So the Keys trip is over, and we’re back. The last couple of days held some interesting activities.

Tuesday we took a trip down to Key West. I’ve been there a number of times, but it doesn’t have the appeal to me that the rest of the Keys do. The attractions tend toward more seedy recreations (drinking, strip clubs, the “Overdressed Male Nudist” in a thong, among others). They’ve got a couple of nice restaurants and shops, but they don’t keep my attention for long. I go to the Keys for the fishing, diving, and boating, not the t-shirt shops.

Returning from Key West in the late afternoon, the weather took a turn for the worse. Inches of rain poured down all night and into most of the following morning. Thunderstorms and boats don’t mix, so we were confined^[1] to the house until early afternoon when we ventured out into the still-overcast outdoors. Our options were to attempt a Looe Key snorkeling trip, or ride up the Keys to Worldwide Sportsman and Robbie’s. We opted for the former, since it was our last chance to do any real boating before leaving Thursday.

We headed out beneath overcast skies, and the chop seemed only moderate considering the storm that had just passed. As we left the channel and reached the last marker, we took a heading of 180°, due south, where Looe Key was situated about 5 miles out. We set a course and motored out… And motored… And continued motoring for about 10 or 12 miles (estimated) without seeing a single semblance of any marked reef. After switching to our reserve tanks, we decided to scrap the idea and head back in before we burned too much fuel, now that we were out of sight of the shore. We reversed our heading and started in.

As we approached the shore, we passed what I eventually determined was a marker for a fishing spot about 3 miles due east of the Looe Key mark. We were completely baffled as to what we’d done, and ended up back at our spot from Monday to do some more snorkeling to salvage something out of the trip. Like the previous time, we saw little new, only a small moray eel and some good sized angel fish.

We headed back to the house to try to diagnose what had gone wrong, as we had no way of knowing without more information. I had joked that Admiral Nelson had more technology at his disposal than we did out there, while Nat remarked that our situation was like an episode of Seconds from Disaster. We tied up at the dock, and my dad immediately discovered that the compass upon which our whole fate had rested was about about 30° in error, tricking us into heading east of any target. Over distance that error was amplified by several miles, resulting in being completely out of sight of the marker. The whole ordeal, while sort of upsetting, ends up as a lesson in checking your equipment before your trip. It also makes for a better story than our hazy day, cold water dive at Looe would have been.

That was the end of our trip. We left Thursday morning early so we could be back in St. Pete by late afternoon. Colette had a bachelorette party to go to. We did stop at Robbie’s to feed the tarpon on the return trip, a Keys tradition. The only other notable happening on the drive back was the detour over the Card Sound bridge north of Key Largo. They’re doing some kind of construction on the stretch of US-1 between Florida City and Key Largo, so everyone got detoured up to Card Sound. Nothing fantastic, but I’d never driven up there before.

[1] I use the word loosely. I’d rather be “confined” in the Lower Keys than “free” at the office.

Some photos & videos, courtesy of Colette:

The Key West version of Man's Best Friend.

Dahli, my neice, drinking from dad's straw.

These first couple of days have been pretty ideal Keys days. We spent the first day mostly just hanging around the house here, put the boat in the water, and went fishing out in what’s apparently named “Newfound Harbor Channel.” No luck fishing, but we weren’t exactly prepared or trying too hard.

Day two was a little more exciting. We went on a snorkeling trip a few miles out to Newfound Harbor Key, a pretty decent reef and rock bed that’s protected from fishing and anchoring. There was nothing epic out there, but we saw a number of grouper, an arrowhead crab, huge schools of bermuda chubs, and some abandoned lobster pots (empty, however).

We’re planning to go to Looe Key either today or tomorrow. Looe is about 5 miles offshore, with clearer, deeper water, so we’re hoping for some more variety. Key West is also on the docket as well, but we don’t know when we’re heading down there.

