Escape

We did it.  We escaped.  Goodbye to that 3+ feet of snow and the subzero temperatures; goodbye to long underwear and fleece hats; goodbye to digging out the car every morning and watching icicles form on the eaves.  Okay, so it was only a week-long escape, but it was wonderful.  The kids and I flew down from Providence and Andy got up insanely early with Kimball and drove insanely long hours to meet us in Islamorada just the day after we had said goodbye to him.  Insane. Kimball did not like the drive down or the hotel room they stayed in for a few hours, but she did seem to enjoy her week in the keys as much as we did.  She chased Timber around in the shallow water at low tide, and loved stretching out on the sunny concrete or the sand to nap most of the day.

There were lots of Man O War on the beaches, thanks to the windy days prior to our arrival

The KMart at Marathon

Every day--- at least once, but maybe twice...

Dogs and Haley enjoying the blue water playground

Our weather all week was amazing.  Especially considering that the week before was super windy and cool, we totally lucked out.  We had several days of glass calm waters, plenty to get in some fishing, snorkeling, and lazing in the shoals at Bahia Honda.  Haley skipped the snorkel trip, but she spent hours in the pool under the water, preparing for a future snorkeling trip when she's a little older.  Aiden and Andy and I had a great time snorkeling around Alligator Light... hundreds of huge barracudas sway back and forth in the ocean currents under the lighthouse, and when you swim through them and they part calmly even though the look on their faces is menacing.  We also saw some huge rays, parrotfish, queen angels, yellowtail snappers, and huge schools of some sort of drum or grunt.  No sharks, but that's okay.  Two years made a huge difference for Aiden- instead of the 15 minutes he spent in the water on our last snorkeling trip when he was 6, he spent every second in the water- well over 2 hours gazing and floating around among the fish.

Aiden's weed wig

Stone crabs- grandma trapped them, so we learned how to crack  and ea them

Alligator Light

After dinner sunset at Islamorada Fish Company

The day we went to Bahia Honda was unusual because all of the lower keys were covered in thick fog for most of the morning.  It gave Bahia Honda a weirdish dream-like quality, but it was as beautiful as ever with crystal clear water and white coral sands.  We birded a little, swam a lot, and looked for critters and shells along the beaches.  We discovered a live conch and a small sea anemone to ¨rescue¨ and watched a large ray float over the same rippled sand we were sinking our toes into.

Bahia Honda wrapped in fog

Fog starting to lift

Not sure I know a more peaceful view than this one

We always check out the catch at Bud N Marys marina- we actually got to eat some of these fish pictured!

Haley and Grandmas sand cakes

Aiden filleting a Vermilion Snapper

Haley spent half her vacation underwater

Mid-week, I got a text from some of our friends in New London who were vacationing in the Miami area during school break.  We made plans to meet up and Angie, Haley, Alex and Aiden had a great ¨playdate¨ in Florida- what a treat!  We had lunch at Lazy Days including fish sandwiches and gator lazy days style, and then headed to Founders Park where the kids snorkeled and played in the sand and on the playground.

Next, we spent a day exploring the Redlands.  This is what the agricultural area around Florida City and Homestead is called, and its an amazing place to spend some time if you like fresh produce, flowers, and exotic fruits.  First we went to R.F. Orchids, which is the most amazing orchid place we've ever seen.  Enormous greenhouses with rows and rows of beautiful flowering orchids hanging from the walls and ceilings and lining the tables.  The smells are as intoxicating as the colors.  For Andy, its a very dangerous place to take his wallet.  We spent only about $150 and came home with 7 or so orchids, since driving home gave us the luxury of transporting plants with relative ease.  Next stop was the Fruit and Spice Park- basically an arboretum of exotic fruiting plants.  We cornered an employee pretty quickly to find out what was ¨ripe¨ at the moment, which helps in navigating the expansive grounds if you don't have time to take the full tram tour.  We tasted long green and black mulberries, some sort of tropical black raspberry, a pithy miniature banana, a sour loquat, creamy canistel eggfruit, and (the winner for best tasting- hands down) the amazing Jaboticaba fruit.  Jaboticaba are a shiny deep purple, perfectly round fruit, a little smaller than a ping pong ball.  And they grow directly off the trunk and branches of their tree.  You pop them whole in your mouth, bite the skin open to release a creamy white center with a delicious sweet and sour taste.  We gathered several dozen off the ground (at the park you can eat anything that falls to the ground) and snacked on them while we walked.  We had lunch at the park's cafe, and ended our agricultural tour with a stop at the Redlands Market.  Only a fraction of the stalls were open on a Thursday, but we will come back on a weekend sometime when it promises to be an amazing bustle of vendors selling everything from Mexican cerviche to mangoes to strings of hot peppers.  With farms offering tours, lots of restaurants, and even wineries, the Redlands is an area we will continue to explore on future trips.

RF Orchids

Long black mulberries

Jaboticaba

Redlands Market

And the Everglades.  No trip to the keys would be complete for us without visiting the river of grass.  We sped out to Flamingo to catch the lowest tide we could, and then worked out way back stopping at our favorite spots (Mrazek Pond, Paurotis Pond, Mahogany Hammock, Pinelands) and ending up at Royal Palm to walk the boardwalk loop of Anhinga Trail and marvel at the ridiculously tame birds and gators two feet from us along the trail.  After our long day with nothing but terrible gas station snacks to eat, we stopped at Robert is Here for fresh fruit, and the authentic Taqueria Morelia for some delicious street tacos and crazy Mexican candy before heading back south.

Haley brought Skye to the everglades

Anhinga Trail- where you can reach out and touch the Anhingas

Haley enjoys a Mexican coke at Taqueria Morelia

Roasted chicken lollipops

We always need a shot at the lobster- minus Dad, who did not want to be in the photo

Breakfast at Hungry Tarpon on our last day

Last day

Finally, our last beautiful day in Islamorada did arrive, and we soaked up every last bit of sand and sun and chlorine and salt water and packed up the two cars for a long drive back to NH.  Three ten-hour days in the minivan with two restless kids and a nervous dog... I don't recommend it to anyone, but we survived.  Stops to buy citrus fruit and a few nice evening dinners at a Scottish Pub and Joe's Crab Shack helped ease the pain of that much paved monotony, and the kids can now say they've been in every state along the eastern seaboard.  Plus we got to transport more than a dozen mangos, 7 orchids, big sacks of citrus fruit, and even a bunch of mangrove seeds that Andy will try to propagate at home... these things we can never do when we fly, so took full advantage this time.  Life has it's trade offs, I guess.