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Key West Florida March 13-24 Updated 01/12/2003 12:51 AM March 23rd - Last installment. Did some more tourist trap type things. Saw mile marker zero and the southernmost point. Did the aquarium again. Got some good shots of the small tooth sawfish. March 22nd - Booked the day tour for Matthew and me on the Stars & Stripes. Went to the Key West National Wildlife Refuge (reef) and snorkeled. Matthew gave it a brief try, but decided he needed some practice in the bathtub first...saw bunches of fish, got checked out by a school of barracuda, and saw a largish nurse shark. We saw a mother and baby dolphin swimming behind us on the way back in, and shortly after seeing the the dolphins, we saw a HUGE hawksbill sea turtle. March 21st - Didn't do much. Walked to the Whitehead street pier and then had an excellent Cuban lunch at El Siboney. March 20th - Went on a back country kayak tour of the Great White Heron National Wildlife refuge. Went to Snipe Key and Mud Key. Saw Magnificent Frigate Birds, Ospreys, Little Blue Herons, Turns, Cormorants, and Ibises. Kayaking is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The water was very shallow - sometimes as shallow as 10 inches or so. You could pick up starfishes, sea cucumbers and a non-stinging variety of jellyfish. March 19th - Went with Matthew to the Duval area of Key West and did most of the "tourist trap" type things. We went to the top of the lighthouse, did the Aquarium tour, did the trolley tour around the island, and finished up at Mallory Square for the sunset. March 18th - Had planned to go on the all day eco-tour with Adventure tours, however when we got there, they informed us that they had an electrical problem, and we could not go. They offered a shorter kayak trip on a different boat, or to reschedule. I rescheduled for Wednesday. So, we hung around the apartment until lunch time, and then went to Rusty Anchor again for lunch. After lunch we drove up to Bahia Honda beach and hung out for most of the afternoon. After the beach, we drove the 7 mile bridge to Marathon, turned around, came back over it, and proceeded to Big Pine Key to find some Key Deer. Returned to the apartment and had a shrimp feast on fresh shrimp from the Bama Sea Products. March 17th - Groceries in the morning. Lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company. Very good food, but the service was so-so. I think it was just the luck of the draw, as we saw others getting good service (took 45 minutes to get our food).... March 16th - Again, didn't do too much. Had to do laundry in the morning...Went to the Rusty Anchor Restaurant for lunch. Very good food and service. Highly recommended. After siesta, Matthew and I went swimming at the Martin Luther King Community Pool. It is a nice, clean, free, community pool. Matthew finally put 2 and 2 together and figured out how to do the dog paddle in water over his head and actually propel himself forward... (!) March 15th - Went to the Ft. Zach beach for the day. Key West Diner for seafood buffet for dinner. March 14th - didn't do too much. Went swimming at the beach up the street in the morning. Had lunch at an interesting place...BO's Fish Wagon. Quite a place. Saw at least 4 manatees in the harbor as we were walking back to the car. The rooster was protected in Key West.
4 hour layover...Flight was supposed to leave at 2:40
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