The highlight so far has been Little Palm Island. Colette and I went down the street and hopped on their private ferry last night to take us out there for dinner. We arrived right around sunset and their hostess led us on a mini tour of the island facilities before seating us at a small table right on the beach. The breeze was cutting right over the corner of the island, preventing the typical Keys mosquito barrage at dusk. Colette had tuna, I had skirt steak, and we finished the evening off with some beignets for dessert. Colette got several good pictures from around the island even in the dark. The island itself is a marvel of engineering, it’s no wonder they charge a couple legs to stay in one of the bungalows or to eat dinner out there. I’d highly recommend the experience, regardless of price. It’s worth it.

This Saturday marks the start of our massive week-long family trip to Little Torch Key, our first trip to the Keys in 4 years, and our first time staying in the Lower Keys ever. Nine adults, one baby, one dog, two vans, and a boat. The drive down should be action-packed.

A number of times through elementary and middle school, we’d go down and stay either in motels or a family friends’ vacation home in Marathon. Later on our trips migrated up to Islamorada/Tavernier, where we’d stay in our uncles’ family’s condo. Islamorada was always a popular family spot in our older years because of its lobstering and fishing community (we got more interested in fishing than in snorkeling in our teens), and of course Robbie’s and World Wide Sportsman. Going to those places was our idea of “sightseeing.”

I’ve been to Key West a number of times, but aside from there, the only place below Marathon I’d ever really visited was Bahia Honda State Park. Next week we’ll be staying in a house on Little Torch Key, one of hundreds of small islands that make up the Lower Keys. There are a lot more little islands to explore down in that part of the archipelago, with more variety that what we’re used to. Up north of there in Islamorada, you’ve got the Atlantic on one side (deep with nearby reefs offshore) and Florida Bay on the other (sandy, shallow and flat, with not much to do other than fish). Little Torch and its surroundings will mix that up a little more. Nearby you’ve got shallows, numerous small islands to explore, deep channels, dropoff walls for diving on, reefs offshore, and all a short boat ride from the house. It’s only about a half hour drive to Key West, too, for shopping and whatnot.

Colette and I have a reservation to eat dinner on Little Palm Island, a “private island getaway” and the self-proclaimed “most romantic place on Earth.” They’ll pick us up in their boat and taxi us out there for the evening, so that should be pretty darn nice.

We’re excited to do some more photography. The Keys (especially with my family) always offer plenty of hilarious memorable moments. I’m just stoked to get to take enough time off to possibly get to relax for real.

Who am I kidding? It’s going to be non-stop action and by Thursday I’ll be exhausted.

Grayson laying into some nearly-captive tarpon at Robbie's.

This year’s family Thanksgiving dinner was held at our house (our first one in the new house), so Colette and I were definitely busy getting everything cleaned up and making food for the festivities.

Most of Colette’s Tampa-based family came over, along with my parents and two of my brothers, so we had a packed house. We made the following items at home for dinner:

• Colette’s now-famous pasta salad
• “Loaded potato skins”
• Aunt Gina’s brown rice

We put out the firepit in the back yard in the corner and set up some cover tents with tables and chairs underneath, so we could eat outside. Colette did a fantastic job decorating everything. She hung up lights inside the tents and even put up some tiki torches, for that real Floridian Holiday vibe.

Luckily we began preparing our pasta and rice the previous day (they’re both better when they sit in the fridge overnight, in my opinion) so we didn’t have a ton of food prep to do while simultaneously cleaning the house. Sometime I’ll have to post recipes for those somewhere, even though one’s a family tradition and the other doesn’t really have a specific recipe. That afternoon, I busted out the cast iron dutch oven and cooked 2 pounds of bacon to load upon the baked potatoes. I like frying violently thrashing things like bacon in the D.O. because it’s deep enough to keep me from getting blistered by so much wayward fat, and it helps keep the mess down. I then proceeded to bake something like 16 potatoes: whole, coated in canola oil and kosher salt, and baked right on the oven rack at 350° for an hour. They came out crispy and amazing. Each potato gets cut in half, then each half gets a pat of butter, some cracked pepper, bacon, and cheddar cheese, then put back in the oven to melt the cheese. Needless to say these guys were basically all gone by the end of the night.

After dinner, everyone spent a few hours around the firepit making smores containing various chocolates. By this time Chloe was just itchin’ to come hang out with everyone (and to eat their dropped smore materials), plus some of the folks were gone, so we let her run around us out back.

Some photos are below the fold…

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