East Coast 2021:
Day 17 - Tavernier, FL

	Sunday, September 26, 2021: We slept in this morning since we didn't have that far to drive to our next destination, and we couldn't check in until late afternoon. We repacked all of our clean snorkel gear since we wouldn't be needing it for a few days, and reorganized the suitcase to remove anything that we wouldn't need before we got home.
	We checked out of the hotel and headed north ...
	... to the Fruit and Spice Park.
	We bought our tickets and headed in. There is a sign in the park to reinforce what they tell you when you buy your tickets: You can eat fruit that has fallen onto the ground, but only if you know what it is. Do not pick any fruit, and you must eat it here. You cannot take it home with you. Got it? Okay, let's go exploring!
	Stop! Look at this spicy number!
	One of the first things you see are these enormous jackfruit. These things are huger than giant. They're each at least a foot tall.
	We walked through a large stand of banana trees.
	Many of the banana trees had fruit on them, and we were surprised to see normal size bananas, short bananas like these, ...
	... and really tiny, finger-width bananas as shown here at the right end of the stem. Check out that beautiful flower pod.
	These are coconut palms.
	It's on the ground, and you know what it is. Do you want to eat it?
	The leaves of this plant were beautiful, but we don't know what it is.
	The wood of the lignum vitae tree is so dense that it sinks in water. It is more than three times denser than oak. Fun fact: doctors in the 18th century used resin from this tree in treatments for gout, rheumatism, and syphilis.
	Here's an avocado tree.
	Do want to eat it?
	This is Mamey Sapote-Morales, from Central America, and is supposed to taste like a sweet potato.
	There were many gigantic spiderwebs, ...
	... some of which still had their spiders in them. This is a spiny-backed orb-weaver.
	This tamarind tree had dried fruit pods resembling gigantic cashews.
	Doesn't this seagrape look delicious?
	Ah, a passion flower. So pretty.
	Here's a passion flower fruit that is not yet mature.
	As expected, the tree that produces dragon fruit looks as exotic and weird as the dragon fruit does. It looks sort of like a tree, and sort of like a cactus.
	There were brown and white ibis running around, keeping well clear of us.
	When we got near the pond in the center of the park, we started to see iguanas. This is an adult green iguana, ...
	... and this is a juvenile.
	Look at the dorsal spines on this adult male. He must be very old to have lost almost all of his color.
	We heard a splash, and saw this iguana swimming through the pond. After being startled that they could swim, we remembered that we had seen marine iguanas doing just that in the Galápagos Islands.
	These freaky looking trees are pandanus trees, and are native to Africa and Asia.
	Here's a wider view of the pond, with a baobab tree at the end.
	This is Oldham's bamboo, ...
	... and a royal palm.
	Here's emblica, which produces a greenish-yellow fruit that is sour and bitter.
	This weird looking thing was aptly named "midnight horror." The flowers bloom at night, emit a strong, stinky odor, and attract bats. Fun!
	We were very intrigued by this Ceylon cinnamon tree. We had been looking at the tree trying to figure out where the cinnamon was until it slowly dawned on us that we were looking at actual cinnamon sticks in the curled, dried leaves.
	We walked through the Asian greenhouse and saw ...
	... Kaffir lime ...
	... and breadfruit plants.
	There were long lines of mango trees, but we didn't go any closer to them. Even if there were mangoes on the ground, we had nothing with us to peel them. Should have planned better, huh?
	This is a fig tree.
	The pond at the base of the waterfall had lovely aquatic plants and lots of fish.
	A contorted mulberry stood not far from the ...
	... herb garden.
	The raised beds in the herb garden had more aquatic plants, some of which were blooming.
	This is an African redhead agama, and it is on the prowl for insects. Grab a few mosquitos for us, will you?
	We saw this lovely starfruit at the end of the path, near the exit.
	Having thoroughly enjoyed our walk through the park, we headed right down the road to Robert is Here fruitstand. We had been here on our last trip, and enjoyed it so much that we decided we would get lunch here before heading further south.
	While Tom ordered smoothies and sandwiches, Debbie took a look around to see if there was anything here that we needed to take with us.
	Nope, just the smoothie (mango, passion fruit, and banana), a Cuban sandwich, and potato chips. So delicious!
	Having thoroughly explored Homestead, we navigated back to Route 1 and headed south on the Overseas Highway, ...
	... past the Southern Glades, ...
	... and the Southern Glades Trail, ...
	... through the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, ...
	... past the Anchorage Resort and Yacht Club, ...
	... past Lake Surprise, ...
	... to Key Largo and the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
	The information sign explains about the endangered status of the American crocodile and other endangered species within the refuge. The visitor center is closed to the public due to the pandemic, but ...
	... the Crocodile Lake Community Butterfly Garden is open to visitors.
