I hoped to go on the Noon snorkeling trip (with an almost 3 hour drive to make before the swim) but they had no availability. With the options of 9 AM, 3 PM, and 5:30 PM, I of course made the logical choice; 9 AM. -_-' That meant leaving my apartment at 5:00 AM because you have to be at the park by 8 AM for the 9 AM snorkel. AHHHH! I dragged my butt out of bed and drove the 2 hours and 45 minutes to the park. It was cool to drive as the sun was coming up, and there wasn't really traffic until 6:30 AM. Also, there was a coupon for the 9 AM snorkel...
So I got to the park and was surprised to see that it was in the most tourist trap-y area EVER! Tons of discount Keys merchandise locations, etc., etc. The park itself was quite nice, though. It is mostly a water park, so while there are lots of places to swim, canoe, kayak, snorkel, etc. there aren't really places to just walk around (Like there were at the Slough and Big Cypress). I got to the shop where you paid for the snorkel boat and rented your equipment and I was 5th in line. Within 5 minutes the line was out the door of the building! Good thing I got there when I did.
I met some nice people in line and asked if they had used the coupon. They all said no. Not a problem! The one couple just pulled the coupon up on their smart phone and the other family said they couldn't print the coupon because their printer wasn't working. No one who worked there cared. The coupon is from their website, so they might as well just offer the morning tour for a discount instead of having a coupon.
So I got a rental slip for my mask and fins, bought my snorkel (That says John Pennekamp on it, fancy!), and went back to my car to put on sunscreen and pack away my stuff for the few hours I would be gone. I brought a ziploc bag for my car keys and took nothing else on the boat. I figured there would be a place on the boat to put things and quickly realized that the place was the floor. With many openings along the side of the boat, I was worried about the keys flying away, and there was no way I was putting the keys in my swimsuit pocket for an hour and a half of swim time. Turns out I was sitting by the couple whom I told about they coupon and they gladly let me store my keys in one of the pockets on their beach bag. Thanks, guys!
We got some safety instructions, boarded the boat, and set off on our 30 minute trip across the ocean to our snorkeling destination. I am not someone who gets sick on boats, except when they are speedboats going into rough ocean waters. Ugh! I did not actually get sick, which was good. I did not want to be that person.
Other than rough waters, the boat ride was neat. It helped me to decide that airboat tours of the Everglades are NOT for me! I did a swamp walk and got plenty of boat action in that half hour out and half hour back at John Pennekamp. Thanks but no thanks.
We stopped at the Grecian Rocks and I opted to take the quick snorkeling lesson at the front of the boat. Just an overview of how to kick with fins, where to place the mask, etc. I found out that it is illegal to stand up at the coral reef! If you stand up, you can kill a lot of living things. So you were either swimming or you were on the boat. One lady got in the water and was having a hard time of it so she went back to the boat right away. Everyone else stayed out at least for a little while. I stayed out as long as I could! When I first got in the water, I was hyperventilating (I noticed that I did that at Typhoon Lagoon the last time I "Snorkeled"). I just took a moment to remind my brain that I wasn't actually drowning and then went on my way. It was so cool! Lots of coral, some lobsters, barracuda, conch, and I even swam with a school of fish for awhile, just because I could.
Got back to the park, rinsed off, changed into dry clothes, and took a look around the store. I also ate some of the nilla wafers I had brought for the car to settle my stomach. In addition to the sea sickness I managed to swallow a mouthful of saltwater right before we got back on the boat! There was a small building ("aquarium") that I looked in briefly, but after swimming right alongside the fish and the coral, and aquarium just doesn't do it.
I went to a place called Hobo's for lunch (It came highly rated on tripadvisor.com). It was okay at best. I enjoyed the seat and the AC and the key lime pie was great, but my food was really mediocre, verging on bad. I got an appetizer instead of an entree. It was coconut lobster and shrimp. Sounded great, and they use actual fresh caught shimp and lobster, but my big problem was the breading. They didn't season the meat before the breaded it and the breading was literally just coconut shavings. No other seasonings, no flour or breadcrumbs or anything to break up the coconut. I felt like I was just eating a big bag of semi-burnt coconut shavings. I ended up scraping a lot of the coconut off, and much to my dismay the shrimp was not entirely cleaned out in addition to its lack of flavor. Eeegh. I also got a side of creamed spinach, but it wasn't great either. It was very acidic (like someone dumped some extra lemon juice in the batch) and way too liquid-y. It was more of a spinach dip than creamed spinach. I ate it with the coconut shrimp/lobster to make both more palatable. And I'm being totally honest, here. Was it a terrible restaurant? I don't know because I only really ate one dish, one side, and one dessert. Just don't order coconut anything when you go there. (On a side note, the dish was served with a side of coconut sauce. Really? Like I didn't get enough coconut, I need a glaze to enhance the coconut flavor???)
And that was it! I went home after nearly 5 hours on Key Largo. Some notable places I passed on my drive:
Jewfish Creek (home to, I'm sure, a great number of Jewfish. Reference photo below.)
Surprise lake (probably named when someone was walking around at night and fell into the water. SURPRISE! It's a lake!)
Mutineers (A restaurant I probably would have liked better than Hobo's because they had karaoke)
I'm going to a yoga class tonight that the apartment yoga instructor teaches off site. It is free, so I can't say no! I LOVE YOGA!
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