Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Florida Keys - an excellent place for your health
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
There’s something almost mythical about the health aspects of the Keys for this family, anyway. In January, when we are run down by New York’s winter, colds and coughs, we will grab a quick Jet-Blue flight to Ft. Lauderdale , rent a car and drive the 80 miles to Key Largo, for a couple of weeks of our walk therapy, to burn the bad things out of our systems. It works, almost miraculously.
Key Largo, 50 miles south of Miami an 100 miles north of Key West, is a quiet place. You cross the 20-mile bridge separating the continent from the coral islands, and you are in the Caribbean, a sub-tropical coral island chain. . Some people call it Paradise, a quiet one.
.
In KL, a fishing village, the exciting nights are Monday and Wednesday, when the neat Public Library, next to the Publix supermarket, is open till 8 PM. The PL happens to be also the Internet Café, where granddads and grandmas get on the e-mail to keep in touch with the families. The seven PCs - there used to be three, until Bill and Melissa Gates gave the lib four more – are available for 20-minute stretches, on sign-up, with people waiting in line all through the day.
About the walking. Our condo colomy, MoonBay, is at MM104 (that’s Mile Marker, or our distance to Key West), alongside the Overseas Highway or US1, the one-lane road which keeps tourist traffic in the Keys from overflowing the fragile islands. It expands in the towns, KL, Islamorada, Marathon and KW. Four miles south, at MM100, is the KL Municipal Park, with beautifully kept grounds, Little League fields and tennis courts, and an expensive swimming pool, donated by a rich woman from Ocean Reef, the exclusive and secretive condo enclave for millionaires at the north end of the island (it has its own aiport). A walk around the inside of the park is ½ mile, and we usually start with two rounds in the morning, progressing to four and six as our staycontinues, checking our weight immediately afterwards at the Publix scale -they also have a BP machine - while shopping for breakfast (have to bring a jacket there, the air conditioning is wicked, only the library really balances its six AC units to protect the elderly readers.) Or we go to Hideout Cafe (off MM103.5, on the ocean side).
Sometimes we repeat the walk in the PM, more often settling for walking rounds inside our MoonBay condo colony grounds (three trips are a mile). The more ambitious exercisers also include a few walks up and down the 5-story open staircases of the A building, lingering at the top of the stairs for a sunrise view of the Keys. Some find the top walkway a neat place to read the Miami Herald, which one picks up at the coin dispenser near the entrance.
Sunrises are spectacular, and some of us jump into the car and drive six miles north, towards Ocean Reef, where there’s access to an ocean inlet, offering a view of water, some lonely boats, the path of the sun and pelicans. If you catch the proper cloud effect, it is truly brathtaking,
Sunsets over Florida Bay are equally dramatic, and we the snowbirds come out of our condos every evening, with wine glasses and chips, to gather around the tiki (a palm thatched shed) at the end of the pier protecting our marina, to drink in the serene view (Thursday nights we have regular parties in the Community Room, which has full glass doors opening to the bay). No reputed green flashes, the strange effect touted by bartenders at tropical watering places, have been observed to date, although you often hear it referenced.
The MoonBay tiki area is also where manatees, cow-size mammals of the warm seas, come looking for fresh drinking water, sometimes bringing their babies. It is not legal to take care of them, they should find streams feeding from the aquifer, but we care, and feed them with the watering hose. What’s more, we jump in and swim with them. A hunter friend from icy Buffalo, NY, has become the official caregiver, scrubbing them, to get rid of the barnacles. I have manatee stories, for hours.
Dinner. Most of us cook after the sunset, indoors or outdoors, the latter at one of the three public outdoor grills, either steaks from Publix, or filets of fish - mahi-mahi or certified local snapper, bought at the KL Fish Market near the park, next to the fishermen’s pier. For a leisurely meal out praqctically next door, all you have to do is call in your reservation, then let yourself out at the plastic key-fed exit gate and walk a hundred yards south to Hobo’s, a popular plain table fish restaurant , where the motherly British hostess will find you a seat, if need be at the bar, where they play a movie quiz game every night. You can also hop in your car and drive half a mile to Sundowners (or its neighbors, Senor Frijoles ) to sit on the deck and wach the sunset, while boaters tie up at the pier below your feet, to dine in the sandy garden, where a Jimmy Buffet sound-alike treats them to Cheeseburgers in Paradise and Margaritaville, or anything else a parrothead demands.
