Monday, July 4 - Amazingly, July 4 was a rainy day down here. It was in the 70s this morning, with a breeze. I watched the display of storm clouds accumulating, and the jet stream from a plane taking off left a beautiful track in the sky.
The mosquitoes don't seem to be a problem in the daylight hours, so I enjoyed the view for quite a while.
The clouds got closer and closer, and it finally started raining. Joe came out and joined me in our private little tiki hut -- see how far I've advanced since hiding in the closet in Indiana during all those awful tornado warnings!
It quit raining so we headed back into town, but Joe got caught in the Circle K getting his soda when the rain really let loose. He finally made it back to the car, only slightly damp, and we stopped at a couple stores searing for snorkle fins. We went on down to Duval Street (the main street here, that goes from the east coast to the west coast), and had some success with the fins, so now that we are leaving this area we are completely set up for snorkeling. We drove from coast to coast, traffic (both pedestrian and vehicle) was heavy and it kept raining.
Fortunately, we finally found a parking spot (a mission impossible here) and joined the crowd, stopping in a few gift shops. Then we had lunch at the original Margaritaville, of course. I talked to the lady who had her boat moored next to our RV earlier this morning, and she and her daughter had gone downtown yesterday to some public pool, where they saw women wearing only body art. Joe was on the lookout for that sight, but I guess the rain forced them all to put clothes on because we didn't see any today. She was pretty sure that Joe really had seen some naked woman in the parking lot the other day -- she said anything goes down here.
We drove out to the state park again, where a coast guard ship and another WWII ship are museums, but they were both closed.
We also drove past (but didn't go in) the Museum of Art & History, which had a beautiful statute out front, and John Hemingway's home. There was no place to park in the vicinity. Parking is really a nightmare down here, unless you go into the public parking lots, or are lucky enough to find a spot with a parking meter. But all day in the parking lots is $15 to $20, so we avoided that.
We also saw this beautiful banyan tree right in this area. These trees are fascinating.
We drove up the Atlantic side and came upon Higgs Beach, which appears to be where the locals go. There were lots of people here, so I'm guessing they are probably having fireworks here later this evening.
We really didn't do much today, but we were ready to go back to the RV, after a stop at the grocery store. I decided to get the laundry done, since we are leaving tomorrow, and Joe did some of his outside work. We went over for a late dinner here at the campground, and they put on a small fireworks display so we stayed for that so we didn't have to fight the traffic and crowds downtown. We hope to be in the Miami area tomorrow night, assuming traffic won't be too bad getting out of the keys. But this was an interesting trip, and it is amazing to us that we have been all the way from the northernmost place (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska) to the southernmost place (Key West) in the U.S. in the last two years. We are definitely enjoying retirement!
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