Florida so far...

One would think that once you get to Florida the skies clear and the temperature increases to warm hanging-out-at-the-beach kind of weather.  It was 20+ degrees warmer in Flagstaff than here in Florida.  This Arctic blast prompted us to continue south at a faster rate than we had anticipated.  There is a pretty large national forest just north of Orlando where we set up camp.  While staying at the Clearwater Campground we enjoyed a 25 mile bike ride and managed to pick up a canoe. 

   

Ron's parents met up with us in Orlando about a week before Christmas.  The weather was once again leaving something to be desired so we headed to the Kennedy Space Center where we saw the crawler that brings the shuttle out on to the launch pad, the shuttle on the launch pad, one of the three remaining Apollo rockets on display, and Ron was able to pet a moon rock.  The last shuttle launch was scheduled for Dec. 17th and we were going to be able to see it, however it has been postponed due to cracks in the outer fuel tank.  We will keep an eye on the next scheduled launch date.  During our time in Orlando we stayed at Lake Louisa State Park where we located an old orange and lemon orchard.  We harvested as many lemons as we could carry and are still reaping the lemonade benefits.

   

From Orlando we headed down to Key Largo to stay at a very colorful little place on a canal that Ron's parents rented for all of us.  Our first trek as tourists in the keys was to Key West.  After a walking tour we had really tasty lunch at B.O.'s Fish Wagon.  This was our warmest day yet so we headed to Fort Taylor State Park where we toured yet another fort and Betty and I enjoyed a dip in the ocean.  On the way back to Key Largo we took a detour to track some very small endangered Key Deer where we spotted ~1% of the remaining population of 500.  OK, we only saw 4.  But all right from the car.  Continuing our drive back, the Key West Key Lime Company put together a brilliant billboard promoting their key lime pie as a way of preventing scurvy.  How could we pass that by? The pie was ~$20 which all of us winced at until they gave us a free sample. DELICIOUS.

   

       

Looking for more entertainment we headed to the Everglades National Park.  Our first stop featured so many gators, birds, and miscellaneous critters that we thought they must have staged the scene.  Gators were literally piled up on each other.  The photo shown here could not even encompass all 19 gators present in this one small area.  Also spotted was a very rare American Crocodile.  Christmas day we enjoyed a morning paddle where a manatee swam directly underneath our sea kayak and very tasty turkey dinner.  Ron's parents are ditching us tomorrow and heading back to Oregon and we are headed up to the Everglades to put together a 10 day canoe trip.