A Day in Key Largo

Room View at Dove Creek

We had the hotel provided breakfast which was nice, and asked to switch rooms.  They put us in a quieter room with a better view!. This one has direct water view as opposed to mostly the grounds view. The desk clerk told us about a fun kayak trip to take, which we did.  We used a double kayak for a change, and went around the bend and up a canal through the mangroves.  It was fun and quiet.  we saw a turtle, and tons, and tons, and tons of fish.  We passed a residential area, with it's own canal. One of the houses had bee hives.  We saw two men fishing together, and a homeless person's camp, and birds.  The canal went through some overgrown, narrow areas where you had to duck your head and then opened up in a large expanse.  When we got back, we decided to go to lunch followed by a snorkel trip at Pennekamp State Park coral reef.  

Kayaking

We had our lunch and espressos at The Moka .  I had a turkey salad, Neil had a ham and cheese croissant sandwich and we shared an almond croissant.  The highlight was the fact that there was an engaged couple testing wedding cakes with the cake maker at a table next to us.  She had a whole array of cupcake sized samples along with fillings and frostings. 

On the Grove Trail

We drove out to the park, but decided not to snorkel. It was supposedly pretty choppy for snorkeling and there were a lot of jelly fish.  We decided to take the glass bottom boat tour instead.  Before the tour, we went on a little walk through the park that ended in an old fruit orchard with Key Lime trees, Avocado Trees and one Mango Tree and one Guava tree.  It was lovely.

There were quite a few foreigners on the boat and a very annoying family. the mother was freaking out about her little kids possibly falling in and was speaking to her husband and inlaws very sharply.   She made the crew find life jackets for the kids and then proceeded to lift them up on railings herself.  She and her husband let these brats scream their heads off.  Besides them, the trip was great.  Three bottlenosed dolphins played in the wake for about five minutes.  Once we got out to the reef, we saw a lot of fish including Cooper and Mini Cooper, two Goliath Grouper.  Cooper weighed about 800 lbs. We saw a Barracuda, a turtle, and a lot of different fish.  We saw another turtle while coming back, along with several jelly fish.  

Coming home from the reef

We came back to the room and i discovered that i had not properly entered the code to set the room safe, so Neil had to get the desk clerk to open it for us, which took quite some time.  We then went out to dinner at Hobos, which was nice. Neil got a beer to impress the waitress.