Florida Keys - Nah Nah

“HEY EVERYONE!

I'm dialed in from Key Largo tonight...had a good trip down here from Bama. It's like totally friggin' hot down here, but some cool drinks and snorkeling will cool ya off. Hopping on a boat tomorrow to head off to the reefs for some snorkeling and I can't wait. It'll be the kids first time snorkeling and they're fired up.

OH...drove through the Everglades today and spotted 4 gators and lots of birds. Wanted to take a few walks but it was too hot...did I mention it was HOT?? haha

After hanging around here in Key Largo for a few days, we'll head down to Key West for 4 days.

Woot Woot!! nah nah”

“Great for you! Have fun! I just interviewed a gal Friday whose son has MD. She took him down to the Keys for his "Make A Wish" trip. He loves oceans. :-) She was too scared to do the Seven Mile bridge or whatever it is. Think I would be, too... Another "Keys lover">> gojo!”

“Still have fond memories of our trip to the Keys, but it was in JANUARY!”

“Cool deal. Have fun. I've only been down there once and liked it a lot. You'll really enjoy the snorkeling. Very beautiful.”

“Welcome to FLA MDS! Did you also notice our humidity? Have a great time.”

“yup, wrong season for the 'Glades MDS.

The reefs off of the keys are great snorkeling though.

Enjoy!”

“Shucks, I drove the OLD Seven Mile Bridge a few times in '76!

It was a mirror-buster.

The new one is much wider.......isn't it?”

“Have fun MDS. My wife and I will be snorkling in Cozumel on Saturday!!!!! My one concern is the weather. Is it hot down there?”

“not underwater it's not!”

“You lucky guy. Wish I lived in Florida!”

“So right MarkO, I drove to Key West in '72 and then 24 years later. No comparison. It was a real rush to slide by other vehicles on the old 7-mile bridge, as well as the other bridges.

That '72 trip was my first time ocean snorkling -- again, what a rush. On my more recent Keys trips, though, I've foregone the hippy campground thing of the '70s for hotel or, the last time a couple years back, a cozy B&B for me and the Mrs.”

“Ha Ha...thanks for all the comments.

We went snorkeling today on Garden Cove Reef near Key Largo. I think it was about 4 miles out...it was awesome. I stayed out for almost 2hrs and they made me get back on the boat!! haha

Heading down to Key West tomorrow for 4 days. Hopefully we'll get somemore snorkeling in and some kayaking in the Lower Keys.

The sunsets are awesome...WOW!”

“Oh yeah Dayhiker...did I mention it was FRIGGIN' HOT down here??”

“Gin and tonic weather?

Do they still have to old DC-3 airliners at the Key West airport?”

“Dayhiker, Skeetah Bait and I will be down across the water from Cozumel, in Playa Del Carmen. We'll be planning a day trip to Cozumel. Hope to run into you!

BTW, you have mail!”

“MDS--glad you're having a great time!!
Kayaking in the Keys...I'm jealous!”

“...the Keys was my old stompin' grounds....middle keys....Duck Key to be exact...

Anyway...If ya get a chance....take a flight over to Dry Tortugas...talk about awesome snorkeling...it don't get any better than that....and the flight over is really cool!

When in Key West....ya got to check out the touron stuff like:

Duval Street...
Mallory Square....lots of wanna-be hippies....and decent sunsets
Louies Backyard is a decent place to eat...
Southernmost monument....tourist stop for sure
Hemingway's House is a nice tour and the lighthouse across the street is a very cool place for a view....

Forget Hogs Breath Saloon....

If ya got the dough....get yourself on over to Little Palm Island....slightly north of Key West....take a woman there and you're made in the shade dude...

If you're camping....go to Bahia Honda SP....snorkeling there is good and it's the only thing you'll come to that resembles a beach....

Eat Conk whenever ya can....it's the best anywhere....”

“LOL Thanks stratusloop!!

