The Florida Keys!

The Florida Keys

Jan 14 &15

Can you even believe it!?

We got to spend the weekend in the Florida Keys!!

What an amazing, unique place...the most tropical place the kids have ever been.

We stopped at the Bird Sanctuary where we saw these relatively common birds

who had been rescued and enjoyed reading their recovery stories...

...but the highlight of the place was Fred.

Frederica had been the personal pet of Laura Quinn, and after Laura passed away, 

Fred remained at the Sanctuary to welcome and entertain visitors.

We hit Sombrero Beach to watch the sunset.

...and Tim and Ellie actually got in the water, although it was too cold for normal people.

 

The next day, we headed to Key West!

We first toured Fort Zachary State Park...

The U.S. Army began construction of Fort Taylor, named for President Zachary Taylor, in 1845. With secession and the beginning of war in 1861, Fort Taylor remained under federal control -- one of only three fortresses in Florida to do so -- and served as the headquarters for the Federal Navy's East Gulf Coast

 Blockading Squadron staying on 'active duty' status through 1947.

In 1968, a large supply of Civil War-era guns and ammunition were discovered in the Fort's buried arsenal. In fact, Fort Zachary Taylor held the largest collection of Civil War-era cannons in the United States.

-from floridastateparks.org

The cannons were cool...

...but this guy was the highlight of our tour.  😉

The one thing we all really wanted to do in the Keys was snorkel.
We had read that this beach at the fort had the best off-shore snorkeling.

...it just so happened that it was cool and windy, so the water was cold and murky.

Tim and the girls made a go of it, couldn't see a thing under the water, and froze...

like skin turning not-ok colors froze.

The warm car was the next longed-for destination, but we didn't want to leave Key West just yet,

so we stopped at Smather's Beach...

...where this pelican was the highlight.

These crazy bird-lovin' peeps just hung out with him
and observed him for the longest time...

The sun sets on our second Keys day...