SUNSET OVER ISLAMORADA

On Thursday, we were still in Key Largo, contemplating the next move. Should we drive back up to Vero Beach or ramble around the keys one more day? Did we really have to ask that question... really? Like the Allman Brothers, I fancy that I too was born a ramblin' man (or something like that) so maybe it was more of a rhetorical question. Besides, these are the Florida freakin' Keys and there's no telling how long it might be before we are here again.

We thought we'd see about a tarpon fishing charter for the night and start the drive down to Key West to spend the day. That's one place I've always wanted to see, so we decided to completely disregard that we were moving further in the opposite direction of home, and just went with the flow. I think I'm missing Sydney and Spencer more than I'm willing to admit, because all I could think about were the polydactyl kitties down there. I needed to get to those cats... Well, those cats and Hemingway's house and Duval Street and lots of kitschy tourist swag... I know, nerd-o-rama. But the closer we got, the more excited I was.

Turns out, getting a charter set up "on the day of" proved a little harder than expected... it took a good two hours, which cut into my exploring-Key-West-time. Crap. But this is vacation so it's no biggie. As long as I get some beach time and some sun, I'm golden-- both literally and figuratively, which is infinitely better than being at home in the workweek grind. We'd booked a tarpon-fishing excursion to begin at 6 pm, so there was no time to enjoy Key West and do it justice, anyway. We found a decent place to soak up some sun, Anne's Beach, which turns out is a clothing optional area. Yes, we landed at a potentially nude beach, which I discovered when Googling nearby beaches. Thank goodness no one exercised the option! Vacations always shore up my fundamental belief that people, by and large, are just not cute. Not that there aren't plenty of homely folks in NWA, but there's a wider variety, including foreign travelers, away from home.

Ok, so we beached... we shopped... we ate... we relaxed... and finally met our Captain, Danny Brown, at the marina at 6 pm. I'm not that avid a fisherman, but being out on the boat was great fun. We'd already caught several kinds of fish from the dock in Vero, plus saw a porpoise, a couple of manatees and a gator so far on the trip, so I took a book to bury my head in. I enjoy fishing well enough, but for me the sights, sounds and smell of the ocean make it a total sensory experience that requires no action on my part to enhance it. Over the next several hours, we had several big tarpon bites and a good fight with one of them, but never did get one in the boat. What we did get in the boat, though, was a bonnethead shark-- a member of the hammerhead family with big round eyes on the side of its flattened head.

That was pretty exciting, I have to say.

But the best part of the whole trip so far...

Watching the sunset over the ocean. Ahhh...

I know there's no place like home. But I'm not ready to leave this halcyon paradise just yet. For now, let's stick with there's no place like the tranquil sunset over Islamorada. Papa, I'll catch up with you and your amply-toed felines next time.