Went to Bahia Honda SP today and had a good time at the beach area. The whole family did some snorkeling and had a good time. The parking area there was FULL when we were leaving and heading on down to Key West and the hotel.

Hung around the pool all afternoon and chilled out with some mango margarittas.

Gonna hit the town tomorrow with the family and have some fun. I already set up a kayaking trip for Friday.

Woot Woot!!”

“OK... where the heck are you getting on the computer all the time? Got a laptop with?

Glad you're having a great time... hope to some day see the Keys myself. Woot Woot!! lol”

“A few years back, the Bahia Honda SP beach was rated tops in the U.S. among public beaches. I camped overnight at the park, though not near the beach, back in January '96 on my way to a conference in Key West. I was a day ahead of schedule for my hotel in KW, so I bought a really cheap pup tent and air mattress at the Kmart in Marathon and managed to get the last campsite at Bahia Honda, which is mucho popular in January.”

“I camped at Bahia Honda or Long Key in December '76, one of those.

The water was gently lapping about 20 feet from my little tent.

I would snorkel out and chase rays and little sharks in the shallow water.”

“LOL @ Liz

ummm...yep...laptop is with me so I can dial into the hospital back home if they need me at work.

We took pics at the "southernmost point" this morning and we're heading back to town tonight to party and have some fun. I can't get enough of those conch fritter thinga ma bobbies.”

“Have a gay old time ! !”

“MDS....you touron....

Yo Marko....crackin me up....when I mentioned Duval street previously....I was gonna say something along those lines...”

“hehe

Went downtown last night and had a great time. Yep, the french dude with the cat show is still there at Mallory Square, along with other acts which are mostly 90% mouth and 10% tallent. haha

Although, I did let an artist draw my kids and it turned out excellent!

Off to kayaking!”

“Many moons ago, in a previous life, I used to crash land at Bahia Honda SP very often. A tent, some snorkling gear, and cooler full of beer and I was set for the weekend. Little in this world is finer than waking up to a sunrise over the ocean followed by a freshly caught lobster for breakfast.

Spent many a night snapper fishing from the old Spanish Harbor bridge, too. This was before the DOT saw fit to shorten the remaining spans so dramatically.

Duval Street is 1000% over-rated. Cut Key West free from the chain and the rest of the Keys are paradise. IMHO.

Ordin”

“Ordin....I totally agree....Key West brings alot of tourons through the area....and you can take Duval Street, Christopher Street, most of San Francisco, and all of Provincetown....and blow them up!

Anyway...Duck Key was were I spent many moons....btw...Yellow Tail Snapper is the best fish you can get....”

“Stratus,
Lots of tasty fishy's can be had through the Keys. Caught mostly mangrove (Lane) snappers from the bridges. One time I lucked into some smaller Cubera snappers, but that was extremely rare. A few groupers ended up heading back to my sea-side frypan, too. Ahhh, the living was good.

Agreed, Key West can disappear and we'd be better off. The only good thing about Key West is that all the "tourons" (btw, that is a wonderfully descriptive word!!) mostly flock there, saving the rest of the Keys from their idiocy.

Fell apart at the seams a few times after enjoying a might too many Cuba Libre's at the Looe Key Resort tiki bar... The good old days from a previous life.


Ordin”

“Yeah, KW is crazy with traffic and the streets are crowded late afternoon through evening. I've been here before and had a great time back when I was young and PK.

PK = PreKids LOL

I went kayaking today for the first time...yeah...first time. The guide was excellent and taught me a lot about kayaks. We were in ocean touring models that retailed for around $4000 and they were sweet. The rudder I controled with my feet was one of the sweetest parts of the kayak. Since I've used a canoe a lot...I noticed how much easier the kayak was to paddle and control. I thought it was awesome. We paddled around Sugarloaf Key and saw lots of birds, stingrays, and 5 nurse sharks.

Back to Bahia Honda SP tomorrow and then HOME. Blah!”

