More fun at Curry Hammock

 Sunday February 20, 2022 - Today we decided to take our bikes to the Old Seven Bridge, that we had walked across part of the way, last week.  We were going to ride our bikes the 2.2 miles and look around Pigeon Key, that the bridge ends on.  This was the island where the workers lived that were building the 7 mile bridge, back in the early 1900's.  Some of the buildings are still there and there are daily tours of the island.  I thought this would be fun to do, but we got there 30 minutes before it opened and decided that we didn't want to wait around.  There was an interesting article about the building of the bridge in this month's Smithsonian (thanks Betsy!).  It was quite an amazing engineering feat, for the time.

smithsonian article

Another sunrise at Curry Hammock

Biking across Old Seven, this time

We walked under the bridges.  The freshly painted blue bridge on the right above, is Old Seven (the pedestrian bridge) and to the left in the picture is the 7 mile bridge that currently carries cars across the 7 mile span from Marathon to Little Duck Key

We then rode our bikes to the Marathon Air Museum.  We ride our bikes by this museum all the time, and decided today to go in and check it out.  Luckily it was free, because it wasn't too much of a museum! 

There was another Sunday night concert at Sunset Park in Key Colony Beach, so we rode our bikes there.  It was a 15 mile bike day!

The sunset ride home from the concert on the Overseas Heritage Trail (that we spend so much time on!)

Sunset at Site 22

Monday February 21, 2022 - Today we hung around Curry Hammock and had some beach time.  In the afternoon we rode our bikes to the SS Wreck Bar and Grill for some beers and appetizers.  

Lunch and a crossword at our Curry Hammock Beach

We found a little spot all to ourselves and enjoyed the view and floating in the ocean

 

The Wreck

Puffy clouds from our campsite

Tuesday February 22, 2022 -  Today we rode our bikes to Crane Point Hammock which is a museum and nature center.  Several people had told us this was a was a worthwhile afternoon and we really enjoyed it.  There were lots of trails, and restored buildings, a bird hospital, natural history museum and a shell collection.  The 64 acres was originally purchased by George Adderley, who arrived here in 1890 from the Bahamas.  He lived here with his wife and adopted daughter and made a living fishing for sponges and making charcoal.  He would sell both the sponges and charcoal in Key West.  The land was bought by the Cranes in 1949 and was bought by the Florida Keys Land Trust in 1989 to preserve it as a non-profit museum/nature center.  

Everyone knows I like unique benches and this one caught my eye because it's made from a wooden canoe

We stopped for a fish pedicure

the lagoon for fish pedicures

George Adderley's house, the only building left standing on the property from when he lived there.  It's made of tabby (a mixture of sand, lime and shells)

This  beautiful Banyan tree is in front of the house that the Cranes built on the property in the 50's

The Crane's house (which is currently being renovated, set to open in July).  Architect was Wahl Snyder

In front of Crane Point.  One of the train cars from the 1935 hurricane

We stopped on the way home for a snack

chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick...YUM

another sunset

Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - We got up early to get some laundry done...the laundromat was BUSY.  Then we headed down the street to the Marathon City Park, where we have found a group that plays pickleball each morning.  It's been fun to play, when we have time.  Then off to Burdine's, on 15th St, which everyone we've talked to has recommended.  We got there 10 minutes before they opened for lunch and there was a line of 30 people in front of us!

Waiting for the laundry to finish.  I loved the painting on the wall outside the RV

We got a dryer that didn't work very well, so we had to string a clothesline through the van to finish drying our clothes!

Four courts of pickleball!

Burdine's

Iguana Bait Beer

Deep fried key lime pie.  The best key lime pie we've had so far!

More kite surfers to watch

Our spot on the beach with the top of Tiny peaking above the dune behind Kev.  

First week in Curry Hammock

 Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - Today we drove to the newly opened "Old Seven" bridge (which actually is only 2 miles) we had lunch with a view then walked 1.5 miles on the bridge and turned back.  This bridge had originally been a railroad bridge and was turned into a pedestrian bridge in the 80s and had recently been closed for several years for refurbishing. After our walk we took a tour of the Turtle Hospital. 

 

It was a windy day out on the bridge!

Freshly painted 🚲

There were 61 sea turtles at the turtle hospital on the day we visited. Many like this turtle had been hurt by boats and others had tumors that needed to be removed. 

 

The goal of the hospital is to rehab the sea turtles and release them but some have issues with buoyancy and can’t ever be released. 

This turtle has weights glued to its shell to help with buoyancy issues

Thursday, February 17, 2022 -  In the afternoon, we rode our bikes to Sombrero Beach (about 9 miles south of us).  It was a much wider beach than the beach we have at Curry Hammock, and lots of people.  It felt almost like a NJ beach!  After a few hours at the beach we rode to Sparky's Landing which we had heard had 45 cent wings and peel and eat shrimp for happy hour...the perfect dinner.  Then we hurried to get home before sunset, since we were on our bikes. 

Sunrise over site 22

lunch while watching the kite surfers (another windy day)

Sombrero Beach

Sparky's Landing happy hour

We brought everything we needed for the beach...our beach chairs and beach umbrella.  I could have used an orange slow moving vehicle sign on the back of the umbrella

The sun setting behind us as we rode our bikes back to Curry Hammock

Friday February 18, 2022 - We drove to Long Key State Park, which we had camped at in January 2017.  This park was hit hard by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and is not yet open for camping.  They are open for day use, so we spent the day there.  We did a trifecta while we were here.  1) 1.5 mile hike 2) 1.5 hour kayak and 3) 12 mile bike ride.  

Good Morning

poached eggs on an english muffin for breakfast

Nice spot for a quick morning game with Mom and Cathy

The Golden Orb Trail (the mangroves here had been destroyed by Hurricane Irma

Nice spot for a rest

Rented kayaks at Long Key and explored the "lake" (not sure why it's called a lake as it has access to the ocean)

The water was so clear...we saw a few nurse sharks and lots of horseshoe crabs

Kayaked through the mangroves

the ranger told us to take a photo of any horseshoe crabs we found that were tagged and log it's location on a website.  We reported this tag number (#379647) to the FWS.org/crabtag/ website. 

 

After lunch we road our bikes over another bridge (just outside of Long Key State Park). This one was 2.2 miles long and spanned the Long Key Channel.  It was part of the Key West Extension for the Florida East Coast Railroad constructed in 1907 by Henry Flagler.  In 1982 a new bridge was built, so this bridge became obsolete, and was turned into a pedestrian bridge in 2001.

We grabbed a beer once we reached the other side 

We were the only ones biking this bridge, but it was full of fishermen

Saturday February 19, 2022 - Today we stuck around Curry Hammock.  It was a foggy start to the day, but after lunch it cleared up and was another beautiful warm sunny day.  We went to our beach for a bit, then rented a kayak from the rangers' station (2 hrs for $22-what a deal)  We kayaked around the curry hammock

Kayaking through the mangroves

It was on its way to low tide and we could see the bottom was covered with jelly fish of all sizes.  When we would paddle it would stir them up.

Next we paddled out .3 miles from the shoreline there was a sandbar.  That shows up during low tide.  Since today was a sunny Saturday, the sandbar was easy to find as it was full of boaters out playing in the "beach"

it was so weird being so far from land but walking on the sand

sandbar, with boats in the distance

Tiny in the distance