the sunset and ended up talking with Norma from Michigan.  This is her first trip to the Keys and so we shared lots of fun ideas with her.

1248 March 31, 2025 Bahia Honda

Another walk doing laps in the campground.  It was already 77 degrees this morning.  The forecast was for a high of 78.  There isn’t as much diurnal variation in the temperature and the sun feels more intense than just a few weeks ago. 

We packed lunch and put the bikes on the back of the Jeep.  We drove to Bahia Honda.  We started with a five- or six-mile bike ride through the park.  We stopped under a bridge for a drink of water, glad for the shade.

We found a great picnic table under the trees and with a waterfront view.

We shared our picnic area with a lizard.  We have seen these everywhere.  He is a brown anole.  He was doing pushups as a display of his supreme physical condition.  He was either trying to attract a female or scare off another competing male.

The yellow flag was flying indicating moderate surf and current conditions. The purple flag was also out, signaling the presence of stinging marine life.

The tide was high and there wasn’t much beach. There were great piles of smelly seagrass along the shoreline. The park does not remove the seagrass. It is part of the ecosystem and shorebirds find their food in the tangled grasses. The seagrass also helps to prevent erosion of the sand.

This evening, we went to Islamorada to try Papa Joe’s Waterfront Restaurant.  We enjoyed our dinner.

We have just a few days left here.  We were talking about the things we would like to do with our remaining time.