“Hey what outfitter/guide did you use?”

“Sugarloaf was where I camped for a week during Spring Break '72. That campground is now all RV, but was very rustic and only $1 a night back in the day. A very nice hippy hangout, with a trashy bar across Hwy 1 to provide cold brews.”

“Hey MDS you know what conch will do to you don't ya? I hope the kids have a separate room!! :)

I'm glad you are having a good time down in the keys! We had a blast in the Bahamas, I can't wait to go back. As soon as I get the pics uploaded I'll post them. Sorry we couldn't smuggle you in a cuban! They won't let you bring those back to the US! We did however come back with a suitcase full of rum and Scotch Whiskey. Drink up!”

“i got bottles of johnnie walker gold label for 30 bucks a liter”

“Just got home...1200 miles. Blah!

Roam Around..I used Crystal Seas Eco Tours in Key West. My daughter and I had our own guide and he pointed out everything for us...we loved it.

Miss Opie...I'll check out your pics when I get to a highspeed connection tomorrow. Good score on the liquor. :D”

“Glad you had a great trip.


Don't know if your schedule will allow it, but check out the trips page for the "Glades Gator Chase" in Dec.”

“Roam Around - December is usually a little early for the Glades. You need a good cold front to come down and clear out the bugs. Also, a good cold front is needed to chase more birds further south. These were comments from a Ranger.

I was there the last two years. In 2003 the first visit was in mid-January. The bugs were not too bad and there were lots of birds. Then I spend several days after last Christmas over New's Day. Mosquitos were bad and the bird population was only about 15% of what I saw on the previous trip.”

“Then I spent several days ...”

“hmmmm,

well, crap!

I won't be able to do it any later than Dec,

welllll maybe I could.

Thanks for the info NS.”

“

"I won't be able to do it any later than Dec, "
Roam Around

Then go for it. It may be better on the water, especially if there is a breeze. Just have plenty of bug spray with you.

You may need a reservation, too.

Click on image.
”

“Yeah on the coastline the bugs are supposed to be less bothersome.”

“If you are ever in Florida do not pronounce the word conch sounding the 'ch' - be sure to pronounce it 'konk'.”

“LOL

I had some "konk" fritters while I was down there...interesting. My youngest daughter tried one and said "they were good but I had to chew forever!!"”

“The Keys are still famous for conch. Funny thing is the conch you eat doesn't come from the Keys. It usually comes from the Bahamas. It's illegal to harvest conch in the Keys.”

“MSD, I was in the Keys around the same time. We flew into orlando on the 2nd and drove down to melbourne for the night,we went to Key West on the 3rd and spent the night.We drove bach up and took the lower route to Naples then back gater alley into Fort Lauderdale for the 4th. We saw 21 gaters across the glades. The women went shopping and ALA and I went for a airboat ride on the 5th. Back up to Orlando for Epcot, Sea World, Universal, and Animal Kingdom. Returning today. We had "konk", ox tail, gater, and some other stuff I didn't know what it was. I hope you had a easier time ordering than we did. Something about a southern draaaawwll those folks couldn't understand.

BAMA”

“Yeah, Florida is NOT part of the South. Most restaurants where I live (Port St Lucie) don't even serve sweet tea.

More like New York/New Jersey as far as the people go.

If the konk was chewy it was overcooked! Conch fritters are one of the best things you can eat for munchies!”

“haha

Good to hear from you BAMA !!”

“Conch seviche style, that is, marinated in lime juice and a little salt. After a few hours of swimming in the lime juice, minced onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes are added. Served cool, but not cold.

... AND it's only the conch "worm" that is the island equivalent of Viagra. One can only find the conch worm when cleaning them. Conch worms are thin, clear, jelly-like things an inch or two long.

Uncontrolled growth has ruined Florida. I grew up there (Palm Beach County), but the place I spent my youth no longer exists. Paradise has been lost.


Ordin”