Or, if you are feeling adventurous, drive to the Islamorada Fish Factory, 20 miles south (next to the Bass luxury fishermen’s outlet), where they serve baskets of scallops, conch, oyster and more ordinary fare on an open-air deck built out over the water. The bay is pitch dark at night, and watching an incoming boat quietly gliding to the pier is a serene treat beyond compare. There you definitely have to wait for seats during lunch and dinner hours – but that is easy, you can visit the Bass tanks of pelagic sports fish, tarpons and amberjacks, or check out Spanish silver coins from the galleon era, or buy some crab legs for tomorrow’s snack at the retail store – we once saw a yachtsman and his trophy woman buy $200 worth of arctic king crab legs and dipping sauce – that’s all the food they wanted – to go with the iced champagne for their afternoon outing in the bay. You may run into a boater with stories from Cheeca Lodge, where they hold the annual G.W. H. Bush bone-fishing contest.
If you are not interested in catching tricky inedible fish, there are other opportunities. At MM100, the Holiday Inn pier, is the sportsmen’s harbor, you can rent a yacht for a day, champagne included, tarpon success guaranteed, or go on a party boat. In the afternoon, when the boats return, you can buy fish fresh out of the ocean. Just walking around and checking out the boats, and hearing the salty lingo at Sporty’s bar is good, as is eating a dozen shrimp and crackers at the upstairs deck of Coconuts, overlooking the harbor. There is the African Queen, the old Zambezi steamer that Humphrey Bogart and Catherine Hepburn sailed in the eponymous film (I keep a copy at the condo, also one of Key Largo, the movie that gave KL its name, it was Rock Harbor until 1947), available for excursions, and the gambling taxi, a biggish yacht that will take you out beyond the three-mile limit, where a Cruz casino ship with two decks awash with slot machines will give you hours of entertainment. We take it for the ocean ride (almost free of charge, if you look for discount tickets at local gas stations).
Other rides – snorkeling, glass bottom boat, scuba diving – are available at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (MM102.5), a National Marine Preserve, with a sadly diminishing coral treasure, and a small sandy swimming beach, admission $5 per carload.
Beaches. The Keys, being coral islands, have few sandy beaches. Harry Harris at MM92.5 is okay; the best is the Sombrero Beach at Marathon, MM50, a good scenic ride that gives you full view of the beauties of the Keys. Eat along the road. Stop at Lorelei (MM82) for a sunset folk concert, grab lunch at Whale Harbor (MM83), a bite at Hog Heaven (MM85.3), or Snapper, Ballyhoo Grill & Grog, Mandalay or Bentley’s, all local legends. Papa Joe’s Tiki Bar has good pizza and sunset views. Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen (MM89.5) is solid.
The Everglades, a 40-mile wide river flowing at the rate of one ft per minute or so is about 30 miles away from MoonBay – 20 miles back over the bridge to mainland, and a 10 mile inland ride, after turning west at the Florida City, past the famous Here’s Robert! a legendary shack selling local citrus fruit and greens, featuring products of Homestead farms, South Florida’s great farm area that used to supply the East Coast with winter tomatoes before NAFTA brought Mexico into the picture. Robert is furious, now the farms are slowly turning into thousands of small houses and condominiums. The Keys are fortunately protected against overbuilding , allowing 200 new units per year, though old-boy deals are made. But I digress.
At the entrance to the Everglades you pay $10, unless you have have a National Parks Golden Age Passport, a wonderful one-time investment for the 50+ crowd. Pass the Admin building (good exhibits) and continue 5 mi to the Palm Court turnoff, park your car and start walking the less than a mile path into the wonderful anhinga, cormorant, alligator and wood stork world, your best overview of the Everglades. The birds and animals fish and hunt, oblivious of your presence. We have been coming once or twice a year for the past two decades, and there’s always something new. During the nesting season you will meet the world’s greatest nature photographers there.
