Saturday, February 26, 2011
Cheri Feb-25-11
9:52 AM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
We were up early again this morning. We have a big day planned.
We took our luggage out to the car then Gay worked uploading our pictures from yesterday, we said our goodbyes to Robyn and the girls and headed out.
Our first stop was John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. That was only 12 miles up the road. We made it in time for their first departure cruise out to the Coral Reef aboard their 70ft glass bottom, 125-passenger, motor yacht.
We were lucky today, all 3 cruises on a number of previous days were booked full—our cruise only had 49 people aboard! The waves today were 3 to 4ft high. They sold Dramamine on board so we bought some just to be on the safe side. We did not want to have our trip spoiled by being sick.
We stood out on the front deck and got a panoramic offshore view of the Florida Keys and watched the spotted sting rays swan around the boat. As we reached the reef we all gathered around the large viewing windows, while our host narrated the wonders of the reef below. The water was so clear you could see up to 20ft down. The numerous corals were beautiful, along with a vast number of fish. It was neat.
Back on shore we headed for the visitors center where they featured a 30,000 gallon Saltwater Aquarium. The coral colors were beautiful. That was a must see!
At the gift shop I had to make a purchase. It is a glow in the dark jelly fish paperweight, beautiful.
Our next stop was the African Queen. This boat was built in Lytham, England in 1912 for service in Africa on the Victoria Nile and Lake Albert. The movie, African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn was filmed there. The boat has been around the world twice and ended up in Key Largo, Fl to use as a calling card for a charter service. It is in pretty rough shape but you can still charter it for a ride if you so desire.
It is way past time for lunch so we found an Arby’s and had a Ruben Sandwich to charge our motors again.
We then headed west along HWY 41 on the edge of the Florida Everglades. I have always wanted to do an airboat ride through the Everglades and up popes Coopertown’s Airboat rides. We stopped and the next tour was ready to depart in 10 minutes and we were on it! There were 20 people on our boat. We covered about 8 miles through the tall saw grass, sticking to the open canals, so as not to destroy the tall grass. We stopped at a number of spots where the alligators were sunning themselves along the edge of the water. We also saw a number of different birds native to that area. Now I can say I’ve done the Everglades in an airboat!
We hit the road again and drove until it was time to stop for supper. We found a Perkins and had soup/salad and sandwich.
We arrived home before 9pm. It didn’t take long to crawl into bed, we were both very tired.
For pictures of the day see album: Reef/Everglades or click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels/ReefEverglades#
We took our luggage out to the car then Gay worked uploading our pictures from yesterday, we said our goodbyes to Robyn and the girls and headed out.
Our first stop was John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. That was only 12 miles up the road. We made it in time for their first departure cruise out to the Coral Reef aboard their 70ft glass bottom, 125-passenger, motor yacht.
We were lucky today, all 3 cruises on a number of previous days were booked full—our cruise only had 49 people aboard! The waves today were 3 to 4ft high. They sold Dramamine on board so we bought some just to be on the safe side. We did not want to have our trip spoiled by being sick.
We stood out on the front deck and got a panoramic offshore view of the Florida Keys and watched the spotted sting rays swan around the boat. As we reached the reef we all gathered around the large viewing windows, while our host narrated the wonders of the reef below. The water was so clear you could see up to 20ft down. The numerous corals were beautiful, along with a vast number of fish. It was neat.
Back on shore we headed for the visitors center where they featured a 30,000 gallon Saltwater Aquarium. The coral colors were beautiful. That was a must see!
At the gift shop I had to make a purchase. It is a glow in the dark jelly fish paperweight, beautiful.
Our next stop was the African Queen. This boat was built in Lytham, England in 1912 for service in Africa on the Victoria Nile and Lake Albert. The movie, African Queen, with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn was filmed there. The boat has been around the world twice and ended up in Key Largo, Fl to use as a calling card for a charter service. It is in pretty rough shape but you can still charter it for a ride if you so desire.
It is way past time for lunch so we found an Arby’s and had a Ruben Sandwich to charge our motors again.
We then headed west along HWY 41 on the edge of the Florida Everglades. I have always wanted to do an airboat ride through the Everglades and up popes Coopertown’s Airboat rides. We stopped and the next tour was ready to depart in 10 minutes and we were on it! There were 20 people on our boat. We covered about 8 miles through the tall saw grass, sticking to the open canals, so as not to destroy the tall grass. We stopped at a number of spots where the alligators were sunning themselves along the edge of the water. We also saw a number of different birds native to that area. Now I can say I’ve done the Everglades in an airboat!
We hit the road again and drove until it was time to stop for supper. We found a Perkins and had soup/salad and sandwich.
We arrived home before 9pm. It didn’t take long to crawl into bed, we were both very tired.
For pictures of the day see album: Reef/Everglades or click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels/ReefEverglades#
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