Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go..... resounded in my head every time I mentioned or thought of Key Largo, which was our stop after the Everglades.  We arrived to our cute little "boutique" hotel on Tuesday afternoon - thoroughly looking forward to a shower and a bed!  And although we got in both a nap and a shower that afternoon - we had a little more excitement than we would have liked.....

While I was drying my hair in the bathroom, Lee was digging clothes out of his pack and I heard a little something.  I didn't pay much attention to it, but then Lee came into the bathroom looking for a towel.  I asked if something had spilled in the pack, he said no - but don't worry about it.  I knew that meant there was something going on that he would have preferred to keep quiet. (All for my benefit of course).  I walked into the hotel room and there, on the floor was a coiled snake!  Lee had picked up his jacket and there, beneath it was the snake!  It was close to 2 feet in length, had a diamond pattern on its back and was quite colorful.  Given what we had just learned that morning about the pygmy rattlesnakes - we were a bit afraid we had a baby rattler in our room.   Lee carefully covered it with a towel and put it out on the ferns off the patio.  He quickly took a picture so we could identify it.   Fortunately it was a harmless Corn Snake - but it still freaked us out.  We then proceeded to dump everything we owned out and make sure we hadn't brought any more snakes or creepy crawlies with us from the Everglades.   And even though we didn't find anything else, we spent the next two days watching our feet and being a little spooked. 

The main reason for our spending a couple of nights in Key Largo was for the snorkeling at John Pennekamp State Park.  The coral reef is supposedly the third largest in the world and has great snorkeling.  Unfortunately for us, the winter winds picked up substantially on Wednesday and continued through Sunday - canceling all snorkeling trips to John Pennekamp and along the keys.  So, instead we went to the land-based part of the park, watched sunsets from the dock and beach of our cute little hotel, and found a delicious restaurant!

Thursday we drove down the keys and ended in Key West.  It was another spectacular day.  The skies were a gorgeous blue and the waters were turquoise and stunning.  We really enjoyed our drive.  And, despite the winds, we had a lovely afternoon at Bahia Honda State Park.  The beaches there were the most beautiful we saw in the keys.

We didn't spend much time in Key West/Key Weird.  We spent Thursday night at the Travelodge where we did very little sleeping thanks to the roosters that crowed from 2:15am to at least 6am.  Since we were up and gone by 6:15am, we have no idea how much longer they irritated the guests.  We left that morning for Dry Tortugas National Park and returned back to Key West on Saturday night.  Both nights we enjoyed delicious dinners and a stroll down Duval Street.  We decided Key West really wasn't our scene, and were glad we didn't spend much more time there.  But, we did enjoy the part of Sunday we were there.  We visited the local branch for church, lunch, some shopping and the highlight of Key West was the Butterfly Conservancy.  We got to see hundreds of beautifully colored butterflies flitting around - and took loads of pictures. 

We had originally planned to stay at Bahia Honda State Park on Sunday night, but changed our plans so we could snorkel before we flew out.   So, we drove to Key Largo on Sunday evening - returned to the delicious restaurant we had found earlier that week - and snorkeled on Monday morning before we flew out.  We had a GORGEOUS and fairly calm morning on Monday.  We went out with Reef Roamers on their catamaran - and there were only four of us on board.  We were surprised they went out with such an empty boat (their minimum is usually 8).  We essentially had our own private charter. They took us out to White Sands Reef where we stopped to snorkel for almost an hour.  I got a bit cold - but the fish were really cool.  We saw all sorts. The highlight though was the nurse shark we saw!  The coral of the reef was also really pretty.   We're really glad we got to squeeze in the snorkeling!!!

From there we hurried back to our hotel where the front desk was kind enough to let us extend check out by 90 minutes so we could rinse off the salt water.   Then, we reluctantly drove away and to the airport.  We had such a great time and really wished it didn't have to come to an end.....  Pictures from our days on the Keys are on the gallery with all the national park photos.