Heading down to the Keys

We moved down to the Keys. The John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is great. Mr. Pennekamp worked hard to get both the Everglades and the State Park established. This was named after him for his efforts as it would not have existed otherwise.

The park is enormous and when combined with the adjacent Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary its over 178 nautical square miles of coral reefs, sea-grass beds, mangrove swamps, campgrounds, and trails. The park extends 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is almost 25 miles in length. It includes three protected swim areas and two small sand beaches one of those with a simulated shipwreck. It was established in 1963 and is the first undersea park in the United States.

The visitor center at the park has a 30,000-gallon aquarium and several small aquariums along with a lot of educational information.

​We also decided to visit the city visitor center. The staff was incredibly helpful. Without his help, I doubt we would have found some of the interesting things in the area. He also taught us about the numbering system for the overseas highway. The first digits are the mile marker and if the address ends with an even number then it is on the Bay/Gulf side and if it ends in an odd then it is on the Sea/Ocean side. Thank you to whoever came up with that idea. It really helps when looking for a location or how far you are from one.

We will try to get by to see the African Queen. Yes, the original boat used in the filming of the 1952 movie with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Maybe we will even take it for a ride.

I am an unofficial member of the Conch Republic.