Curry Hammock

The weather has been just perfect for late May in the Keys. Hot, but not terribly so. Humid as always but tolerable. There is a wonderful breeze off the ocean.
We all took a walk to the day use area. There is a small, out of the way spot past the kayak launch, where Gopher could go swimming. State Parks are very strict, as they should be, about dogs being on the swimming beaches. After getting thoroughly soaked, she took a good roll in the sand. I'm convinced she enjoys traveling as much as we do.
The Sea Grape bushes are just loaded with fruit. The grapes are eatable but somewhat bitter. They are best used for jelly. The coconut palms are also full of nuts. As you walk through the park, there are very informative signs by a lot of the plants. It's nice actually knowing that plant you're admiring.
Today we're staying put. Tomorrow we're going to have lunch at a highly recommended restaurant in Marathon.

Key West

We took a ride down to Key West yesterday. Looked around at some places we remembered from when we lived there in the late '60's. How things have changed. I was thinking that if we went to KW on Sunday morning, the traffic wouldn't be too bad. The place was a madhouse. We drove down Duval Street. What a collection of tourist junk stores. Finally we found a parking place on the ocean near the airport. We saw the Naval hospital where Jennifer was born then headed out. No more Key West trips for us.
Later on we were looking for a lunch place and spotted a small combination convenience store/Cuban takeout place around Summerland Key as I recall; Five Brothers II. What a great find. Apparently a very popular place because by the time our lunch was ready, the place was standing room only. We split a Cuban sandwich and an order of conch fritters.
Continuing north we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park to see if they had any room in the campground for one night. They did. The first site they assigned us to was right next to the dumpster. The smell was rank but for one night we thought we could live with it. As the day went on, the smell became more then we could handle so I went back to the office. There were other vacant sites for one night so we were able to move. This morning while walking Gopher, we went by the dumpster site to take a look. Some poor couple in a tent were there. The smell was bad enough inside our motorhome with the windows closed and the A/C running. I can just imagine how bad it was in a tent.
The campground itself at Bahia Honda is just OK. Unless you get sites 13 through 25, there is no view at all; just your neighbor. On the other hand, the park itself is wonderful. Nice beaches, snorkeling, boat rentals, snack bar, nice places to take a walk, etc. We'll go back.
When we lived in Key West, we had a salt water aquarium. The reefs off Bahia Honda were a prime source of things for the aquarium.
We stopped by Publix in Marathon then went to Curry Hammock SP where we have reservations through Thursday. With Memorial Day weekend coming up, we were not able to get into any of the SP's for the weekend. Curry Hammock used to be our favorite Keys SP. In the past, there was a very nice ocean view from the ocean side campsites like we have now. That's changed. The vegetation is now so tall, that unless you stand up you can't see the ocean at all. We much prefer the unobstructed view from the Long Key campground. Next trip, if we can't get a waterfront site in Bahia Honda, we would go to Long Key. The only downside to Long Key is the daytime traffic noise from very nearby US #1. The cars aren't so bad; it's the Harleys. Seems like people who like Harleys like lots of loud noise. Wonder why that is?
Just checked on-line hoping for a cancellation is a SP for the weekend; no luck so far so unless that changes, we head home Friday.