Sunday January 14, 2024 - We love an early morning walk around the park, before it gets crowded with people (especially on the weekend). We hadn't done the Wild Tamarind Trail yet, which was a small loop with name tags for all the trees we've been trying to learn. And of course we went out for a bike ride.
Morning walk-looks like an outfitter dropped off some kayaks for a busy Sunday at John Pennekamp
The Wild Tamarind Trail
Kev reading the nameplates
We stopped at Rowell's Waterfront Park on our way back from Winn-Dixie
I love these signs around the park, saying you shouldn't swim with crocodiles
It's a windy day!
Monday July 15, 2024 - We usually like to play pickleball when we're in Florida, so we looked online to find out if there were any courts around that we could ride our bikes to. We found that the Key Largo Community Park, which is 3 miles from here, has 6 courts, so we headed out to see if anyone was playing. It was a mob scene! We talked to a couple players who said courts are open for pickleball 8:00-1:00 every day ($5/day or $10/month), so we'll give it a try tomorrow. After lunch we went to Cannon Beach and then rode our bikes to the Carribean Club for a few beers and a sunset.
Lots & lots of pickleball players!
Kev the snorkeler
Only a mile and a half bike ride to the Carribean Club
Can't beat $2.50 beers
Nice dive bar, which was used in the movie Key Largo, with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Guess we'll need to watch the movie.
Pretty views from the bar
and live music every night
but we're here for the sunset
Nice spot to watch from
Tuesday January 16, 2024 - We hopped on our bikes at 7:30AM for pickleball. It was a fun group of people and was very organized (a wipe board keeps track of who's up next to play and the park provides the balls and nets. Seemed like most of the people we met were from Key Largo, but there were a few we ran across that were just down for the winter.
We stopped at Publix and bought some Cuban bread for dinner (sticking out of Kev's backpack)
Wednesday January 17, 2024 - It was a lazy day, walks around the campground, laundry and another bike ride to the Caribbean Club for a few beers and views.
another green flag day at Far Beach
Our "tight" campsite. We're surrounded by monster trailers!
Crockpot chicken/stuffing
workout day
Pelicans at the Caribbean Club
We had the backyard to ourselves, at the Caribbean Club, since it was the middle of the afternoon
Thursday January 18, 2024 - Susan was leading another nature hike, so we thought we'd join again, and see if we could cement some of the stuff she taught us last week (and maybe learn some new stuff too). In the afternoon we booked a snorkel trip. It was $50/person for a 2.5 hour trip. The boat took us 5 miles out to a coral reef and we had an hour to explore. It was a great trip! Kev took the GoPro, so if you've got 5 minutes to spare click the link and see all the cool fish we saw.
We're back with the mangroves (red mangroves, and black mangroves). Susan said they drop, literally, 1 ton of leaves a year.
Susan talking about the Gumbo Limbo tree. She said you can hug a Gumbo Limbo on a hot day and it will cool you down, since they are 10 degrees cooler than the outside temperature. She also said if you put your ear to the tree you can hear the xylem and phloem moving through the tree.
An orb weaver
Heading out to the reef
It was a fun time! We saw a barracuda, lots of parrotfish, blue tangs, and damselfish, just to name a few. The temp of the water was 71, which sounds warm, but after an hour I was ready to get warm!
Friday January 19, 2024 - We played pickleball early, stopped at the grocery store for some shopping and then rented a tandem kayak for a 2 hour paddle through the mangroves.
It was a VERY foggy morning!
headed out the John Pennekamp park road to the Overseas Highway
by the time we got to pickleball we were damp all over. The humidity had to be 110%
Another great day of pickleball. By the time we left there were 40 people there!
It seems like we stop at Publix every day
Let's go kayaking
a mangrove tunnel
the view of Far Beach from the water
Cannon Beach
We saw 2 manatees! Don't they have the cutest snouts?
This snout was so high above the water
I loved the 2 circles they left after they popped up for air.
Kev got some great video of them with the GoPro
If you want to watch a video of the kayak trip, click the YouTube link below, but if you just want to see the manatees, they are in the last minute or two of the video. In the video you can hear the manatees munching on sea grass
