This is my final post from our week in the Florida Keys and I wanted to share some nice sunset photos and a BUNCH of reef images. This first one was on Wednesday night on the western edge of Sombrero Beach Park just down the street from Our Summer Beach Vacation House in Marathon.
On Thursday we drove down to Key West where we took a ton of photos of all the "normal" tourist photos (Southernmost Point, Hemingway House, etc) which I'm going to save you from. "Hemingway Days" were going on, so I'll offer up a single obligatory photo of one of Ernie's favorite spots on Duval Street.
After wandering around for the day, we took a glass bottom boat tour out to the reef south of the island.
We got a few nice shots coming back in of the setting sun.
The colors got much better once we got of the boat and out into Mallory Square.
Back in Marathon, on our final full day of our trip, we took a boat ride out to the Lighthouse Reef for some snorkeling.
Where we saw plenty of fish.
Including a few barracuda!!
But what I really came for was the reef, so please allow me to indulge with a few more photos.
If you made it this far, maybe you'll enjoy my videos of the reef, too!
While staying at Our Summer Beach Vacation House in Marathon, we decided to take the tour at The Turtle Hospital where we saw some cute sea turtles.
More importantly, we learned about their Rescue > Rehab > Release model and were educated on the dangers facing sea turtles including seeing plenty of injured turtles such as the ones below that lost a flipper and could not dive.
And, of course, MANY cute turtles!!
Speaking of cute, everyone wanted to take a baby turtle home!!!
To learn more about the goals of this great organization, head on over to their website at http://www.turtlehospital.org/ and do visit them if you find yourself heading to the Florida Keys. They really are making a difference for injured sea turtles like this big boy.
And... they have some really cool ambulances!!
After Boating Around Marathon it was time to get back on the water, but this time with a little less noise (and speed) and use a few of our own muscles to get around. The good folks at Keys Kayaks dropped off a couple of rigs at Our Summer Beach Vacation House where we launched right off the dock and headed down the canals.
The only real bummer of the outing was that this was the only manatee that we saw.
We also found out that iguanas can swim!! Sorry for the grainy photo, it was a crop of the best picture I was able to grab on quick notice.
It was pretty darn warm out there and it took a long time just to get out of the canals and heading over to Boot Key. See the inlet from the NE corner of the key as shown in the picture on page 3 of this PDF to see our route into this uninhabited key.
The towers you can make out above are broadcast antennas for Radio Marti (like Radio Free Europe, but for Cuba). As you can see above to Gretchen's right, we spotted several Great White Herons along the way.
Eventually, the mangroves lining the inlet got too tight to navigate the kayaks (and we were drenched with sweat!), so we turned around and headed back. Thankfully, we still had smiles on our faces until the end.
What a great day on the water and so glad Gretchen was there to enjoy it with me!!
Summer vacation is going great at Our Summer Beach Vacation House and per our tradition, we rented a motorboat to go cruising around. We rented a 23' Parker which was enough boat to get out into the ocean.
The boys took care of the piloting and the girls took care of the photography.
After a morning of riding around, we headed back down the canals to Our Summer Beach Vacation House and we saw some more birds along the way.
As well as some VERY NICE boats and homes!!
We tied up at the dock where we grabbed some lunch; as well as a swim in the pool at it was hot!
Before heading back out we said Hi! to one of our on-property friends; an iguana. They are ALL OVER the place down here.
We saw plenty more birds all around, and on, the water.
In the morning we had two dolphins swimming around us, but we were just too slow on the shutter. Gretchen saved the day in the afternoon when we stumbled upon four more of these beautiful creatures.
But, the best times I had where just seeing the smiles on the faces of the family.
We're blessed again this summer to be able to take a nice family vacation. For this year, we headed back to the Florida Keys. Gretchen and I came out about 20 years ago and it sounded like a good time to visit again. This time we found Sombrero Beach House in Marathon which is just across the street from Sombrero Beach Park. Here is a view of the house when pulling up.
Walking around to the side and you'll find the 150 foot of waterfront dock (the back 50-ish foot is on the canal, too, with mangroves creating some privacy).
Here's the side of the house.
Around back is an awesome pool, too!
What a treat!! Great views!!
What a great start to a great week together with the family. Now, off to the beach!
Traveling for work has kept my weekends slammed just catching up with family and taking care of all the little action items of life. It surely has prevented me from getting on the water and knocking out some miles on my S2S - The Chattahoochee River from Source to Sea epic journey. I finally got a chance to get out there with Gretchen and Brian Cummings & his two oldest boys. Instead of doing something easy for the first trip of the season, I suckered everyone into the initial leg of the LLR - Lake Lanier Run.
Yep, you're right; Lake Lanier (especially in summer) does not sound like a place to go kayaking, but if you'll take a look at my Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map you will see that the trip titled LLR #1 actually looks like it is going down the river as shown by this first picture of Gretchen starting her longest ever kayak trip.
We immediately passed under Lula Bridge; 9 miles to go to the next one!
We did see some herons along the way and found out they can be quite loud when they decide to sound off!
The river quickly started widening as it gets ready to dump into Lake Lanier and we started seeing a bunch of fishing and ski motor boats. After two hours of slowly crawling down the river, Gretchen and I stopped shy of the half-way point to rest on the beach at Don Carter SP for a 30 minute break. It only got hotter, tougher, and slower after that. We soldiered on for what seemed like forever. Finally, we could make out Clarks Bridge where the take-out point was. Celebrations ensued!
Unfortunately, these were early celebrations as this exceptionally straight section of the river still had about two more miles to go. Brian and his boys finished up before us and this "half" took Gretchen and I about three hours to complete. This section was the sight of the 1996 Olympic Rowing event and FINALLY passing the tower that sits next to the Clarks Bridge boat launch was a very welcome site.
After being exhausted from five hours on the water and my legs having an incredible sunburn, we packed it all up and crawled our way back through Gainesville and on home. It was a very tough day, but I was glad to finally get the boats out and get on the water!