tales from the keys

the bike path to pigeon key.

chanda and adam went biking on the road to pigeon key which is a national historic district - and also a small island - in the keys off the florida coast (this was on sunday). it has eight buildings which are a remainder of the work camp of the florida east coast railway. currently, they serve as administrative offices and housing for educational groups and one of them is a small museum. you can read more about it here on wikipedia.

this is the florida keys brewing company cat. chanda and adam visited the brewery in islamorada, one of the key islands.

one of the raised wooden paths in the everglades park (look at those beautiful florida clouds!)

saying hi to manatee at the south visitor center and marina.

she arrived home last night and stopped by for dinner after work today. it was fun to hear about her adventures.

 

greg picked up some sausages which i sautéed with green peppers and onions from the green market, including a big bunch of basil for pesto.
 

before flying home yesterday, she enjoyed relaxing by the pool at her cousin's place. she said the water was cooler and felt more refreshing in the heat than the warm florida ocean.

adam's cozy home . . 

and his national park ranger badges (chanda filled out the booklet for one also).

cemeteries and dolphins

kendall and i went to our friend janine's husband's funeral today. he had been very ill for a long time, and his death wasn't unexpected . . but, of course, it's still so difficult.

janine has ten brothers and sisters and we were trying to pick them out amongst all the guests, which included a supportive lakeside community with whom she and her husband spent their summers and weekends when they weren't in the city. kendall was busy scanning the guests for the sister with the triplets while i was noticing the brother with the dark sunglasses and black wool coat and the sister who looked like she could have been janine's twin (but she wasn't). it was chilly out, but it was a nice ceremony with a cantor and priest, and the jewish tradition of symbolically placing dirt upon the coffin open to anyone who wished to participate.

the day began sunny and blue, but the clouds had gathered by the time we were at the cemetery. we made it home before the rain began. it's now pouring and it feels very cold. i think i'll crawl into bed soon.

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here are a few photos from my sister's trip to florida:

 her husband and sons' christmas gift to her was a swim with the dolphins in key largo. it was actually called a "shallow water dolphin" encounter. you could choose a deep water swim if you wanted . . but kathy was more comfortable with the former.

she also has a little video of herself holding onto the dorsal fins of two dolphins who pulled her across the lagoon. as you can tell from her smile, she loved it.

early morning

i took a walk around the house this morning . . 

the early sun cast heavy shadows and it felt very warm . . 

the neighborhood is made up of many canals where everyone keeps their boats . . 

i found an iguana sunning itself . . it did not want to have anything to do with me and scampered away . .

you can see it on the right on the dock . . 

good-bye little iguana . . it was nice seeing you in real life and not just in a photograph . . 

waiting for greg to finish cleaning his glasses so we can go on a morning bike ride before driving to the national park . . we'll also stop at winn dixie for coffee and tea and . . breakfast? (i had an oatmeal packet here at the apartment.)

orlando to key largo

 after dropping off korrina and brian at orlando airport, greg and i gassed up the car in kissimmee/st. cloud and stopped at a starbucks for coffee and earl grey tea.

and then we were on the road to okeechobee . . 

 okeechobee was a major hub in the 1930's and 40's for catfishing, bullfrog breeding, poultry farms and the annual shipment of winter vegetables north. greg's grandmother and grandfather had a cottage directly opposite the lake at which his mom remembers visiting. they had a goat and made their living by catfishing, before the lake had been overfished and the dike had been put up. his mom remembers crossing the street from the cottage and swimming in the lake with her father by her side. the lake is now completely surrounded by a dike so the water can be controlled and divvied out to miami, sugar fields south of the lake, and everglades national park. the current fish in the lake are speckled perch and bass, and i supposed there are some catfish, but if there are, it's not mentioned on their tourism page.

 we stopped in front of flagler park which had several world war ii military vehicles displayed.

according to the town's website, there is a speckled perch festival each year, with a lot of different vendors, including seminole craft and food booths, including pumpkin bread which must be very good if it's like the delicious corn bread we had in chinle at the thunderbird lodge (when visiting canyon de chelly).

 we then drove south along a road right next to the lake, which took us past up the grove beach where greg's mom's grandparents lived.

 passing an rv park . . 

 (and it started raining a little bit . . )

 at the end of this road you can see the green dike that completely surrounds the lake.

 it's a little more clear here, where you can see it at the end of the canal . .

 the green in the distance is the dike . . 

 and then finally we came to a bridge at port mayaca which lifted the road up so we could see over the dike to the water . . it's not easy to differentiate it from the sky as it was a very calm day, but if you look closely in the center of the photo you can see the sun shining on the water.

 it was such a beautiful and incredibly large lake, the eighth largest freshwater lake in the states.

here's a video i took while we were driving down from the bridge over a canal that led out of the lake.

 we then drove further south . . 

 to pahokee where we parked and walked along a pier to try and get a better look . . 

of the lake in the distance.

there weren't any specific overlooks to get a really good view.

so then it was onward past the sugar cane fields . .

miles and miles of sugar cane fields . .

 until we passed a huge processing plant in the distance . . it didn't look very friendly.

 the sugar cane fields led us right into the western part of miami and then to homestead, where we encountered a fierce thunderstorm which i watched on my phone to make sure we were heading out of it by continuing to drive south. by the time we were crossing the sound to key largo, it was dark.

 

by this time i was tired of being in the car and was happy to reach my nephew's place.

  he had left the outside lights on and it felt welcoming and magical.

 

 we ate at shipwreck's bar and grill and the food was so good that i'm getting hungry just thinking about it (i had grilled scallops and cole slaw).

finally in key largo! i've never been here before . . it's so exciting to be somewhere new.