	This sign as you enter the garden describes ten species of butterfly that are commonly found here. We walked around the small garden, saw some butterflies, and generally enjoyed the short walk.
	We headed back south to rejoin US 1, ...
	... making a quick stop at the Key Largo Visitor Center.
	We resisted the urge to climb the giant chair, ...
	... but we couldn't resist photographing the angel fish outside the building.
	Just inside was this adorable manatee mailbox with a baby manatee. The flyer on the end of the mailbox tells you how you can get one of your very own.
	We looked at the pamphets of things to do in the Keys, and Tom read a little about the maritime history of the Keys, and we left.
	We still had some time to kill before getting to our next hotel, so we stopped at a grocery store to look for some regional beverages. We were delighted and surprised to find Diet Guaraná Antarctica, which we fell in love with in Brazil, and Inca Kola, which we enjoyed when we were in Peru. We also bought a watermelon soda and diet Jupiña pineapple soda, both from Cawy brand which is based in Miami.
	We also browsed the beer selections and found two different flavors from Islamorada Beer Company, which is on Upper Matecumbe Key. We bought a six pack of Coconut Key Lime Ale and a six pack of Islamorada Ale to go along with the six pack of Funky Buddha's Floridian Hefeweizen Tom had bought a couple days earlier.
	By the time we had finished shopping, there was a major downpour happening outside. Tom ran through ankle deep water in the parking lot to get the van, while ...
	... Debbie listened to Pocketful of Sunshine over the store sound system.
	We decided to wait out the storm in the parking lot, knowing it would do no good to head to our hotel while it was raging. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, the storm was gone, the sunshine was back, and we were headed south.
	Someone obviously stopped at the Key Largo Visitor Center and read the manatee mailbox brochure. We knew this was here from our last trip, and had been looking for it while we drove along Route 1. This is the only manatee mailbox that we saw that had a baby with it.
	Welcome to Tavernier, the longest town in the Florida Keys. It stretches for nearly 30 miles and across four or five Keys.
	Another manatee mailbox, but no baby this time.
	Just before 3 PM, we arrived at our hotel, the Coconut Palm Inn, which is near the southern end of Key Largo. We had stayed here the last time we were in the Keys in 2018, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay here again. Our room wasn't quite ready, and the staff asked if we would like a "welcome cocktail" while we waited. Why, yes, we would.
	Cheers! We sat at one of the tables on the beach behind the hotel and sipped our drinks for about 20 minutes until our room was ready.
	This is Unit 3, the Sandpiper Deluxe Beachside room. It has a microwave, mini-fridge, king bed, ...
	... sitting area, ...
	... huge shower, ...
	... and a private deck ...
	... with views of the bay.
	Doesn't this look nice?
	Let's drink to that!
	We decided to venture over to the pool, and spent some quality time floating and enjoying the afternoon sun.
	Here's the firepit where there would be s'mores at sunset. What's that on the stones?
	A very manly green iguana, of course. This is apparently his firepit now.
	Another iguana was nearby, in case there was some lizard emergency that called for two of these guys.
	Tom sat his soaked shoes on the railing to dry. There were two more iguanas visible between the fence slats. It was fun to look for the trails their tails made in the sand.
	We had planned to eat at Sunrise Cuban Cafe, which we loved from our last time here, but unfortunately they were temporarily closed. After long consideration of whether life was still worth living, we searched for an alternative restaurant, and ended up at ...
	... Captain Craig's Restaurant, just a few miles down the road on Plantation Key.
	It was a fantastic choice, and we were quite happy with our meals. Debbie ordered the Pick Two basket, with calamari and shrimp over fries. Tom ordered the Key Lime Seafood, which was shrimp, mahi, and calamari over pasta. We sat out on our private deck and ate every bit of it.
	We noticed an iguana that was edging up to our deck, sniffing the air, and slowing coming closer. He never came any closer than about 20 feet from the desk and eventually went back to the tasty bugs in the bushes.
	Around sunset, we walked out to get a better view of the sunset and noticed that the fire pit iguana had been replaced with this cute guy.
	This is the view of the hotel from the end of their dock.
	We had the end of the pier entirely to ourselves, ...
	... and it was a lovely view.
	The sunsets here are really beautiful.
	After sunset, we walked back to the property for the complimentary sunset glasses of wine that they serve here.
	Debbie waited in one of the hammocks while Tom went to the front desk to fetch them, ...
	... and then we went back to our private deck to enjoy them.
	The sun sank lower and lower, ...
	... until the lights around the property came on. It was a great end to another fantastic day.
	We got a visit just before going in from a black cat that had been inspecting all of the decks. She was very friendly, and came up to us for a pet and a leg rub before heading off to the next deck. Miles driven today: 61. Total miles from Fort Kent, ME: 2952. Day 18 >