Key West

So today we spoke to my son, Dan. Our grandson, Josh, is stable. Not out of the woods, but he was awake and talking with his dad.  His recovery will not be easy, but at least there is a plan for him. We had planned to head home, but will stay in close touch with Dan and continue with our trip for now unless things change for Josh.  

Having made the decision to stay, at least for one more day, we then were fortunate to get our campsite here for another night, and be able to play tourist for a day.

We headed off to Key West today, just to see it.  We thought, only 100 miles, so we should get there in an hour and a bit - NOT!  It took 2 1/2 hours!  The highway twists and turns from little islands, across causeways and bridges. Almost every island has a little town with shops and "tons" of touristy things like charter boat tours (remember Gilligan's Island?), scuba rental, and  fishing boats.  Add to that all of the resorts and condos..... We felt like had warped into the land of the rich and famous at times - just looking over the shoreline with beautiful Caribbean condos on the waters edge with palm trees everywhere!

The little Islands are called Keys and there are dozens of them. Largo, Islamorada, Grassy, Indian, West, Long.... there is even a "Nowhere" Key!  We saw some little Islands with no houses on them and thought about claiming one for ourselves..... what do you think??

The water was blue green and just shimmered! At one spot we saw a group of people on surfboards way out in the middle of the bay doing yoga! 

The drive to Key West was definitely an experience, but arriving was a bit of a letdown! We expected to see something really special, but it was just another version of Key Largo, but pricier. There was nothing to say where "Flipper" had lived. A nice beach with palm trees, beautiful white sand .... Really not sure what we expected, but oh well, we are not sorry we made it there. 

Long day, but fun just the same. We asked a fellow on the beach to take our picture - very nice, turned out to be French Canadian, small world, eh? 

The plan for tomorrow is to return to the Everglades National Park and visit the second campsite called 'Flamingo'. Flamingo is deeper into the glades(38 miles in), so the intent is to get a better look at more of the variety of landscape, vegetation, and the like.