Cafe Pierre--Morada Bay

Islamorada

Approaching Indian Key

Kayak in the mangroves

Another beautiful sunset

Sugarloaf Key: Decided to head up to Marathon today to check out the turtle hospital and the dolphin research center. .Esther, our Canadian friend, stopped by and told us about a restaurant she and Gerald had stopped at yesterday, so we decided to stop there first for lunch. The restaurant was Café Pierre on Islamorada. A really pretty place on the bay side. Mike got the seafood sampler and I got the grilled shrimp salad. Both very good. While on the way up to Islamorada we noticed the boat out to Indian Key was running again, so we decided to check that out. We tried to do this last year but the key was still closed. The state park boat had already finished for the day but we found a private boat captain to take us out there. We ended up with four people total. We had to wait for a while for him to get the boat ready and walked around the dock. There were huge tarpon swimming around along with a bunch of pelicans. We finally boarded the boat and off we go. Indian Key is very historic. In 1836, Indian Key became the first county seat for Dade County. At that time, this tiny island was the site of a lucrative business--salvaging cargo from shipwrecks in the Florida Keys. There are a bunch of ruins out there and the founder is still buried out there. After an Indian raid that killed a bunch of people and burned most of the buildings, most of the survivors headed to Key West. Anyway, we’re heading out there in this little electric powered boat and the waves are rocking us around pretty good. Then we get there and the dock is pretty high so we had to climb up this ladder while the boat is getting rocked around by the waves. But we all made it safely onto the dock. Walked around this pretty little key and checked out the ruins and then headed back to the boat. Was even trickier getting back in because we had to climb down onto the front deck and then climb aboard through the front. On the way back we went around the lee side of the key and it was much calmer. And we saw a Portugese Man of War on the surface of the water. Very pretty, but very deadly. Then we cruised all through the mangroves—I think the prettiest part of the trip. Back to the dock about 4:15 and by now we’re ready for dinner. So, after several recommendations we drove back to Islamorada and went to Lazy Days restaurant on the Atlantic side. I had the mahi-mahi prepared lazy days style—encrusted with Japanese bread crumbs, pan seared, and then covered in a key lime/butter sauce. That was the best seafood I’ve had since we’ve been coming down here. Back home. Stuffed. A fun day!