Spring Break Day 3 John Pennekamp State Park

We let the girls sleep in again (they are happier that way). Are you like us and want add a little spirituality to your Sabbath? With current Covid conditions, we were able to watch our church service via a Zoom link.

We planned to kayak through the mangroves at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Depending on traffic, the park was about 45 minutes to an hour from our hotel in Homestead.

The traffic for us was crazy busy and slow. I'm sure it was extra busy because it was the weekend. These people just could not manage a merge lane without having to stop traffic completely. And, you might as well know, most Floridians don’t seem to know that they have a turn signal in their car. And, if they could cheat the merge and drive as far ahead as possible, they would, even so far as getting out of their spot in the line of cars and hopping the line. It was karma when a big silver truck behind us began blocking the line hoppers.

Our reservation for kayaking through the mangroves included two double kayaks for two hours. 

Amy and I paddled together while Chris and Kristen occupied the second kayak. Amy and I were fairly crazy drivers as we tried to coordinate our oars and efforts.

We followed a route that might have taken two hours, but we found we could have finished it in an hour. Instead, we paddled around through the mangroves, finding some dead ends and many low-hanging branches to snag ourselves.

I recommend that you wear swim bottoms as you will get wet from paddling the kayak. I just had some capris on and they were soaked. As they dried, the saltiness of the water left white water marks all over my pants.

We returned the kayaks and went in search of a covered picnic table; we dined on our lunch fixings. The day and the weather was just perfect.

We walked through a hammock of trees and tried to follow a boardwalk through the mangroves. It had been damaged in the last hurricane and park officials decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to try and repair it.

We explored a bit of the park before we decided we were ready to go.

Driving back to Homestead, the girls snoozed in the back seat. 

We found Mamma Mia’s Pizza for dinner. Kristen was disappointed that they weren’t playing ABBA’s Mamma Mia song!

If you happen to stop at Mamma Mia’s, be prepared for huge servings of pasta and bread. Our garlicky cheese rolls were served by the dozen in a large bowl. Though delicious, there was no way we were going to be able to finish them off. 

See that roll in the bottom right of the picture. And that blob of cheese on top? I thought it as cheese until I popped it into my mouth and then promptly spit out when I realized it was just a blob of minced garlic. GAAAAA! The girls were happy to mock me for the rest of the evening. "Mom, why would you even do that?"

We knew we wouldn’t be able to eat the left overs as we were leaving the hotel the next morning and driving to Key West. However, our waiter, Benjamin, wasn’t about to let us leave the restaurant without taking some food with us.

We arrived back at the hotel only for Kristen to realize that she had left her purse hanging on her chair at the restaurant. Chris was kind enough to drive back across town with her so that she could retrieve it. Fortunately, there wasn't much of value in it. Fortunately, it was still there.

I rinsed the dried saltwater out of my pants and was pleased to see no lasting damage.