Life is a Beach!

[FLASHBACK] Once you get into the South Florida & the Keys you are essentially on a great coral slab. If you are on land, you have about 6-8 inches of sandy soil between you and the coral. Most the everglades are the same, except it’s covered with 6-8 inches of water and vegetation. Where the ocean meets the land, it is for the most part a coral slab giving way to the water… ruff rocky land at the waters edge. My conception of the Keys, before visiting, was endless beaches around all the Keys islands. In fact there are very few beaches… but the beaches that are there give way to a spectacular view of the water and its many variations & shades of blue and green.
So a trip to the beach is a treat indeed. The Keys in the winter. It’s February…and today’s temperature is going to top out at 85 degrees with a light breeze. Yes… “life is a beach”… in the Keys… in the Winter. Just seems so unnatural to get to the beach and be so warm in the winter. Once you get past Key Largo & Islamorada ( there are very few public beach access points if any), you will start to see an ever increasing stretches of ocean access. Most are roadside on coral rocky shores, some with small beaches, and than there are some with large public areas and facilities and large beaches… like where we visited on Marathon Key… Sombrero Beach around MM50. (mile marker 50). Everything in the Keys is associated with mile markers to help make locations easier to find. It’s just a shame that most map makers, and particularly computer map programs, don’t use this great resource, mile markers, to aid in finding locations…. but nothing is perfect… I’m on the beach, it’s winter, and warm… I found it… who cares! Not to make anyone jealous, but it’s not all completely perfect… the water is very cool. I know…. all our family & friends up north, really feel bad for us…..NOT! We spent the day beach hopping in the Keys. What a wonderful treat. We ended the day for dinner on Islamorada at a restaurant called “Whale Harbor”. They have a seafood buffet, and it’s a bit pricy at $29pp, but we look at our days off in the Keys as vacation time. Enjoy it while we can, and make it special by splurging every once in a while. The buffet was great, everything was good. and the king crab legs were absolute perfection. To say I ate my fill… well… you all know me. We were there almost two hours, relaxing, eating, enjoying the atmosphere, nice, nautical, but casual, and looking out the window at the ocean… and the Kite Surfers. Could have been a bit better if it was closer to the water… or if we could have seen the sunset to the west… but that was a small sacrifice considering the dinner we had. What a wonderful day… another day shared together… life is what you make of it… and life is sweet… even when you are homeless. (homeless…that’s a little Rving joke). Until next time…. I’ll keep using that sunscreen, try to stay cool, and keep the sand between my toes… and no where else. This picture is one of the many of nature’s little treasures that can be seen along the coral beaches… a prehistoric sea creature “frozen in time” … or in the coral as it were. Found it while shell collecting. Lots of interesting stuff here! Small things… big finds!