I (heart) the Keys!

We just returned from a wonderful week-long vacation in the Florida Keys, courtesy of "Grandma and HaPa." When we left our house in NH at 6AM on Saturday morning, it was about 9 degrees outside. Landing in Fort Lauderdale around 11:30, it was 70 degrees and sunny. Need I say more. Our first stop after picking up the rental car and heading south towards Islamorada was "Robert Is Here" - the best fruitstand ever in Homestead, FL (Andy's old stomping grounds from when he worked with Cape Sable Seaside Sparrows in the Everglades). They have THE BEST fruit milkshakes, including a key lime one that is like drinking icy-cold liquid key lime pie filling. Our stop on the way down was only the first of 3 visits to Robert during our vacation week...

Aiden enjoying a fresh starfruit from Robert's

On our first full day we went to Theater of the Sea... one of those pure tourist traps that you only visit if you have young kids, but if you do have young kids, it's pure heaven. Aiden loved the dolphin show best, even though he missed out on being one of the 5 or so kids who got called down to the dive platform for a "kiss" from a dolphin. The parrots were also a hit, as was the beach when we were sick of paying attention to tour guides.

Parrot fish at Theatre of the Sea beach

Aiden had so much fun in the water all week- it was not even really warm (60s mostly) but he went in the ocean almost every day, usually with Timber. The two of them would have splashed around for hours if they had their way... unfortunately for Aiden, he doesn't have quite the insulating coat that Timbit has and we had to pull him out kicking and screaming every time his lips turned purple.



World's most spoiled tropical dog. Have you ever met a dog with this kind of swimming pool before?

We got ambushed one day by a photographer-peddler taking campy shots of people with his pet parrots, who were all named after citrusy drinks (lemonade, koolaid, gatorade...). Here's one of the shots...we got about 20 more poses for our $20, so I guess it wasn't a bad deal. It's good to be a tourist every once in awhile, I suppose.

Throwing coconuts off the dock was a favorite pasttime

My parents' little house in Islamorada


Bahia Honda beach

We spent a relaxing afternoon (after a picnic lunch under a beach cabana in an absolute downpour) at the beach at Bahia Honda, a FL state park. Aiden sacked out on a towel after playing in the sand and walking along the water.

Somewhere along the line, I mentioned that I had never seen a wild manatee before. So we went looking for one in the residential canals in Islamorada. Apparently they hang out there since it's calm and they can eat vegetation off of the bulkheads and poles. We suited up the little man and tooled around the mangrove islets and canals for a long time, but no luck. We concluded that manatees are one of those things you never will find if you go looking for one. They will appear when you are least expecting it, like the one that almost upturned my mom's kayak the week before we arrived.

We only lost one net overboard.

So we're back in frozen NH now, awaiting a dump of 10-15" of snow in the next 24 hours. I already can't wait for next year's visit.