Florida

Our ten months overseas ended last May after visiting Australia (twice), Bali, Singapore (twice), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, New Zealand, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Deborah even managed to squeeze in a few days in Hawaii without me. We had always planned to return to Olympia for the summer, but that period got extended for a variety of reasons, broken up only by our month-long trip to Toronto last fall. Much of the time in Olympia was spent diagnosing some health issues for Deborah, which turned out to be primarily dental in origin. As a result, she is now fitted with braces for the second time in her life, and requires orthodontic adjustments every eight weeks. So our trips for the next year or so will have to be shorter duration to fit into those eight-week windows. Not the most efficient form of travel, but we’ll make it work.

Our first trip within this new schedule is one month long, with a week in Florida and three weeks in Ecuador. Fort Lauderdale/Miami was a logical stopover on the way to Ecuador so we added a few days to visit friends and relatives, and to see the Florida Keys.

The Florida Keys are the chain of small islands (keys) that dribble out of the southern end of the big swampy sand bar that is the state of Florida. It seems an unlikely place to build a road, stretching as it does for over a hundred miles, connecting dozens of islands by a series of causeways that are no less than an engineering marvel. At the upper end is Key Largo, where Deborah used to live many years ago. We drove around looking for her old apartment but thirty years of change left nothing familiar. She was also a bit disappointed with Key West, at the far end of the archipelago, which she felt had lost a lot of its small town charm. I still enjoyed Key West, having no nostalgic past to compare it to, but the high prices will probably prevent us from returning.

At our Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale

Green on green

Here we are with friends Rob and Jose and cousin Melissa in Fort Lauderdale

Deborah with friend Karen in Fort Lauderdale

(photo by Deborah)

In Key Largo with Joe and Nikki

Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary in Tavernier, a protected refuge for injured birds.

The Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park is at the site of an old quarry with interesting cut faces of coral stone.

(photo by Deborah)

Bahia Honda State Park. We waded out to see fish swimming around the sea grass while pelicans were diving all around us.

People lined up to photograph themselves in front of the Monument of the Southernmost Point in the Continental USA, except it really isn't. 

The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory was dense with butterflies, but also colorful birds.

My shirt attracted many hitchhikers

(photo by Deborah)

A Green Turaco, who mistook the little toe peeking out of my sandal for an edible grub.

The same bird, but showing his bright red underfeathers (or whatever they are called)

Rett and Scarlet, two flamingoes who were putting on quite a noisy show as it is mating season.

(video by Deborah)

Key West

Key West's classic Bahama-style shutters

Part of Ernest Hemingway’s Key West house, where he lived for more than ten years and wrote many of his most famous novels, now a museum.

Descendants of Hemingway’s cats (fifty-five of them!) roam the property. Many are polydactyl, featuring six toes, like this one. The cats are very well cared for by a team of volunteer crazy cat ladies. We saw one cat inside the house who was lying on a bed that was roped off so the humans would stay off.

Watching the sunset attracts huge crowds, buskers, vendors, and tourists who know this is what you are supposed to do in Key West. Hey, it only happens once a day.