Sunday PM we drove 90 minutes south to Islamorada in the Keys of south FL. I found a great little place right on the water via AirBnB. This is my 3rd time using this website and I highly recommend it!
There are a few kayaks here for our use and Sunday evening I said to Corey, "we should go out to that island tomorrow." I figured it was too far to swim, but that we could kayak there. I spent 6 consecutive summers of my youth working at a boat house on the Mogadore Reservoir in Ohio. Several of my friends worked their with me during high school and while the islands were not to be trespassed we loved taking the canoes out after hours to explore. (Essentially the extent of my childhood rebellion :)
Corey thought I was a little nuts and starting googling, "how far away is the horizon". He comes back with "4 miles" and then he finds the map of where we are and how far all the other various spots are relative to us. He consistently came up with 4 miles, and then became stoked to make it happen.
Monday morning we slept in until around 5am after a late night dinner (for us) and not getting back until after 8p. (Yes, we are regularly compared to "old people". :)) There were several morning showers and storms, but then just before mid-day the sky cleared and the water was even calmer than in the photo above.
We filled two gallons of water and loaded into the tandem kayak. I was in front and we soon learned that I pull unevenly on my left side and my abilities in CF doesn't immediately transfer over to water sport. :) Corey kept saying how his right shoulder was getting really fatigued and as soon as he would stop paddling the boat would start turning sharply towards the right. Despite repeated patient reminders and cues I never really figured it out all that well. After awhile I rowed the majority of the strokes on the right and/or we took turns with one person rowing and then then other.
We went out without a clock so who knows how long, but in time we approached the island. It turned out to not really have any land but simply a large cluster of trees and hundreds (if not more) of birds. It seemed to be the nesting area for all the local birds flying the sky. The sights and especially the sounds were incredible. (I wish those sounds were an option on the Sleep Machine app!) Much better than any "safari adventure" one could experience in any kind of drive-through setting. We slowly made our way around the "Island of Birds" until we decided to head back home.
The water was quite shallow most of the trek. We could see the bottom for much of it and at one point on the return it seemed that the underside came upon a large ray as it rocked the boat and scurried through the sediment and water away from us.
There were also about a dozen different jellyfish that we came upon on our return trip. Who knows how many we passed on the way out, but we were more focused on getting there at that point and certainly more relaxed on the return. I have heard stories about jellyfish bites and what not, but never observed them in person. Pretty cool stuff!
We returned to the house and went inside to check the time. Corey took the over on 3.5 hours and I took the under which means I just lost as it was 3 hours and 40 minutes of adventure!
A solid day of active recovery. :)
Tuesday was a more low key day. We drove out to Key West and ate at a delicious tapas style restaurant, Santiago's Bodega. From there we checked out one of the local beaches where I crashed out for a post-lunch nap face down in the sand.
On the way back we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park to check out one of the only natural beaches in the Keys. It was beautiful and there was hardly anyone there (which always makes it better in my opinion.) We walked out along the shore and as soon as we were 1/4 mile or so from the parking lot it was as if we had the place to ourself.
We saw several sting rays drifting along and one hammerhead shark!
Then we came upon this vessel that had a big bright yellow sticker -the same they put on the cars left along the road on it labeled "migratory vessel". It was this large plastic "boat" with several holes of various sizes that appeared to have been shot into it. On the inside it had a ghetto motor in the center and was stuffed with insulation and dozens of bottles of water, oil and other trash. We had fun making up several stories about how this vessel got here...particularly with all the holes. (Sorry no photos :)
All in all it was a great two days in paradise....I even found three of the less common Ben & Jerry's flavors -at least in the Asheville area (PB Cup, Cinnamon Buns & Cake Batter)! I came back to the car and said to Corey, "we really are in paradise, they have PB Cup here!"
Headed home to our own little paradise in the mountains of Asheville today. Can't wait to see my muts!
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