Long Key State Park Florida

Saturday March 6, 2010

We have an alarm clock. I had Long Key on my Outlook calendar at 8:00 each day of our trip and this transferred to my I phone as an 8:00 appointment so at 7:45 it pings. Sometimes when you do something; you get more than you planned for!

Today I decided to cook breakfast, so we had biscuits and gravy. Well they were canned biscuits and canned gravy but for camping at the beach with a kitchen consisting of a refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot and electric skillet – what more can you want!! We had company for breakfast a flock of semi-palmeated plover and another flock of semi- palmeated sandpipers. I only know this because Ben found them in his new Peterson’s Bird Book. He is amazed that some of the birds have changed names since he moved from his 40-50 year old Peterson’s to the one he bought last year.

As the tide goes out the shore birds flock along the tide line searching for something to eat. The sun is bright today and from about 10 AM until noon I enjoyed sitting in the sun (with sun screen on of course) and watched the birds, read my book, and watched Ben try to fish. The consensus of all the fishermen here is that the water is too cold for the fish. No one is catching anything, not even the guys going out in their boats. There is a reef several miles off the shore and some of the guys with boats go out towards the reef to fish. Last year this same time the temperatures were 15 degrees warmer and the water was warm enough that Ben was snorkeling nearly every day. Not this year!

After lunch we drove back north to Islamorada to the Keys Art Show. It was really quite good. Most of the crafts were paintings, metal work, and jewelry. We really enjoyed the jewelry and got some great ideas for both my beading and Ben’s silver work. We got some ideas for what to do with some of the shells that may turn out nicely. I also looked around in a couple of shops at some very nice toys and clothing.

We drove back past camp and parked under the tree at Edgewater Lodge for me to upload several days worth of blog entries and take care of my crops and animals in Farmville. It is a silly game on FaceBook but it is fun and keeps me on my toes not to let my crops rot in the field. I only got one photo up for each of the days so I will have to go back by myself another day and finish the uploading.

Back at camp I fixed dinner. After dinner I had great success with my panorama photograph of the sunset. The sky was a very pale pink and because the light was not so bright as during the daytime I was able to get a very good match on the panorama settings.

Calls home today were encouraging as my mother is indeed feeling much better. She still has some cough but was able to talk to me on the phone. Blog finished – time for a cup of tea and some reading.