The Florida Keys

Happy New Year! I guess we’re all glad that 2020 is in the rearview mirror, right? Well before I move on to the new year I need to catch up on one last blog post about our time in the Keys.

The first time we visited the Florida Keys 2 years ago we loved it so much, we decided it was time to go back. Especially because we had a milestone birthday to celebrate. Jake turned 16 in September and we had a blast celebrating his birthday with Sebago Watersports on an All-Day Watersports Adventure.

*On the Sebago Catamaran heading out to snorkel.*

*I could not believe just how blue that water was!*

We were blessed with a perfectly beautiful day for this adventure which included snorkeling, jet skiing, banana boat rides and our favorite — parasailing.

*Jesse and Chris parasailing. The crew members were lots of fun!*

*Jake driving me on the jet ski. This was the first day he was old enough to drive it! He was pretty excited about that.*

We all agreed that Jake’s 16th birthday celebration was one of the best days ever!

We stayed at 2 different state parks while in the Keys. The first one was Bahia Honda which was probably one of my favorite state parks we’ve ever stayed at. It might have something to do with the fact that our RV backed up to the water where we could swim and snorkel and watch amazing sunsets right outside our back door.

*The boys floating behind our campsite on tubes we bought for sledding last winter in Colorado. Unfortunately one windy night they blew away and we imagine they are now somewhere in Cuba.* 😉

*Check out that backyard! I also took up gardening this year with my traveling Tower Garden.*

My high school friend Shannan lives in Key West, and we got to spend some time with her and her husband David a few times while we were in the Keys. We had so much fun with them!

You know when you haven’t seen someone in like 30 years, and you just don’t know what it’s going to be like? I mean, will it be awkward, will we have anything to talk about? Does anyone else worry about stuff like that? No, just me?

Well, I needn’t have worried! It was like no time had passed, and Chris and I really enjoyed hanging out with them so much that we plan to go back and see them again later this year.

*Sunset at the aptly named Sunset Grill*.

After 2 blissful weeks at Bahia Honda we moved to Curry Hammock State Park. State parks in the Keys are so hard to get into! Even trying to reserve 11 months in advance when the spots become available to reserve is so difficult because many others are online at the same time trying to get the same spot. There have been many mornings when Chris & I have been on 2 devices just before 8am to try to reserve a spot, only to be disappointed because someone else was a quicker clicker than we were. Persistence pays off though because that’s how we eventually got the Bahia Honda site. People do frequently cancel however, so that’s how we later got a spot at Curry Hammock.

*We couldn’t walk out the door and into the water from this site, but at least we had a water view!*

*We were also graced with the presence of a couple of iguanas at our campsite. Can you see them?*

A Fulltime Family that we met our first year on the road (the Reyes family) met up with us at Curry Hammock. Michele took this beautiful picture of our RV with a rainbow in the background. Michele and I had lots of fun snorkeling together.