We went down to Key Largo to do some snorkeling and thought to share some of our photos with you. Of course Heinz and Frenchie were not along for the trip. We talked about that in our last post. They were parked in the garage that weekend. We missed them but we had a great time anyway.
We went out on a catamaran named Quicksilver. The boat takes a group out to two different coral reefs and you have about an hour or more in each spot. The waters in the keys are so blue and so warm. It is such a pleasure to be out in the ocean swimming with exotic fish. Wish we had an underwater camera along with us, but we didn’t think of that. I think they sell cheap ones to the tourists for just such an occasion.
We stayed at the Ramada, right at the little cove where all the fishing and diving and snorkeling boats are moored. Here is a photo of the hotel and the small harbor.
One cannot go to Key Largo without taking a photo of the African Queen from the Bogart movie. So here it is.
We toured the Key Largo Grande Resort and Beach Club and had dinner there. This is a view from the balcony at the restaurant. Spectacular place and they preserved so much of the natural vegetation. Here is a link if you want to see it. http://www.keylargoresort.com/?src=sl_keywestcom_mainlink It is truly a beautiful place and the website is great! You will need some big bucks if you want to stay there. In our next life!
We continued down South to Islamorada. A truly beautiful area. Here is a link for more info. http://fla-keys.com/islamorada/ where we visited the World Wide Sportsman store. It is like visiting a museum of everything fishing related. We could spend hours just looking at all the equipment. They also have a fascinating aquarium. "World Wide Sportsman was designated as a Certified Audubon International Signature Sanctuary on September 22, 1998 and celebrates over ten years of environmental stewardship and protection." For more information, go to: http://www.auduboninternational.org/
The wild birds are really beautiful and we were fascinated with this lovely white thief. I think it is a white heron. He had a brush of teal blue around the eyes that looked like he applied make up especially for this photo session. And he was quite tall when he decided to give it a stretch. He was hanging out in the bait room hoping to steal a little from an unsuspecting customer.
Could not resist taking this photo of a tired old pelican, hope he is retired, and a proud little sea gull. Since our knowledge of birds is limited, if we didn't call these guys right, feel free to let us know.
Hope you enjoyed this and that it gave you some inspiration to visit the Florida Keys.
6 comments:
You make the Keys look good!Last week on the way to Miami I said to the wife we need to stop at the African Queen one of these days when we drive by and I have to say it looks pretty sad just hanging there.
Some of The African Queen was filmed up the coast from here, at Dalyan. Some of it was filmed in the DR Congo.
Bogart and Hepburn stayed at the Hôtel Pourquoi Pas? in Kisangani. Tim Butcher, in his book Blood River, compares Hepburn's description of the hôtel in her diary with its current state, with damp-stained walls and squatters lighting fires where she once unpacked her designer dresses.
None of it, though, as far as I know, was filmed in Florida. I wonder how the boat ended up there.
Great blog.
all of life's detritus ends up in florida. How d'you suppose I got here?
that heron (it *is* a heron) is incredible my friends!!!
here in my hometown (Piombino) we have smaller herons but also enormous seagulls who are jus a bit smaller than that heron...!!!
frightening indeed!
Can you imagine being slightly tipsy and sitting down to eat? Then the heron reaches over your shoulder and snatches something off your plate. The person you're dining with doesn't see the bird. You're not really sure what you saw. It was just some sort of monster or something. Your dinner companion is looking at you really strangely as you try to describe this long white snake with a tremendous nose that snatched the shrimp right off your plate.
Only in Florida, eh?
I soooo want to visit this area. WOW.
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