For the last week, we’ve been in Fiesta Key, Florida. For those of you who don’t want to run to a map right now, I’ll help you out by saying that the Keys are a long chain of islands off the southern tip of Florida, the largest of which are connected by a road called the Overseas Highway, Route 1 (as an aside, we were on this same road in Maine in September!). In Fiesta Key, we are in the very middle of that long chain of islands. We can drive down to Key West, the southernmost point of the US, in about 1 1/2 hours and can be up in Miami in about 2 hours.
We are here for the dreaded polar blast that most of the eastern Untied States is experiencing. If this sounds familiar, some of you might remember our impeccable timing last February as we rolled into southwest Houston for their Polar Blast when our water froze and we lost power. This is somewhat less exciting than that, I must admit. But we did get our fair share of gale force winds and yesterday (for shame!) the high temperature was only 62°. This morning, as we rose to break camp, it was a chilly 50°. Much colder than we anticipated, but not at all unwelcome when our beloved neighbors in Michigan are huddled inside their warm homes because the temp is -6.
We wanted to share with you some of our favorite moments from the week.
Night walks: Every night with flashlights, we walked around Fiesta Key through the marina and walkways to see the night sea life. We spotted many different fish, lobsters, crabs, jellyfish, and of course some new manatee friends!
Theater of the Sea:
This place is a little family owned gem in IslaMorada! The fan favorite was the dolphin show, but the whole park was a blast! We also loved the parrot training show, and the sea lion show was pretty amazing as well!
Key West: We drove south for the day and had an amazing lunch at DJ’s, toured the Fort and looked for shells at Zachary Taylor State park, unintentionally walked through the slums of Key West, had an amazing dinner at a brewery in the Marina, and ate tropical ice cream!
Snorkeling Alligator Reef and the lighthouse: I feel like I need to clarify here- this was only a highlight for Aaron and Shari . The kids were not fans! We took off in a snorkel boat from the famous Robby’s (home of hand feeding of the tarpons, but I don’t recommend it- the pelicans are vicious!!) ready in wetsuits for the chilly water. We saw nurse sharks, barracudas, and millions of colorful reef fish. The kids thought the water was too cold and all the sea life made them nervous. But they all enjoyed chatting up the cute deckhands in the boat while mom and dad explored the underwater world.
Swimming in the pool at our resort: We did not swim in the ocean at the resort. But the pool did have amazing ocean views. And I’m glad we made that choice. It wasn't the nicest beach entrance and someone caught a 7foot bull shark there during our stay!
Birthday Celebration: We woke up and started with presents, pancakes, fishing, and moved into pool time and an amazing dinner overlooking the ocean. We ended with cupcakes and video calls to grandma and Dziadzia and other family!
Bahia Honda State Park! Amazing beaches on both the Atlantic and Gulf sides. We played and found lots to study here!
Onward to Fort Pierce and Vero Beach!!
It looks beautiful there! Sorry about the chilly weather.... but yes, much better than MI. Hugs to all!