Key Largo

Since this was a "fly by the seat of our pants" journey, we woke up the next morning and decided to head further south to explore Key Largo.  The name comes from the Spanish Cayo Largo, or "long key".  It is both the first island and town of the Florida Keys to be reached from the Overseas Highway to Key West.

It was a nice drive but sure felt weird to be on a little "spit" of land with ocean on each side.  We found a hotel (love those Marriott points), checked in, and got back in the truck to head farther south and found ourselves in Islamorada.  And just as I hoped, we found a nice little restaurant on the water where we could enjoy some tropical drinks.

Lorelei's World Famous "Key Lime Colada", Lorelei Sunset - Yum!

We had a great view from our table and enjoyed the warmth and the atmosphere.

It was fun to watch the patrons come and go by boat - what a life!

And then we moved on and stumbled across this.

What?  A place with key lime pie and other goodies?  They got us and we made a quick U-turn and walked in.

After we bought a few things, the man at the cash register suggested we go out to the garden to eat our key lime pie (yes, we bought some) - we were so glad we did!  What a beautiful oasis with the main highway right on the other side of the fence.

I might need this sign

And then it was back to the hotel.  We had a beautiful view.

What's that structure over there?  Turns out it was a bar so we took a walk around the marina - maybe another drink?

We've never been to The Keys before but this is exactly what I pictured.  We listened to the music and watched the boats in the marina.  

And a bunch of pelicans watched us.

We talked with the server and learned that not only pelicans hang out, but sharks and manatee when the boats arrive to bone the fish they just caught.  Sadly, no boats came in with fish while we were there so we missed the show.

Until we started our walk back and there were some people looking under the dock and taking pictures.  We asked what they were looking at and our question was quickly answered.

Sharks!

As we approached the hotel, we came upon something we hadn't noticed on our journey to the bar.

What?  The African Queen?  Here?

The next morning we saw the Queen going out with some fans.

We enjoyed our stop and one day we will plan a return visit so we can go all the way to Key West.