January 4 -- exploring Long Key

Sunday arrived with sunshine and the warmest temperatures we've had so far. We reminded ourselves that we are on vacation and then took time to enjoy the lovely morning from our little deck. It is so quiet here, and the air feels so nice!

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed south to Long Key State Park to pick up a park map and see if we could get a multi-day admission ticket. Since they didn't offer those, we decided to drive on down the highway and come back to the park after lunch.

Next stop was the Dolphin Research Center. We wanted to ask a few questions before our "Dolphin Encounter" on Tuesday afternoon. We found the Center to be well organized, with enthusiastic staff members who seem to be very dedicated to the care of the dolphins. They were nice enough to let us enter the facility today for a quick look around since we had already scheduled our encounter. We found lots of educational exhibits and a great training area where the dolphins hang out and interact with visitors. Quite a few people were in the center today, learning about dolphins. We watched several groups who were doing the dolphin encounter, and I have to admit it looks quite interesting.

Our lunch spot; great fresh grilled
fish sandwich!

By this time we were pretty hungry. We drove further south, onto Marathon Key, looking for a likely restaurant. After seeing several that were either closed or had virtually empty parking lots, we spotted the Cracked Conch. This appeared to be an old building, and the parking lot had quite a few cars in it. On entering, most of the customers looked to us like locals -- a good sign! Their specialty was breakfast, which was served until 4 pm. The menu had several pages of omelets and other breakfast foods, but there were quite a few lunch and dinner items as well. We decided on the fresh fish sandwich. Smoky had his grilled with mushrooms and cheese on rye; I had mine grilled without the extras. Both were great! The fish fillet was juicy and cooked just right, very fresh and flavorful without too much salt. Yea! We enjoyed every bite.

Smoky enjoyed photographing
the Long Key State Park trail

After lunch, we were well satisfied and thought it might be a good time for a long walk. So we headed back to Long Key State Park and spent the afternoon walking their trail through the mangroves and along the shore. We were keeping an eye out for the rare Key West quail dove, which had been spotted along this trail recently. This bird may have nested in Key West in the early 1800s; today it is rare in the U.S. The closest we got to the bird was a chair parked right in the middle of the trail that must have belonged to one of the bird watchers in the park today.

We marveled at all the types of mangroves. From a distance, they all look the same, but up close we discovered that there are many varieties. In fact, according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary website, there are more than 80 species! In a few areas, the mangroves had created a canopy over the trail. We spotted a number of small critters, such as fiddler crabs and small lizards (probably brown anole), and some white ibis along the shore.

Beach morning glory

Brown anole

Louisiana heron fishing for dinner, Long Key State Park

After the trail we drove to the park campground. Smoky and I had camped there in our pickup truck with our son many years ago when Jason was just a young boy. The campground still looks the same. This brought back lots of great memories.

We got back to our lodging in time to enjoy the late afternoon light along with a glass of wine and some wonderful Brie. Tomorrow is our 35th anniversary. We are having dinner at Franks Grill on Marathon Key, another place the locals love.

More tomorrow.

--Shann