Nike Missiles...next stop the Keys

 Saturday February 12, 2022 - For our last day in the Everglades we took a ranger led tour of the Nike missile facility that is located within the park.  This facility was open during the Cuban Missile Crisis, with 75-150 men stationed here.  There were 3 barns (not silos, since you can't dig in Florida due to the high water table), which each housed 4 Nike Missiles.  These missiles were intended to intercept missiles fired from Cuba.  Some of these missiles were armed with nuclear warheads.  

Refurbished Nike Missile

One of the 3 barns on the site

Art left from the men stationed at the facility

Collect all 4 missiles in Cheerios cereal

Bike ride to check out the sunset

Sunday, February 13, 2022 - We woke up today to rain and decided to leave first thing for the Keys, and got to Curry Hammock State Park at 11:00 (under a 2 hr drive from the Everglades).  What a great spot!  There are only 28 campsites and they are all huge.  We were lucky enough to get an ocean view, which we are really going to enjoy for the next two weeks.   

campsite path to the beach

another beautiful empty beach

the water temp is around 70

Site 22

There is a bike trail that runs along Highway 1 in the Keys, we hopped on it across from Curry Hammock and rode to Sunset Park

It was a little early for the sunset but we happened onto a weekly Sunday evening concert

Not sunset, but pretty anyway

Kev is ready for NACHOS

Beers, nachos and the Super Bowl

Monday February 14, 2022 - After lunch we decided to ride our bikes south down the trail to the city of Marathon.  It was a 6 mile ride to Sweet Savannah’s, which was a dessert place.  The ride ended up taking longer as when we saw Savannah's there wasn't a way to cross Rt 1, so we had to ride an extra mile down the road to the next stop light.  So it turned into a 14 mile day.  

Sunrise at our campsite

A morning walk on the bike trail

walking to the beach

At Sweet Savannah’s, we each had an ice cream cone, then got to go, a red velvet and a strawberry champagne cupcake, along with a slice of keylime pie.  Happy Valentine's Day to us!

The ride home

 Kev cooked wings for dinner

Another sunset walk

Tuesday February 15, 2022 - We woke up early and decided to take our chairs down to the beach to watch the sunrise.  In the afternoon we rode our bikes across the street to the nature trail (about a mile south on the trail) that is part of Curry Hammock.  It was 1.5 mile loop hike that went out to the bay.  We then headed north on the trail a few miles and went to Sunset park and chatted for quite awhile with a guy who lives in Marathon who told us all the spots not to miss.

Kev has a time lapse going to capture the sunrise

another beautiful sunrise

panorama of the beach

 kite surfers 

we took our chairs to the main beach so we could watch them up close

Where should we go?

end of the nature trail hike

pretty jungley hike

we stopped for a quick snack before continuing our afternoon bike ride

kite surfers were there ALL day