Curry Hamock

Our favorite park in the Florida Keys was Curry Hammock (Paul and Carol Curry have never been there so it's not named after them). One day we went on a Ranger guided walk along the beach where he describes all the weeds, snails, crabs and jelly fish he sees. These snails are eating algae at the waterline.

While we were there we saw a bunch of sail surfers spreading their gear out. Figuring they were getting ready to sail we hung around to watch them. After sunning ourselves for a couple of hours, I went over and talked with them. They were waiting for the wind to pick up. So we left and came back in the afternoon for another Ranger guided tour - this one was a Kayak tour through the mangrove swamp. Now it's getting late in the day and the kite surfers had no choice but to try it with the existing winds.

The first guy must have tried a dozen times before he finally made it up.

Then they all took off - neat sport.

Seeing I had brought our kayaks with us, we thought we would try to row out to Lignumvitae Island - It's a state park with another Ranger guided tour. We drove about 20 miles toward the mainland to where the island was located and was a little surprised to see how far off shore the island was - a little daunting for us amateur kayakers.

But we put in anyway and in a 1/2 hour were out on the island. The Island is named for the Lignum Vitae tree which is a very hard wood used for medicinal purposes, axe handles and, at one time, for drive shaft bearing on ships. The island had a nice old house on it and three champion trees - a Lignum Vitae, a Ficus and a Poison Wood.

You ask - what is a Champion tree? They measure the diameter at a height of 4.5 ft and add it to the height of the tree to determine which tree is the biggest of that species in the world. You can see how the Ficus tree won - the circumference is measured all the way around all the roots that have come down from the tree. The Ficus is a relative of the fig family.

The Poison Wood isn't as dramatic to look at but the ranger says it is similar to poison ivy only twice a potent. Once you get it, the oils get into your blood stream and keep popping out all over the body for the next few months. If it gets in the lungs they have to hospitalize you as your windpipe swells up.

During the walk, the ranger showed us a broken Liguus Snail shell and told us that some of these were worth over $100. So for the rest of the walk I kept looking for an undamaged shells and thanks to my super vision, I spotted one, discretely picked it up and put it in my pocket. Any one interested?