The Lower Keys - Sugarloaf & Key West

We left Key Largo around 9:30am, taking our time and taking in the sites. Going through Islamorada we noticed all the fishing boats still in port. The wind was howling and fishing and dive trips were blown out. We made our way through Marathon and over the Seven Mile Bridge. Around 12:30pm we arrived at the Sugarloaf Lodge at MM17. A quick check with the front desk confirmed that they did have a room but it wouldn’t be ready until 3pm. With nothing else to do, we took Alex to see Key West.

A cruise ship was in town so there were people everywhere. The temperature sweltered in the mid 90’s so Alex had no intentions of getting out of the truck and the air conditioning. We picked up lunch and drove to the beach. With the wind blowing, there wasn’t a lot of boats but plenty of kite boarders. After lunch we drove into town and took turns checking out different shops and things while the other sucked up the air conditioning with Alex.

Around 3:30 we headed back up to MM17 and checking into our room. The décor is circa 1950 and the beds are a bit on the soft side, but when you open your sliding glass door you are literally 10 steps away from the Gulf of Mexico. There is no central air so we weren’t in any danger of freezing as we were at the Marina del Mar! The grounds are beautiful. The lodge has a restaurant and Tiki Bar. We ate at the Tiki Bar the first night. The seafood in the keys is just the freshest I ever had. The Tiki Bar (they get their food from the restaurant on the premises) is no exception. I had a Caesar salad with blacked catch of the day (still mahi).

Day 11

Our room backed up against the Gulf of Mexico and Alex loved it. He’d go outside around 7am and hang out until the sun started getting too hot around 9am. We’d sit out with him, having a little breakfast, watching the fish jump and the occasional stingray swim by.

With the dive boats still being blown out, we went next door to the Sugarloaf Marina to rent a couple of kayaks. With the wind blowing there was a bit of a surface current, so we were careful not to paddle too far and have a hell of a time getting back to the dock. We went in and out of the mangroves, which were teaming with fish and egrets and gulls going after them.

A couple hours later we turned in the kayaks, had some lunch and relaxed by the pool. Alex stayed in and sucked up the air conditioning! Later that afternoon, we showered and changed, got Alex fed and situated and headed down to Key West for dinner and entertainment.

We ended up at the Half Shell Raw Bar. Have I mentioned how fresh the seafood is? Well at Half Shell its even fresher. After ordering a nice bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay (what else ya gonna drink when its 94 degrees???) we started off with an order of clams on the half shell and oysters. They were unbelievable, not a grain of sand in them. Michael got the catch of the day. This time it was yellowtail snapper! – we had been meaning to try it all week but only just got around to it. It was delicious. I had grilled shrimp. I don’t think I will ever order shrimp in New Jersey again as it could never compare to the stuff I had here.

After dinner we went to Mallory Square to watch the sunset (uneventful with the clouds that evening) and the freak shows put on for the tourists. It was fun. We stopped in the Wyland gallery where they tried to sell us a $12,000 Wyland abstract. Only $600 a month on their payment plan. OK, if I had a spare 12 grand lying around I could think of A LOT of gear I’d be buying first! Our final stop was the obligatory trip to Sloppy Joes and an ice cold Key West Sunset Ale.

Day 12

Still no diving… In Big Pine Key, we had noticed a sign on the side of the road about pilot whales. We stopped in and discovered it was the 5 remaining pilot whales from the stranding back in April. There was an adult female, who didn’t socialize with the others, 3 adolescents and a baby. The latter were playing and having a great time together, while the female kind of kept to herself. Researchers and volunteers are rehabilitating them in hopes of returning them to the open ocean in the near future. It was an amazing sight. We also went to Blue Hole on Big Pine Key. It’s the only source of fresh water on that Key. It was created when Flagler built the Miami to Key West railroad in the early 1900’s. It has since filled with rainwater and has become a natural wildlife habitat. It even has a resident alligator! Based on the advice of one of the Park employees, we headed over to the No Name Pub for dinner. Before going there, we took a ride over to No Name Key to see the key deer. We probably saw about a half a dozen of them – several of which stopped to pose for a picture. Believe it or not, No Name Pub has really awesome pizza. The ambiance is great as it has dollar bills stapled to the walls and ceiling with names and dates of the people who put them there. Really cool place.

Day 13

We decided on an afternoon dive so we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park at MM37 on Bahia Honda Key in the morning. This state park is packed with lots of birds (especially Pelicans) and butterflies. You can hike a short trail up to the old Route 1 Bridge. Really cool view of the old bridge as well as the new highway. It’s a beautiful park worth stopping at if you are in the area. After grabbing lunch in the park, we headed back to Big Pine Key to do some diving.

Diving Looe Key

We decided to do 2 dives here. We used Underseas, Inc. As the air temperature was reaching the mid 90’s in the afternoon, our only requirement for a dive boat was a shaded area. This met our needs. As we had snorkelers on board as well we were given a bottom time limit of 1 hour and I think we got 15 minutes in between dives. But we had our shade and our transportation out to Looe Key, so we were content!

Dive #15 & 16

Looe Key Marine Sanctuary

Max depth: 30 ft/25ft

Bottom temp: 84 degrees on both dives

Bottom Time: 56 minutes and 52 minutes

Vis: 60 ft. on both dives

Reefs are laid out like a hand, with 5 fingers outspread. There were sand channels in between the coral and it is lying pretty much north to south. Simple navigation. On the first dive we finally saw a shark! He saw us and decided he didn’t want to be there any more. Off to the blue he went! In one of the sand channels were two huge tarpon. We saw a spotted drum and more midnight parrotfish. There is a lot of healthy coral here though the fish life isn’t as prolific as Key Largo.

The second dive was near channel marker #24. A 5-minute boat ride from where we previously were. We saw lobsters on parade here! They were running around like they know they are protected! More tarpon and midnight parrotfish and a really big gray angelfish.

Looe Key certainly isn’t as nice as Key Largo, but it definitely blows away Key West diving! I’m glad we did a couple of dives here!

After doing the dives and getting everything ready for another travel day on Thursday, we headed out to Mangrove Mamas for dinner. It’s a cute little restaurant at MM20. The food was excellent. Catch of the day – Yellowtail Snapper and I had it in some sort of chili sauce. Michael had yellowtail and scallops. The scallops were probably the only seafood that was only OK. They seem to taste better up north. There Key Lime Pie was awesome and they had really good coffee too.