Almost Paradise

Key Biscayne  

What a beautiful morning it was -- sunny, warm, light breeze. Shortly after breakfast, we lowered the dinghy into the water and made the trip into No Name Harbor. The designated dinghy area was already quite full, but I leaned out over the bow in figurehead position to clear our path to the steps. One last bag of trash was disposed of and we hit the familiar path along the water toward the Cape Florida Lighthouse. Several interesting shorebirds caught our eye as did a few of the ever present iguanas. By 10:30 in the morning, it was quite warm and the iguanas had already retreated to the shade. Not us, we were loving the sunshine. At the southern end of the island, the palm trees dominated the landscape and reached high into the clear and deep blue sky. Soon the lighthouse came into view and we were getting excited about the view we were going to get after climbing the 109 spiral steps to the top.

Dang it, the lighthouse was closed on Tuesday. Oh, well. We kept on walking through the Bill Baggs State Park, coming to the picnic area. One of the locals emerged from the shadows to greet us. The presence of the raccoons no longer surprises us, but we do give them respect and distance. We danced around each other akin to the gang fight scene from West Side Story and made our way down the path to the beach. A glance to the right revealed the base of the lighthouse. We were pleased to still see a sliver of land between sea and beacon. At this point, our paths diverged as we walked along the beach. Barry chose the high road, keeping his shoes on. 

I, of course, had already kicked off my shoes and was enjoying the walk in the surf. The gentle waves lapped over clean sand dotted with the occasional shell fragment. I was in heaven, but Barry was growing impatient. We took the next access path off the beach and passed a camouflaged creature sunning on the handrail. I put my shoes back on and we picked up Crandon Boulevard and followed it out of the park. Colorful flowers easily and frequently diverted my attention.

We dropped off some mail at the post office then tried to pick up a few spares at the hardware store. No luck there. No worries, though. The scenery was spectacular and it was a beautiful afternoon -- sunny and warm with a light light breeze. We returned to Crossroads for a few hours of reading and planning. Looks like we'll have a weather window to cross to Bimini tomorrow. With the decision made to depart early in the morning, we raised the dinghy and enjoyed the final moments of day from the flybridge. Key Biscayne is a very nice stop, but we realize it is "Almost Paradise." We're knocking on heaven's door and, if all goes as planned, we'll be enjoying the Bahama blues tomorrow afternoon.