The next morning I awoke to the wonderful white noise of the AC keeping us chilly willy in the coach. I really didn't sleep in too bad and was up around 7:30ish. Spoiler alert, my daughter slept in until after 10 when I rousted her in a hurry, but we will get back to that in a bit.
Made some coffee (lazy when camping, found this pretty good instant Vietnamese coffee that has the sugar and milk all premixed, kind of like hot chocolate). and had a pastry we brought with. Rousted Lucy and around 8:15 we rolled out on the bikes for a morning pedal about the park. We headed over to the bayside which takes out on a little road under the Overseas Highway.
Once on the other side of the highway the road is right next to the sea wall. As I was slowly pedaling, I saw a manatee about 3 ft off the sea wall. I screamed like a little kid and slammed on the brakes. I have been going to the keys for 40 years and have NEVER seen a manatee down there. I know they are here and there, but never saw one, especially so close! I jumped off the bike and what felt like a fluid motion, was pulling my phone out of my pocket and navigating over a steel guardrail. Just like the ones on the highway. Well my first leg was fine as I was moving fast to get the photo. I guess in my childlike exuberance, I forgot about the other leg as I SMASHED it full force into the guardrail. I hit it so hard the phone flew out of my hand and I was going down. I watched my 2 week old smartphone arc through the air toward Florida Bay and wondered if it might actually land on the manatee (it was really that close). Gravity took over and luckily it landed on the seawall and the grippy rubber side down so it stopped about 2 inches short of the water. PHEW! Me? well I sort of sprawled out and other than the incredible pain in my shin was ok.
I grabbed the camera and fumbled a bit as the manatee moved away.... Above is the first shot looking north into Florida Bay, he was about 10 -12 feet off the seawall now.
This is a zoom shot as he rounded the corner and now was heading under the highway. Turns out he swam into the marina and hung out there all day as we saw him again later (didn't have the camera then).
Adrenaline is funny as I kind of just 'walked off' my leg and it didn't hurt bad until a day later.... We continued on our little bike ride to check out the bayside cabins and campground.
The cabins are on the left and did pretty well during Irma. The park was still doing ALOT of work to put things back right, but the cabin were open as well as the bayside camp loop. A ranger told me they had 18.5 feet of water in the park!
This is up at the end of the bayside camp loop (to the right in the previous photo). I strolled up to see how far I could go (about another 100 feet or so and it got wet).
The view of the bridge looking south from the top of the picnic table above. The cabins are just off to the right. In the foreground is the first of the new bridges which I guess opened in 1972. The old bridge was so narrow they had to put the road on top of it and it was very dangerous.
Typical keys flora and fauna. Irma cleared out much of the underbrush as it was not salt tolerant.
A view out onto Florida Bay to the East/Ne
We pedaled back over to the store to check out what was going on and as the weather was nice inquired about the snorkeling trip out to Looe Key. I've been snorkeling since the mid 70s and a SCUBA diver since 1979, but for whatever reason never made it out ot Looe Key. It is legendary as a great dive spot in the keys. They had 4 available spots so we grabbed 3 of them right there. I had to quickly pedal back to grab my wallet and wake up Naya so she could come sign the paperwork. We got that all taken care of and had a couple hours to kill which included some relaxation and an early lunch as we'd be out all afternoon on the boat.
Here we are waiting to board the catamaran for the 35 min ride out to the reef. The boat was full with people from quite a few different countries as well as all over the US (we had the go round of where your from on the ride out).
Seeing the bridge close up from the water, you get a better idea of the size of it.
This one is good as you can see how they had to build the road on the top of the railroad bridge. They had to use this construction on this channel for the railroad as it was the deepest (around 40ft) and the swiftest currents when the tide runs. The deck of the road is about 70 ft up and it is really narrow, so it was super sketchy to drive.
Another view and you can see the new bridge (now 35 years old) in the background. You can also see chunks of steel hanging down as the old bridge is slowly going back to nature. On the right of the split you can see the railing for the viewing area (temporarily closed).
The ride out was about 35 minutes and we saw 3 or 4 sea turtles on the way. the Cyan color of the water was amazing and it was roughly about 30-40 deep the whole way out there.
This was at the end of the dive (about 2 hours). You can see the coral about 5 ft under the surface. I have not seen a reef this healthy in a LONG time. It made me quite happy to see and hear a vibrant reef. Sorry no underwater footage. I did get buzzed by a 6ft reef shark so that was pretty cool. Naya and Lucy also saw a nurse shark, and Goliath Grouper.
The ride back in and a panorama of the bridge. The park is straight ahead. The sun is hot and brutal so we headed back to the coach and showered up and relaxed for about 2 hours.
We went to the bayside to watch the sunset (as opposed to the bridge) for a change of pace. This is right where I saw Mr. Manatee. As you can see it was kinda cloudy, but still nice to watch.
Back on the Ocean side of the highway, here is an example of the guardrail that killed my shin. Naya styling on her muscle bike.
As night draws near we used the bike rack and ladder as a laundry line while I got the grille going for tonight's feast of grilled turkey breast and potatoes.
While the coals were getting ready to cook on, the local animal population were working on procreation. They were going to town and running all over the place. I took about 20 pics and this was the best one as they didn't stay still very long.
After dinner, we were pretty wiped from the snorkel trip and the sun, so we retired early and played some games and then off to sleepy time.....
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