Bahia Honda State Park

Originally we had planned to go to Bahia Honda State Park on the way back from Key West. The chance to spend a second day seeing the Key West Sunset was too tempting and the trip to the park was made into another day trip. So another day trip takes us to Bahia State Park in the lower keys. This trip was planned as a relaxing day driving into the keys…. spending time at the beach… and having dinner at one of our favorite places…. Whale Harbor. The drive into the keys as usual was filled with wonderful views of the water. The waters variations in the shades of blue, the deep blue sky with just the right amount of billowing white clouds, and the sparkling reflections of the sun on the water made for a wonderful trip. We thought how lucky were have been to always have such wonderful weather… its only been cloudy and rained once in the three months we have been here. This particular day was a bit warmer than usual, but the ever present breeze that made being in the shade a little bit of paradise. Being out in the sun was another story… the sun seemed unusually hot today. Perhaps this is why so many people decided to go to the beach. There are small beaches through out the keys and they are generally few and far between. Conditions for nature to produce beaches in this coral island setting is not exactly perfect…. and those beaches that do develop are not exactly what I’d call perfect either…. but… they are beaches never the less and do provide places to get into the water… or simply to let you admire the picturesque setting…. and today was no exception. If 80 something was 70 something… it would have been perfect. A bit of history… the bridge in this picture was originally a railroad bridge (lower portion) build around 1900… later a vehicle bridge was added atop the railroad bridge…. and still later both were abandoned in favor of the new vehicle bridge in the background. Several portions of the original railroad bridge were saved as a walking/fishing bridge and capped with new walkway and rails… mostly in the lower keys. There’s a beach on both sides… the gulf side and the Atlantic side. Mostly everyone swam on the gulf side… perhaps it had something to do with all the piles of decaying sea grass on the ocean side. Oh look…. there’s a little island out there… now I could really enjoy the afternoon out there under the shade of the trees. Wonder if they deliver tropical drinks to the island? I’ll have 2 lounge chairs, 2 frozen drinks, 2 beach towels, 2 snacks, and send the boat back for us after the sunset. Life is a beach… and sometimes it’s a private beach on a deserted island. Well… it’s a well thought out dream anyway…. just me and my sweetie on our own little get a way. Later…