Long Key State Park

We made a trip today back up the Keys to Mile Marker 82.2 to purchase some picture frames from the Lobster Trap Art Gallery. We had seen their display last Saturday at the Seafood Festival in Key West, but they hadn't brought any of the size we wanted to the festival. The lobster trap frames are made from real lobster trap or stone crab pots used to harvest seafood in the keys. After 5 or so seasons, the hardware that holds the traps together starts to rust and the fishermen can no longer use them. The artist takes these older traps, breaks them down and uses the weathered wood to make picture frames. We have a couple of small oil paintings which have been gifts of Granddaughter Kyra, that we think would look really nice in this kind of frame. They did not have the right size in stock at the gallery either, so we had to order them...

On the way back we stopped at Long Key State Park in hopes we might see that elusive White Crowned Pigeon (which the ranger said hadn't been seen there for a while). As we came into the Park and stopped to pay the $6 entry fee, we saw this elegant iguana alongside the road --

Long Key contains the remains of ancient coral reefs and is covered with many plants. There is a boardwalk that leads to an observation tower that overlooks this mangrove forest --

Brackish water in the lagoons nourishes the roots of the mangrove trees and provides shelter for baby marine animals --

We came upon this interesting vine with 2 1/2 to 3 inch green pods --

In another area we saw brown dried pods and then some that were open with a whitish seed --

This dried up pods may have been from last season. I sure need to look for a book identifying Florida flora, especially the sub-tropical ones --

The Nature Trail we walked on was called the Golden Orb Trail. I'm not sure if this was one of the spiders that it was named for --

It was getting late by the time we headed back to Sugarloaf KOA and we decided we were getting too hungry to wait until we got home and I fixed something. We made a stop at the first seafood place we saw, one called the Crab Shack. It was pretty tiny, only half a dozen small tables, but the menu on the whiteboard looked good.

I ended up ordering a bowl of Maryland Crab Soup that was full of vegetables and was absolutely delicious --

As were the crab stuffed mushrooms I ordered to go along with --

Forry ordered a crab cake sandwich which he also said was very good!

Crab Shack lived up to my faith in the goodness of food at hole-in-the-wall restaurants!