Pic above from Bahia Honda, Florida Keys

3/8/2010 

Hello again! 

Paul from Everyone's Travel Club here, ready to continue sharing from our recent kayaking trip to Key West, Florida.  First, the packing of the lightweight, inflatable kayaks back in Seattle.

After a few long flights, we made it to Miami in one of the smallest commercial planes I've ever flown in!

Our Innova Kayaks fit nicely in our luggage - just making the weight limit for each bag (50 lbs).

After a few long flights, we made it to Miami in one of the smallest commercial planes I've ever flown in!

We relaxed at a friends house in Miami and then set out the next day on our first day of kayaking, just off of Key Biscayne, minutes from Miami. The weather was great - sunny, 74 degrees, water temperature like Seattle lakes in the summer, fairly normal for February in South Florida.

Maybe they should just make all cameras waterproof...

One little oops - Amber forgot to bring the sunscreen...ouchy.

Ouchy for both of us...Apparently applying vinegar or tea bags turns the sunburned heat down a notch...we eventually picked up some aloe. 

A pretty sweet day...considering the gloom we left in Seattle!

Hang with us this week as we post parts 3-6 of the Key West Kayaking adventure!  Please comment if you have any questions about the trip, we'd love to forward you more info, answer questions, or post some of your pics from the Keys!  This is a club for everyone after all...

-Paul    ~E.T.C.

Well, Everyone's Travel Club has almost been posting for a year! I thought we'd pay tribute by sharing a few posts from the past.  This was the trip that started the whole thing!

~Paul   ETC

 3/7/2010

Hello adventurers! 

A few things all midwesterners (like myself growing up) should know about Key West:

1) There are more than a few Keys.  There are hundreds.  I used to think there was about, eh, four.

2) Key West is a long way from Miami.  An hour?  More like 3.5 hours.

3) Something I learned on this trip because I took my kayaks - the water South of mainland Florida and around the Keys is really shallow.  When I finally got my hands on a chart (I planned a lot of the trip from maps) I realized that despite deeper channels, you can navigate all around the area and always see the bottom (and you might even get stuck and have to get out of the kayak to pull yourself into deeper water).

4)  Don't expect a lot of sandy beaches.  It may look like a nice little small island but really it is a mangrove...a group of trees that can tolerate the salt water that they grow out of.  They actually have pretty cool ways of getting rid of the salt.  The picture below are young mangroves, I took the pic with my new Canon waterproof camera!

5)  Key West is the coolest city in Florida.

Key Biscayne, minutes from downtown Miami

Sunken ship!  Well, a boat at least.

Windy day at Bahia Honda...
Stay tuned for part two of six!  

-Paul  ~E.T.C.