Bahia Honda State Park

Laura Domela — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:32:12 +0000

This morning (after kayaking with manatees!!!) we headed down to Bahia Honda State Park (another 20 minute drive further down the Keys). Here's our new campsite/office location:

Here are a few shots from the drive down. This is Pigeon Key:

Both new and old Seven Mile Bridge with Pigeon Key in the background:

Seven Mile Bridge connects Knight's Key in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. The older bridge runs parallel here, and was constructed from 1909-1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.

The old bridge running parallel:

We dropped the trailer off at Bahia Honda and ran out to grab some lunch…down a few keys on Summerland Key we stopped at the Wharf Bar & Grill.

We sat outside along the canal and had some fantastic fish tacos after a little appetizer of some smoked fish dip with cuban crackers and lime. We liked it so much that we bought some in the fish market to take home. (They told us that when people come in to get it and the restaurant/market has run out, people act like they've run out of crack. I can see that.)

A boat passing by in the canal during lunch:

Cool little jellyfish in the canal:

After lunch we went back to the Airstream and had a pretty normal work day. We noticed the sun was setting and decided to get our butts outside to enjoy it.

We cracked our stone crab claws out on the picnic table and had those for dinner with some mustard dip and a beer. Yum!

Oh yeah, and this is a little creepy, actually. (Larra, skip this part.) The stone crab claws are the only thing harvested…not the whole crab, because they can regenerate their claws. Here's some info from Joe's Stone Crab:

In order to assure the continued survival of the species: Only one claw may be removed so the crab can defend itself. Egg bearing females are not allowed to be declawed.The crabs are captured in baited traps. No spears or hooks are allowed. Four inches from the first joint to the tip is the minimum legal size, that's about two ounces. A colossal can weigh 25 ounces or more. The large crusher claw can exert extreme pressure. As much as 19000 lbs. per square inch. Although their massive claws serve as deterrents to most predators, fishermen have reported the stone crab falls prey to the octopus. Stone crab season in Florida runs from October 15th to May 15. Stone crabs exhibit carnivorous feeding behavior. Sometimes in traps they resort to cannibalism! The claws make up half the weight of the whole crab, they are removed by carefully grabbing from the rear and twisting. The crab is returned to water and the claw regenerates. It takes between 12 to 24 months to reach legal size again. In 1963 stone crabs cost 30 cents a dozen wholesale.

Kevin and I were thinking about that poor crab that's had one claw harvested several times in a row: "Dammit!! I just grew that one back…AGAIN!"

The colossal sized claws are as big as my hand!

Curry Hammock State Park (and Stone Crab Season Starts Today)

Laura Domela — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:53:00 +0000

We drove a whoppin' 20 minutes today from Long Key State Park to Curry Hammock State Park.

Right before I took this photo I saw a huge green sea turtle just RIGHT THERE swimming in the water. Super cool. We passed it before I realized what I was seeing and I didn't have time to snap a picture. But here's what they look like. It was a huge one, too…probably three feet long.

This is our new campsite (below). We'll only be here one night…we're heading down to Bahia Honda tomorrow for two nights (another grueling 20 minute drive with water on both sides…I'm already tired thinking about it…oh wait, I'm not).

So, see that picnic table right there? Well, the right side bench looked like a great place to stand to get a photo that had more of the water and beach in it, but as I stepped up onto the end of it, it quickly became clear that the bench was not attached to the supports below it, and the other side came flying up as I did a little dance to avoid being smacked in the head with a giant heavy board. Nice.

We drove into Marathon to get some lunch (and some stone crab claws!) at Keys Fisheries.

The view from lunch:

We had a lobster reuben, some scallops, and a side of conch fritters…all really good.

Today is the first day of stone crab season (lucky us) and we picked up some of these colossal-sized claws in the fish market for dinner. They're already cooked…all we need is a plastic bag and a hammer.

Last night at Long Key we met up with some readers (and new Airstream owners! Yay!) who live here in the Keys for dinner at our Airstream (Hi Debbie and Dan!). They asked questions about Airstream travel and in turn gave us some great tips for the rest of our visit to the Keys. Dan's an avid fisherman and they brought over a variety of fresh fish that we grilled up and had with a big salad and some wine for dinner last night. Great visit with really nice folks. They also left us some hogfish that Dan caught spearfishing so we'll cook that up tonight (with a side of crab, of course).

(p.s. Four bars of AT&T cell coverage on my iPhone…not on Kevin's cuz his went in the drink yesterday…and we're using our Verizon datacard on LTE still for work and it's fast and solid.)

stone crab – Riveted

Bahia Honda State Park

Curry Hammock State Park (and Stone Crab Season Starts Today)