Finally, a chance to use my carefully-curated map and list of stops in order!

(No, I didn’t go to that stop out in the water, sillies. That’s the “Christ of the Deep”, part of the Pennekamp park, which I would have seen if my glass-bottom boat tour hadn’t been cancelled.)

Got up, cleaned up, breakfast, headed out. Still windy like yesterday, but not supposed to rain after early morning.. except it did and got worse and worse as I headed south.

Stop 1 was the Old Road Gallery, named thus because it was not on Route 1, but on the old road parallel – I had to make a left onto a side street, then up back north. This was a fun gallery and I chatted with the proprietors a bit. There was some pottery I really liked, but I’ve learned the lesson in the past that pottery doesn’t travel well in a suitcase. I suppose I could have had them ship it… ah well, no biggie. They have a sculpture garden – a series of paths and sculptures and little gathering areas with tables and stuff, very sweet, although in this weather, not a great place to hang out.

Stop 2 was the Islamorada Chamber of Commerce. I didn’t actually talk to an attendant or pick anything up, just used their bathroom. But I did grab this fun picture of donation bricks.

Stop 3, immediately south, was Rain Barrel Village, which I’d been looking forward to – an artisan mall. I, of course, initially misread this sign.

Luckily I was outside and it was windy. (as was I, heh-heh-heh)

I didn’t buy anything, but one of the shops had these really neat wall art things that were like 3D dioramas of wharves and beach cottages and things, really cute. I might have bought one of those if in the mood.

Stop 4 was the Hurricane Monument. Nice to stop and take the time to look at it.

I wanted to get a better picture of that inlaid map, but there wasn’t a good place to stand and get directly above it.

Stop 5 was Anne’s Beach. I really liked this – a boardwalk through the trees by the beach and a little bit on the beach itself. I walked the whole thing.

Stop 6 was the Golden Orb Trail at Long Key State Park. I’d pulled this out of a different guidebook than most of the other stops, and I honestly didn’t remember what it was until I got there. It’s a nature trail that’s a 1 mile loop.  The ranger who took my admission fee was very friendly and obviously of the sisterhood.

This was really different and I really liked all the gnarled trees and stuff – it felt very Moominesque, for some reason. Also, those bands of pine needles or whatever by the shore? At some point, I stepped closer to the water onto that stuff and it instantly sucked my feet down like quicksand, completely messing up my sneakers. Nature, man… But this was very cool (literally – weather still gloomy and a little bit spitty from the sky).

Stop 7 was a restaurant that the guidebook had said was fun, Oceans305. But it didn’t say, or I didn’t read clearly, that it was a beachfront restaurant in a gated RV community – so I had to go through a gatehouse and get a dashboard plaque, and then it wasn’t clear how to get to the restaurant. I parked and walked through a huge sea of giant RVs (much like I had done at one point at Pennekamp the day before – I don’t know anything about the RV community, but I guess it’s a real thing down there). Found the restaurant, which would have been delightfully situated if it hadn’t been cold and rainy. As it is, the tiki hut was enclosed in plastic to protect from the elements, but they were still serving.

I ordered a caesar salad and a beer (unusual for me) and enjoyed watching this very vocal bird clearly waiting for leftovers, which it got when the table in the corner got up and left, leaving their dishes.

Now it’s about mid-afternoon and I’m reaching Marathon, but had planned to do most of the Marathon stuff the next day, except for the air museum, which wouldn’t be open. So off to the air museum – which took me several tries, because the GPS wasn’t quick enough to tell me that the road it wanted me to turn on was a service road right next to Route 1. I figured it out, though.

Stop 8: The air museum was free! and small, and had a couple oldsters sitting around, delighted to have a fresh victim. The museum part was mostly flight logs and models and uniforms, but then there was a hanger of a couple of cool planes, and more planes on the runway outside, except of course it was raining, so didn’t really explore. These two old guys, both amateur pilots, of course, were delightful and quizzed me, somewhat disappointed that I was not a pilot and didn’t really want to become one, just liked airplanes. But one of them forced me to sit down and try the flight simulator – long enough that I had to actually pull the plug and say “I gotta go”. But it was a fun visit.

Off to the Grassy Flats resort – which was hard to see from the road and I had to go through the whole U Turn Experience again, which was doubly tricky since it was pouring rain.  My room wasn’t ready yet, but they were working on it.  There’s a resort cat named Wilma! who was snoozing in the lobby. The counter lady was super nice – she suggested I go to the tiki bar and get my free welcome drink, which I did – vodka and guava juice – had a nice chat with the bartender. But the weather made sitting in an outdoor bar not that much fun. 

Once I got into the room, which was really great, I went to the ‘market’ where they had coffee drinks and pastries and I got ‘a little treat’ (have you noticed the prevalence of ‘a little treat’ as a reference in social media lately? It’s cute.) And chilled and got caught up in the room until news-and-knit time.

I had dinner at the onsite restaurant. By then, the weather had died down and people were out on the water windsurfing, which was fun to watch. I had a cosmo, and then the charming waiter brought me a (cold, but unfrozen) daiquiri unasked. I had like a shrimp cocktail and then a bowl of soup and then another key lime pie, I think. I really liked the resort, it would have been worth spending more time there, and in nicer weather.

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Next up: Marathon to Key West!