The road continues 36 more miles south, to Flamingo, a Parks town, base for overnight stays and weekly vacationers, early morning canoe trips into the bird paradise, boat trips up the small creeks filled with nature. Along the road are side passages to hammocks (sawgrass islands in the Everglades river), ponds and towers offering varieties of viewpoints for nature study. At Flamingo is also the Echo Pond, where all kinds of birds come to roost in the trees in the middle, saved from predators by the body of water.
Part of Everglades is also Shark Valley, about 40 miles north from Florida City, through the farmland, hibiscus and bougainvillea nurseries and pick-your –own strawberry fields, to Alligator Alley (turning west at the Miccosukee Gambling Resort and hotel). This is an alligator paradise. Take the guided trolley, rent a bike, or walk, stepping over creatures of all sizes.
If you want care for more creatures and birds, there is a center at MM86 for wounded pelicans ibises and herons.
Key West is another destination, gateway for a catamaran trip to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas 86 miles towards Cuba, where we once saw the strangest refugee boat, a box of welded steel plates driven by a truck engine (and huge oars, since the motor failed). The people were granted refuge since the vessel, if you call it that, reached the US. Visiting Dry Tortugas is an overnight trip, since an early morning car ride may run into school bus caravans, slowing it down. You can stay at KW in the tallest building, the old La Concha Hotel, and greet the sunset on its roof with a margarita, or go to the Mallory Peer, to watch snake charmers and trained cat owners, all refugees from the 1960s, perform for pennies. KW ias also good for Hemingway lore, chugging brewskis on Duval Street and the arts scene.
All the lower Keys have events to offer, tiny Keys deer crossing the highway and dolphins. To return to health aspects, the Europeans have discovered the mythical power dolphins have in diagnosing ailments, and the health benefits of swwimming with dolphins for autistic children. English, Irish and German visitors bring their children to the Keys dolphin centers for a daily hour of interaction (we have two such institutions in KL alone), with trained attendants and parents on hand. We know families who have returned year after year, with palpable improvements.
There’s something almost mythical about the health aspects of the Keys for this family, anyway. In January, when we are run down by New York’s winter, colds and coughs, we will grab a quick Jet-Blue flight to Ft. Lauderdale , rent a car and drive the 80 miles to Key Largo, for a couple of weeks of our walk therapy, to burn the bad things out of our systems. It works, almost miraculously.
Key Largo, 50 miles south of Miami an 100 miles north of Key West, is a quiet place. You cross the 20-mile bridge separating the continent from the coral islands, and you are in the Caribbean, a sub-tropical coral island chain. . Some people call it Paradise, a quiet one.
.
In KL, a fishing village, the exciting nights are Monday and Wednesday, when the neat Public Library, next to the Publix supermarket, is open till 8 PM. The PL happens to be also the Internet Café, where granddads and grandmas get on the e-mail to keep in touch with the families. The seven PCs - there used to be three, until Bill and Melissa Gates gave the lib four more – are available for 20-minute stretches, on sign-up, with people waiting in line all through the day.
About the walking. Our condo colomy, MoonBay, is at MM104 (that’s Mile Marker, or our distance to Key West), alongside the Overseas Highway or US1, the one-lane road which keeps tourist traffic in the Keys from overflowing the fragile islands. It expands in the towns, KL, Islamorada, Marathon and KW. Four miles south, at MM100, is the KL Municipal Park, with beautifully kept grounds, Little League fields and tennis courts, and an expensive swimming pool, donated by a rich woman from Ocean Reef, the exclusive and secretive condo enclave for millionaires at the north end of the island (it has its own aiport). A walk around the inside of the park is ½ mile, and we usually start with two rounds in the morning, progressing to four and six as our staycontinues, checking our weight immediately afterwards at the Publix scale -they also have a BP machine - while shopping for breakfast (have to bring a jacket there, the air conditioning is wicked, only the library really balances its six AC units to protect the elderly readers.) Or we go to Hideout Cafe (off MM103.5, on the ocean side).
