Show & Tell {The Florida Keys - Part One}

(I started this blog entry a couple days ago, but as often happens to me when I have tons of pictures - dial-up slows down my progress.  LOL  So here it is as Show & Tell)



The day after our visit to the Everglades, we did another all-day "field trip" - we drove to the Florida Keys!  It was one of those "well, we've come this far south, what's another four hours" kind of decisions.  LOL  We set out after breakfast with a state map and the AAA tourbook to see the Keys.  At one point while we were still on the I-95, DH said to me "you realize the highway through the Keys is really a long series of bridges and causeways, right?  Are you okay with that?"  He knows I hate bridges.  LOL  I assured him that as long as HE was driving, it was all good.    Of course there was construction on the causeway from the mainland to Key West, so that was rather slow going at times, and by the time we arrived on Key Largo, the kids were already hinting strongly that lunch would be a good idea.  Key Largo was a little bit a disappointment to me because the part we saw didn't really look "exotic" at all!  LOL  Of course there were palm trees everywhere, and some side roads were only a block or two to the beach, and you could see that.  But I think seeing an Exxon station first thing when you get off the causeway is a bit of a letdown.  LOL  Maybe I was hoping for a beach or a tropical looking hotel as my first sight on the Keys.  At any rate...  I had checked the tourbook and had a couple of restaurants on Islamorada picked out as good possibilities for our lunch, so we decided we would just drive and keep our eyes open for places we might like to stop at.  We would up getting all the way to the restaurant I'd picked - Islamorada Diner, I think it was called (clever, no?) - which was a homey little yellow clapboard building.  We opted to eat in the screened-in patio.







Harrison had fried grouper - it was SO good!



We were much too full to have dessert - I really wanted Key Lime Pie - so I bought a small bag of Key Lime Cookies to take along for later.  A short way down the road, we stopped for a look at the ocean.











Two of my kids will pose for pictures - the princess:



and the cool teenager who is always looking for a new avatar for Facebook or MySpace:



and who is also a bit of a goof:



 Our next stop was at Anne's Beach, where we walked on the boardwalk and decided to wade in the ocean a bit.



















 Next stop was at Curry Hammock State Park, which had an even bigger beach!  And bonus: we happened to be visiting the Keys on Veterans Day, so all the state parks were free admission.



The kids worked a bit on a sand castle.



Here's a collection of pictures of the interesting things seen on the beach:

It was taking a long time for my pictures to load, and since it's time for school to start and for me to get ready to go do some Black Friday shopping, I decided to make this a two-part entry and put the rest of the Keys pictures up later.  Please come back!  For more Show & Tell fun, visit CanadaGirl



ETA:  Part Two is here.