I was pretty stoked about Key Largo, and our impending arrival and five day stay in Key Largo. Mostly because of the Beach Boys and the Kokomo song, which was a top 5 hit in the life and times of Liz aged 4 years to 10 years.
Key Largo side road ocean dead end
The Beach Boys really set me up for disappointment. Or maybe Curry Hammock did that.
Key Largo is still ‘the Keys’, but it’s right at the top of the shaft. And it’s thicker and provides less accessibility to the ocean than our previous locale in Marathon.
Mostly, I was disappointed in the campground at the state park in Key Largo, John Pennekamp State Park. We were pretty spoiled at Curry Hammock. But, the campground layout at John Pennekamp is quite literally ‘storage style’. Aka, a place to park so you can do terrifying shit like scuba diving or snorkeling, which are not interests of mine. They are interests of Jake’s, but do to our short span of stay in this area, and not overly favorable weather during it, he wasn’t able to put these pursuits into action.
But back to the campground, which again, I only recommend booking at if you are planning to be out and about all day everyday. Our neighbors were sunbathing 2 feet away from our sewer hose.
The poop tube sunbathing situation.
We tried to walk Lucy a few times, but there wasn’t anywhere to walk her other than the road into and out of the campground.
Lucy found the only patch of grass big enough to hold her in the place.
There were two beach areas within walking distance – but not sight distance – of the campground. They weren’t actually on the ocean though, but on the sound, so the water was a bit ‘stale’.
The beach
But here I am, complaining about a place in the Florida Keys.
Honestly, it’s the Keys, and it beats out most lakes or ponds any day of the week!
We ventured out daily for runs on the paved path that runs along Hwy 1.
We hit up The Fish House, which was within walking distance of John Pennekamp State Park, twice. The first time, we joined Jake’s co-worker Laurence and his daughter for meals of fish followed by Key Lime Pie. The fish and the pie were good, as was the company. I cracked a tooth on the key lime pie. Because apparently my teeth can withstand hours of crunching of wintergreen mints on car rides, but not the perils of key lime pie.
I had to visit a dentist the next day to get that taken care of. The dentist was good, and he fixed my tooth right up.
We returned for lunch a few days later – for more fish, and more pie. My desire to eat pie will not be thwarted by a cracked tooth.
We also ventured over to grab a meal at The Lazy Lobster. The service was so atrocious that we ended up just ordering an appetizer (which was edible) and walking home to make dinner at Dyna. We didn’t even order their key lime pie – which should be pretty indicative of how we felt while there.
Pretty soon into our stay in Key Largo, we were hearing rumor that toilet paper supplies were running low across the country due to people starting to get hyped up about the Coronavirus, which had reached the U.S. Knowing that we hadn’t noted any shortages while up in Marathon, we decided to make a trip and grab some while in Key Largo. Looking back, I regret not being an asshole and grabbing more toilet paper. We only grabbed our typical four-pack of Scott. I like Scott because it’s appropriately named after Jake’s friend, and because it doesn’t form poop pyramids in Dyna’s black tank.
And that sums up our time in Key Largo. If we were to return, it would be on the premise of Jake getting scuba certified. Because I am not overly interested in the awkwardness of neighbors sunbathing next to our poop tube otherwise.