Tag Archives: Adventures

Florida Keys, New Experiences, Troy's Blog

Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo

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Entering Key Largo

This park first came up while researching things to do in the Florida Keys a couple of years ago but we ran out of time so were never able to visit. There is a trail or two to hike and a visitors center to explore but John Pennekamp State Park is all about the water. One trail meandering through the mangroves needs some maintenance with broken and rotting boards and an entire section of the trail closed. Unfortunately the section that is closed includes an observation tower where you could look over the mangroves out towards the ocean reefs. Once your focus turns to the water though this park shines.

While exploring Pennekamp we kept trying to decide if we wanted to go snorkeling and if so where. The water in Dry Tortugas National Park was cold and that was further south indicating that the water in Key Largo must be even colder. Enjoying the reefs is something we rarely get to do so when the opportunity arrives we try to take advantage. There was still plenty of hesitation do to a couple of factors. First, the water was cold as people continued to remind us as they were coming out of it. Secondly, in order to snorkel the reefs you need to purchase a snorkeling or scuba tour and we had already spent what is a lot of money to do this already on this trip. So if we weren’t going to snorkel why did we go to Pennekamp State Park?

The Sea Grass Bed

There was never really the intention to go snorkeling with a paid tour however through researching this place there were reports of designated snorkeling areas right from the shore. Our hope was find some of the colorful reefs near shore however after arriving we found that the designated swimming/snorkeling areas where sea grass beds which tend not to be as colorful thus reducing the motivation even further to enter the water. Back to trying to justify spending more money on a snorkeling tour. While exploring the park and discussing our options to spend our last afternoon in the keys we went into the visitor center. This is a nice building with several aquariums to display the ocean habitats around this part of Florida. Yes, the motivation to go snorkeling increased while looking at these reef aquariums but not yet enough to get our gear.

Visitor Center

Walking around the visitor center and exploring the park on foot seeing the swimming areas and mangrove trail was a nice way to spend the day. Fortunately it was sunny and warm and we were content just enjoying the scenery and weather without getting our gear wet which would require us to wash and dry it so it could be packed for our flight home the next morning. After strolling around John Pennekamp for an hour or two we sat down on one of the beaches taking in the views and talking with a few people who had braved the cold water to snorkel. They mentioned seeing some fish but nothing really extraordinary and getting use to the water took some time. That about seals it, we’ll enjoy this place from the land for today.Mangroves

And then we witnessed something I have never seen before…. Check out the next post for more on this story.

National Parks, Troy's Blog

The First Place to See the Sun

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Sunrise

Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park is the first place in the United States to see the sun rise during the winter months. This is because this location is far enough east in Maine and high enough to see the sun rise before areas that are further east. People like to be the first to do many things or experience something for the first time. Here is a place that anyone can do something before anyone else in the United States – watch the sun pierce the horizon. Unfortunately we did not make it to Cadillac Mountain to witness the sun rising but we still enjoyed setting foot in the beautiful Mountain. Even if we had it was during the summer so the first place to see the sun rise would have been Mars Hill, Maine.

Cadillac Mountain

My first impression of Cadillac Mountain was looking at it on a map while looking for the highlights of Acadia National Park. It was puzzling how this could be considered a mountain at only 1530 feet above sea level. I’m use to mountains being several thousand feet above sea level. After getting there and learning more about this place, I now understand why it’s considered a mountain. First of all the steep ascent from sea level to the top suggests a mountain. Also, according to geologists, what is currently the top of Cadillac Mountain was the center of the volcano which helped to shape this area. Apparently the mountain use to be considerably taller until the glaciers moved through and cut it down giving us the scenery available today.

The Big Dipper

After watching the sunset in other areas of the park we headed back to the top of Cadillac Mountain to witness a beautiful star filled sky. Most impressive was seeing the Milky Way. I have not seen it in a number of years so it was nice to be reminded of its’ spectacular display. Also, fewer and fewer people are able to see the Milky Way so it was nice to show our children what it looks like. Unfortunately I need to work on my photography skills capturing stars so I don’t have a picture that shows the milky way in all its glory. I was able to get a nice photo of the big dipper.

Acadia

New Experiences, Troy's Blog

Being Chased by Irene

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Path of Hurricane Irene 

The itinerary for the last part of our trip to New England was to drive from Bangor, Maine to Montpelier, Vermont. We just finished seeing the areas of Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island in Maine and decided it was time to move away from the coast as Hurricane Irene was expected to move in within the next 24 hours. The day was growing long with any remaining light fleeting. It was about an hours’ drive to Bangor where we decided to find a place to sleep and weather Irene. Forecasts called for the Hurricane to diminish by morning giving us hope that we could still travel. Before falling asleep the girls were a little nervous and scared of being in a hurricane as this was a new experience for all of us. I assured them that they would be alright because this hurricane was losing strength and we have been in storms with a lot of rain and wind before.

rain falling

During the night we could hear the rain falling, heavily at times forcing the realization that this was it, Irene was here! I wondered on occasion if we would wake to find a lot of trees blown down or other storm related casualties. Once the morning light began entering our room we turned on the weather and began discussing what to do for the day. Hurricane Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm with winds gusting to 65 miles per hour and periods of heavy rain. We have driven in these conditions before and what else was there to do if we stayed put? At the very least we wanted to get to a hotel that has a pool for the kids to swim in. Our decision was to head for Vermont. The drive time should be about 6 hours and then we could relax for the rest of the day in the hotel.

Tree Causes Street Closure

After breakfast we packed up and headed out. Driving was as expected with rainy conditions and the occasional compensation for wind gusts. There were occasional downpours which required traffic to slow down but all in all we made it to New Hampshire without any problems. After getting a ways into New Hampshire our first detour was encountered due to a tree which had fallen over power lines and onto the road. This was only a 10-15 minute delay in our overall trip and we were back on our way. This detour was actually quite a nice drive going onto gravel roads by a couple of small waterfalls and swerving for the occasional small tree in the road. It felt like we were going to a cabin on a lake -a very comfortable and serene feeling. Little did we know that this was going to be the easiest detour to take.

To Be Continued…