We felt quite sad to be leaving Key Largo given the fun we’d had; however, decided to get up and out fairly quickly to attend one last activity before leaving. Off to John Pennekamp National park for some snorkelling, relaxing on the beach, and getting some sunburn!
The park has a lot more than expected, snorkelling, kayaking, walks, glass bottom boat, etc. We just stayed in the shade on the beach, and did some snorkelling.
Initially we tried with fins but later decided that it really was too shallow. Rebecca decided that despite all advice she’d get ready in the beach and walk in, which did have the advantage of a nice photo
The rocks provided great hiding places for the fish and Rebecca and I happily spent 90 minutes with our back to the sun looking at the fish, including what we think was a lion fish at one point. I braved taking my phone in as well, it is meant to be waterproof, and appears that it is.
We did snorkelling and to start with I got scared because I couldn’t see infront of me and there was very little visibility however I did find some pretty shells in the sand and saw some teeny tiny little fish and a funny crab which had a tiny body and long legs with a piece of seaweed on it’s head. Later on after eating some conch fritters and lots of goldfish (little crackers) I went back into the sea. At first I waddled in with my shorts and cross back swim suit (that detail is very important). When wading out the little rocky bit I was wearing my flip flops (the same bright orange ones I brought with Lissy last summer for scout camp) due to this the water was mean and broke my left flip flop. That was the end of the iconic orange flip flops life (I was very sad). But after recovering from the sadness daddy came and gave me my neoprene shoes and I stuck them on.
After realising I could see lots more fish I went back to mummy and took my shorts off and got my snorkel and mask and went back out to sea. When I was in the sea I took a deep breath and plunged under water (i then realised this was unnecessary because I was wearing a snorkel).
I saw lots of fishies while underwater (it wasn’t really underwater though it was about 2ft). I was a silver fish with yellow horizontal stripes and some other silver fish which were sparkly. I also saw a massive (normal size) crab and it ran away and that was the last time we saw that crab. However we (me and daddy because mummy didn’t want to get wet and William well I don’t know what he was doing to be honest) saw this red and white spotty and stripy fish which we have very scientifically proven was a lionfish (I basically took a random guess and daddy agreed and it sounded cool so it was definitely a lionfish).
Daddy decided to take his phone into the water (don’t worry it is still working apple didn’t lie and the phone is waterproof) so we got some cool pictures. Afterwards we got out and got changed and mummy told me to go rinse of first because I had been in salt water (obviously I didn’t because the water out the yucky showers was cold and I couldn’t be bothered so instead I just rinsed my legs and got dried and got changed. Later I realised the STUPID SWIM SUIT HAD GIVEN ME A STUPID TAN LINE. (I was not impressed as the entire holiday I have been trying to get a nice tan line and 3 hours on a stoney beach and I look so dumb).
Daddy then told me that he thinks my skin is peeling as I very confidently said I washed off all the salt (I definitely hadn’t) in his defence though it did look abit concerning. Anyway that was the end of me wearing that swim suit again this holiday because it was silly. Also after getting changed we went into the gift shop (very expensive for no reason abit like the rest of the things in Miami and the keys) but daddy brought a long sleeve top (yes long sleeve in the boiling hot weather) I brought a sticker and key ring and William brought a sticker and a magnet. I almost forgot daddy brought a mug as well (even though we have an entire cupboard of mugs). After that we left (we actually did this time) and we went for a long drive down to key west.
By Rebecca
We left about midday and had a lovely lunch in Key Largo before heading south
Li & Rebecca were happy with their food, William chose chicken tenders, for the 12th time, but seemed happier to be trying my beer than the food!
After a couple of hours drive to Key West we checked into the guest house, with a pleasant surprise that it was as big as it was. Even had its own mini swimming pool!
We spent the rest of the wandering in and around Duvel Street, of course had to witness the sunset, which unfortunately was personally great as the sunburn started to really make me feel sick, but thankfully recovered a few hours later
We found a great place for dinner, “Margaritaville”, which was a restaurant designed on the inside to look like you were outside! Li enjoyed the margaritas and the music for sure, whilst Rebecca loved the food platter!
Dinner done; kids tired! We headed back, as the apartment was only 5 minutes walk, then Li and I had a couple of sneaky beers in Willie Ts
