TROPICAL PARADISE IS TWO HOURS AWAY

     Spring break is ending. We spent most of ours camping on the ocean at Long Key State Park.
How lucky we are to live 85 miles and forty bucks a night from this.

   We brought Pi, our bikes and kayak with us.

    We spent one day in Key West. Our bicycles glided us past the marvelous old houses and landmarks that make the southernmost city unique. We had lunch at the dog-friendly Blue Heaven restaurant and steered clear of most of the touristy stuff.
 

 
 Our new son, Carlos, joined us the last two days. We took him to Marathon's Keys Fisheries restaurant for the freshest of stone crabs.   


    The next day we visited Robbie's in Islamorada watching folks feed bait fish to the hungry tarpon lurking under the dock.

                 Tarpon feeding on distant dock



Hiking through our park's mangrove forest we crossed a bridge and saw manatees slowly swimming in the clear green stream. The water looked so inviting I suggested to Carlos that we strip down and jump in.


 

    We did

 and the outgoing tide quickly swept us out to sea. The "sea"here is two feet deep so we easily swam along the shore until we came to an opening in the mangroves.

 As our adventurous day was ending

  we started a fire, plugged in the party lights,  


 

and prepared a feast on the grill.  




   

What fun we had renting our own piece of paradise for a few nights. Even the beach was smiling.




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