Sometimes we repeat the walk in the PM, more often settling for walking rounds inside our MoonBay condo colony grounds (three trips are a mile). The more ambitious exercisers also include a few walks up and down the 5-story open staircases of the A building, lingering at the top of the stairs for a sunrise view of the Keys. Some find the top walkway a neat place to read the Miami Herald, which one picks up at the coin dispenser near the entrance.
Sunrises are spectacular, and some of us jump into the car and drive six miles north, towards Ocean Reef, where there’s access to an ocean inlet, offering a view of water, some lonely boats, the path of the sun and pelicans. If you catch the proper cloud effect, it is truly brathtaking,
Sunsets over Florida Bay are equally dramatic, and we the snowbirds come out of our condos every evening, with wine glasses and chips, to gather around the tiki (a palm thatched shed) at the end of the pier protecting our marina, to drink in the serene view (Thursday nights we have regular parties in the Community Room, which has full glass doors opening to the bay). No reputed green flashes, the strange effect touted by bartenders at tropical watering places, have been observed to date, although you often hear it referenced.
The MoonBay tiki area is also where manatees, cow-size mammals of the warm seas, come looking for fresh drinking water, sometimes bringing their babies. It is not legal to take care of them, they should find streams feeding from the aquifer, but we care, and feed them with the watering hose. What’s more, we jump in and swim with them. A hunter friend from icy Buffalo, NY, has become the official caregiver, scrubbing them, to get rid of the barnacles. I have manatee stories, for hours.
Dinner. Most of us cook after the sunset, indoors or outdoors, the latter at one of the three public outdoor grills, either steaks from Publix, or filets of fish - mahi-mahi or certified local snapper, bought at the KL Fish Market near the park, next to the fishermen’s pier. For a leisurely meal out praqctically next door, all you have to do is call in your reservation, then let yourself out at the plastic key-fed exit gate and walk a hundred yards south to Hobo’s, a popular plain table fish restaurant , where the motherly British hostess will find you a seat, if need be at the bar, where they play a movie quiz game every night. You can also hop in your car and drive half a mile to Sundowners (or its neighbors, Senor Frijoles ) to sit on the deck and wach the sunset, while boaters tie up at the pier below your feet, to dine in the sandy garden, where a Jimmy Buffet sound-alike treats them to Cheeseburgers in Paradise and Margaritaville, or anything else a parrothead demands.
Or, if you are feeling adventurous, drive to the Islamorada Fish Factory, 20 miles south (next to the Bass luxury fishermen’s outlet), where they serve baskets of scallops, conch, oyster and more ordinary fare on an open-air deck built out over the water. The bay is pitch dark at night, and watching an incoming boat quietly gliding to the pier is a serene treat beyond compare. There you definitely have to wait for seats during lunch and dinner hours – but that is easy, you can visit the Bass tanks of pelagic sports fish, tarpons and amberjacks, or check out Spanish silver coins from the galleon era, or buy some crab legs for tomorrow’s snack at the retail store – we once saw a yachtsman and his trophy woman buy $200 worth of arctic king crab legs and dipping sauce – that’s all the food they wanted – to go with the iced champagne for their afternoon outing in the bay. You may run into a boater with stories from Cheeca Lodge, where they hold the annual G.W. H. Bush bone-fishing contest.
If you are not interested in catching tricky inedible fish, there are other opportunities. At MM100, the Holiday Inn pier, is the sportsmen’s harbor, you can rent a yacht for a day, champagne included, tarpon success guaranteed, or go on a party boat. In the afternoon, when the boats return, you can buy fish fresh out of the ocean. Just walking around and checking out the boats, and hearing the salty lingo at Sporty’s bar is good, as is eating a dozen shrimp and crackers at the upstairs deck of Coconuts, overlooking the harbor. There is the African Queen, the old Zambezi steamer that Humphrey Bogart and Catherine Hepburn sailed in the eponymous film (I keep a copy at the condo, also one of Key Largo, the movie that gave KL its name, it was Rock Harbor until 1947), available for excursions, and the gambling taxi, a biggish yacht that will take you out beyond the three-mile limit, where a Cruz casino ship with two decks awash with slot machines will give you hours of entertainment. We take it for the ocean ride (almost free of charge, if you look for discount tickets at local gas stations).
