Keys Perfection

This year's excursion to visit my parents in the Keys was our best Florida trip ever. So far, anyway! The weather was absolutely gorgeous - sunny, upper 70s, and light breezes pretty much all week. And when you have weather like that, it's amazing how many fun activities you can fit into 6 whole days. We went stone crabbing, fishing, snorkeling, birding, swimming and hiking, fed the tarpon at Robbie's, went to an all-you-can eat oyster fest, had an outdoor cob-oven pizza party, explored the everglades on three separate days, and ate fabulous seafood at numerous outdoor restaurants. And we had ice cream more times than you can count. It was heaven.

Aiden on the flats boat- we're crabbing here

Dad handles a stone crab- you break off a claw and then let the crab go (it grows a new one)

Pufferfish caught in a crab trap

Mom and a tired Haley

Aiden and Timber swimming in the ocean

Haley in the bonnet mom made when i was little

One of the highlights of the week had to be fishing for Spanish Mackerel on the flats boat. HaPa, Aiden, Andy and I headed out at 9 in the morning leaving Grandma at the house to watch Haley-doo. Our first stop was Bud n' Mary's marina...not for bait, but for ice cream. According to HaPa, this is the secret to a successful fishing trip. After our 9AM icy treat (made okay because it was already over 70 degrees out) we zipped out to near the Channel 2 bridge to some secret spot indicated on Dad's GPS and dropped the anchor and the chum bag. Everyone threw their hooks in, and within 2 minutes Aiden had a fish on. A nice Jack, which we let go. Then Aiden caught a sand perch. Then a slimy catfish. Then another sand perch. Then a grunt. Then a pufferfish.... you get the picture....on and on, while no one else caught anything. Andy had a dozen bites during this first half hour, but couldn't land anything. Meanwhile, Aiden was in heaven. He caught 11 fish before the tide turned some more and Andy finally reeled in what we had actually come for: a spanish mackerel. And then the real fun started... two hours of mackerel action resulting in a giant bucket of 17 keepers. Aiden caught a huge mackerel himself, just to top off his impressive daily total, which had to be well over 20 fish. We headed home to tell Grandma and Haley about it, and cleaned the fish with Coronas in hand... and had a delicious grilled mackerel with tropical fruit salsa for dinner.

Ice cream before fishing

Andy with a spanish mackerel

Holy Mackerel!

Aiden's mackerel

A second highlight was our day at Bahia Honda state park. We always go to this beach and it's always very nice, but if the weather and tides are just right it is a picture-perfect paradise. Long stretches of white rippled sand under a few feet of warm turquoise water- perfect for lounging and floating. And perfect for kids- no need to freak out over going too deep when it's shallow for such a long stretch. Both Aiden and Haley loved it. Aiden practiced snorkeling with his dad, and Haley kick-kick-kicked like a little dolphin in the blue water. She was all smiles when she wasn't dipping and sucking on her wet hand, amazed at the salty taste of the ocean water. We ate giant ripe florida avocados drizzled in balsamic vinegar for lunch, scooping them out with a spoon... and then we had ice cream. (of course)

Bahia Honda

Aiden at Bahia Honda

There were many other highlights of our trip, some involving birds, but I'll save those for another post. I'll just say that it's going to be hard to top this FL trip next year. We're going to have to eat an enormous amount of ice cream to be that lucky!

Little Doo

Gators at the Everglades

Haley enjoying summer dresses

Pizza in the outdoor cob oven

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