We are glad to be back at Fort De Soto today with the Mish detached and ready to relax for the next few days. With the TV appearance out of the way, we are now free to make as big of a mess as we’d like in the Airstream.
For the last couple of weeks, we have been corresponding with a facebook friend about our visit to Tampa. Some of you might have heard of Matt and Rebecca of Boxfotos. Matt kindly offered to give us a tour of his workplace which happens to be WFLA of Tampa. They are also the NBC affiliate of the greater Tampa area. We have never been on a tour of a TV studio so we gladly accepted his offer.
This is the second time in the keys that the morning when we leave a campground Ava finds a friend to play with who has just moved in next door. Our last morning at Long Key was exactly the same with Ava finally playing in the water at our beachfront site. This time, she is playing with a girl named Savannah who showed up last night with her parents that happens to be right next to us.
During our last visit at John Pennekamp, it was so windy that we never got to enjoy the beaches. The weather this time around is much better so we are going to do some exploring today around the park.
Thanks to our friend Matt of Boxfotos for inviting us to visit WFLA in Tampa Florida as well as plugging us into their nationally syndicated show, Daytime!. We had a great time! We’d like to welcome all of our new visitors who saw us on the show. To find out Read more…
Just so that our stay at Curry Hammock is not completely devoid of adventure, we did manage to make it out of our state of relaxation for a little sightseeing. While at Bahia Honda, we made a day trip to Key West. During our time at Long Key, we drove up to Islamorada for an afternoon at Robbie’s marina. Here at Curry Hammock, it is Crane Point Museum, Nature Center and Historic Site.
We ended 2012 with everyone sawing logs inside the Mish except for me. I stayed up until midnight and heard fireworks from Islamorada as midnight arrived. It was very uneventful. No champagne, no midnight smooch and not even good enough TV reception to see the ball drop as we welcomed 2013.
Ever since we got to the keys, every time we change sites we are progressively moving further and further away from the water. We started at Bahia Honda where we were so close to the water, Marlene often felt like we were floating away to sea when she glanced up at our wraparound windows by the dinette.
When I told Marlene that I wanted to spend 4 weeks in the keys, she looked at me as if I was nuts. Our last visit to Florida, we spent an entire month in the state meandering along its entire coast line. To think that we are going to spend the same amount of time but only in these little islands south of Miami, she thought we would for sure be sick of it before too long.
We would have preferred to stay longer at Long Key but our site is being taken over by an incoming camp host today. That means our stay will be cut short at 11 days instead of the 14 days that is allowed at maximum. As of a few days ago, we had 4 days between our stay here and Curry Hammock that is unaccounted for reservation-wise. Luckily for us, a cancellation popped up over there and we were able to grab yet another last minute reservation at one of the 4 very coveted state park campgrounds here in the keys.
Don’t ask me how but Santa did manage to get into our Airstream on Christmas Eve and left a few packages just inside the door. The girls woke up and noticed that the brownie and milk have also been eaten and apparently the reindeers only ate half of the carrot we left out. I am guessing Santa had a lot more places to visit and didn’t want them cramping up.
Christmas isn’t typically associated with coconuts and beaches. But that is exactly why we are here this year. We are spending an unique Christmas near the end of a very unique year in all of our lives.