Other rides – snorkeling, glass bottom boat, scuba diving – are available at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (MM102.5), a National Marine Preserve, with a sadly diminishing coral treasure, and a small sandy swimming beach, admission $5 per carload.
Beaches. The Keys, being coral islands, have few sandy beaches. Harry Harris at MM92.5 is okay; the best is the Sombrero Beach at Marathon, MM50, a good scenic ride that gives you full view of the beauties of the Keys. Eat along the road. Stop at Lorelei (MM82) for a sunset folk concert, grab lunch at Whale Harbor (MM83), a bite at Hog Heaven (MM85.3), or Snapper, Ballyhoo Grill & Grog, Mandalay or Bentley’s, all local legends. Papa Joe’s Tiki Bar has good pizza and sunset views. Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen (MM89.5) is solid.
The Everglades, a 40-mile wide river flowing at the rate of one ft per minute or so is about 30 miles away from MoonBay – 20 miles back over the bridge to mainland, and a 10 mile inland ride, after turning west at the Florida City, past the famous Here’s Robert! a legendary shack selling local citrus fruit and greens, featuring products of Homestead farms, South Florida’s great farm area that used to supply the East Coast with winter tomatoes before NAFTA brought Mexico into the picture. Robert is furious, now the farms are slowly turning into thousands of small houses and condominiums. The Keys are fortunately protected against overbuilding , allowing 200 new units per year, though old-boy deals are made. But I digress.
At the entrance to the Everglades you pay $10, unless you have have a National Parks Golden Age Passport, a wonderful one-time investment for the 50+ crowd. Pass the Admin building (good exhibits) and continue 5 mi to the Palm Court turnoff, park your car and start walking the less than a mile path into the wonderful anhinga, cormorant, alligator and wood stork world, your best overview of the Everglades. The birds and animals fish and hunt, oblivious of your presence. We have been coming once or twice a year for the past two decades, and there’s always something new. During the nesting season you will meet the world’s greatest nature photographers there.
The road continues 36 more miles south, to Flamingo, a Parks town, base for overnight stays and weekly vacationers, early morning canoe trips into the bird paradise, boat trips up the small creeks filled with nature. Along the road are side passages to hammocks (sawgrass islands in the Everglades river), ponds and towers offering varieties of viewpoints for nature study. At Flamingo is also the Echo Pond, where all kinds of birds come to roost in the trees in the middle, saved from predators by the body of water.
Part of Everglades is also Shark Valley, about 40 miles north from Florida City, through the farmland, hibiscus and bougainvillea nurseries and pick-your –own strawberry fields, to Alligator Alley (turning west at the Miccosukee Gambling Resort and hotel). This is an alligator paradise. Take the guided trolley, rent a bike, or walk, stepping over creatures of all sizes.
If you want care for more creatures and birds, there is a center at MM86 for wounded pelicans ibises and herons.
Key West is another destination, gateway for a catamaran trip to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas 86 miles towards Cuba, where we once saw the strangest refugee boat, a box of welded steel plates driven by a truck engine (and huge oars, since the motor failed). The people were granted refuge since the vessel, if you call it that, reached the US. Visiting Dry Tortugas is an overnight trip, since an early morning car ride may run into school bus caravans, slowing it down. You can stay at KW in the tallest building, the old La Concha Hotel, and greet the sunset on its roof with a margarita, or go to the Mallory Peer, to watch snake charmers and trained cat owners, all refugees from the 1960s, perform for pennies. KW ias also good for Hemingway lore, chugging brewskis on Duval Street and the arts scene.
All the lower Keys have events to offer, tiny Keys deer crossing the highway and dolphins. To return to health aspects, the Europeans have discovered the mythical power dolphins have in diagnosing ailments, and the health benefits of swwimming with dolphins for autistic children. English, Irish and German visitors bring their children to the Keys dolphin centers for a daily hour of interaction (we have two such institutions in KL alone), with trained attendants and parents on hand. We know families who have returned year after year, with palpable improvements.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:59 PM 
