This morning started at 7am for me, which was a much more reasonable time to start the day. The only shame was that I was feeling slightly groggy, which I realised later was due to my body fighting off some sort of bug. I had no idea whether it was stress-related or just a bug, but whatever it was, I was determined to try and carry on.
I took a cuppa to Karen in bed, and we had a very relaxed start to the day, mooching around before deciding to make the most of the weather and chill by the pool for a couple of hours.
The pool and surrounding area were deserted when we arrived. It seemed, though, that everyone else was just waiting for us to arrive, as people started trickling in after us, presumably because word of our presence had spread. By the time we left, it was actually rather busy.
A couple of fellow Brits sat near us and struck up a conversation. We learnt that the company running the bar had just lost the contract and that today was to be their last day. As such, all drinks and food were 50% off. Although we had leftover pizza waiting for us in the apartment for lunch, we decided that we would at least take advantage of the offer and have a couple of cocktails later in the afternoon.
After a couple of hours, we headed back, ate the reheated pizza and got ourselves ready to go out for the afternoon. I took a couple of paracetamol to try and cope with whatever bug was going through my body.
Our first stop was the original African Queen boat in Key Largo. The couple we had spoken to earlier had recommended a trip on it, based on a previous visit. Although we were uncertain, we thought we would investigate.
When we arrived, the boat was actually out of the water, and the whole marina looked sad and almost shut up for the close season.
We decided that the boat looked run-down and needed some attention, and we weren’t sure it looked as though it would have been our thing anyway.
Driving on, we headed to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which we had visited yonks ago. We had gone on a snorkelling trip there with the boys, when I had been seasick. We thought it would be good to have a look around and walk some of the advertised short trails. We willingly paid the $9 admission and parked up.
The visitor centre was interesting enough, especially the way they had adapted the exhibits to give them a Halloween theme. As an aside, I heard someone wish someone else a happy Halloween and wondered if wishing them an Unhappy Halloween might be more appropriate.
From there, we went to the gift shop and walked straight out again. It was very poor and obviously not run or stocked by anyone with any retail experience.
We then decided to walk the trails. At least, that was our intention, but we couldn’t find any directional signs or work out where the trails started. The signs warning of crocodilians attacking humans meant we weren’t keen on exploring the tree-hammock area on our own, particularly when we couldn’t find a recognised trail.
We tried moving the car to look to check further afield, but eventually gave up and left.
We know that the main attraction of the state park is actually offshore and underwater, but they really need to cater for more landlubbers, especially on a day when all the boat trips had been cancelled due to ‘rough’ seas.
We left the park and went to John’s General Store opposite, which promised all sorts of treasures. It didn’t, and instead had all sorts of trash.
Karen had now been deprived of caffeine for too long, and, knowing there was another new Starbucks to explore, we headed back in the direction of Ocean Pointe to find it.
En route, we came across a Dollar Tree, and Karen suggested we ‘pop’ in. The pop-in turned into four carrier bags full of ‘stuff’, far too numerous to mention.
We eventually got to Starbucks, and we had just finished our drinks outside when the promised afternoon shower appeared out of nowhere. We got back in the car, and it vanished pretty quickly.
Our final, completely unplanned stop was at Shell World, which unsurprisingly had few shells. Instead, many of the products were quite unique, and some of the coasters on sale had Karen laughing out loud, possibly for longer than they should have.
Back at Ocean Pointe, we parked and walked to the Island Grill Bar, where there was indeed a sign saying 50% off everything.
We looked at the menu and thought the prices were rather expensive, but with the 50% reduction they would be quite cheap.
We ordered a couple of margaritas.
Boy, were they strong! It was as though they were trying to finish up their stock of tequila with just our drinks. Karen couldn’t finish hers and switched to a LandShark draught beer instead.
As we had a good table overlooking the sea and marina, we decided to stay and order food. Karen wanted something simple and ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, whilst I took advantage of the price reduction and went for one of the more expensive items on the menu: grilled mahi with a crab cake and prawns, with some truffle fries.
It was really good.
Whilst the service wasn’t great, that was hardly surprising if the staff were losing their jobs, as we had been told. The food, however, was good quality and good value for what we paid.
After wandering back, we had a cuppa whilst watching an old episode of Shark Tank on TV before switching to the iPad so Karen could catch up on this week’s Strictly.
It had been, as planned, a relaxing but lovely Florida Keys day.
