We drove the last half up the Keys, and I found myself grieving a little inside when the ocean color changed from that beautiful Caribbean green back to normal dark ocean blue. We were clearly heading back into the normal world.
Still green, but getting darker in transition.
For lunch we went to a little restaurant called Harriette's, a little family place with good food, esp. their breakfast, which they serve all day. We were meeting a friend named Ligia, originally from Romania, who lived with my parents in IL while she was doing graduate work, and who now teaches at a college in Miami. We had a very nice lunch, complete with Key Lime pie, a first for my kids, and a must-do on Key Largo, where it was supposedly invented! After lunch we headed together over to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, where we had reservations to camp. It almost seemed a shame for us to be there just camping in such a place--clearly it was a very popular weekend destination in the Miami area, with boat trips and snorkeling, and all kinds of water recreation. But we were just there for cheap camping! After we got the camper settled we drove to the visitor center and the kids looked at the displays while the adults chatted (and while I sat in the gift shop using the free wifi to finalize special plans for the next day, our last day in Florida). When the center closed we all headed outside to sit and chat more. A summer thunderstorm blew up, but we were dry under the shelter.
It was not until later that we realized that we were being eaten by "no-see-ums"--those tiny little gnats that you don't even feel and can't see, but which leave very itchy bites. This was not the first time we encountered them--in the Everglades too they were prevalent, and we all got a lot of bites because they were tiny enough to come through the screen mesh on the camper. We had fans and they kept the gnats off my parents while they slept, but of course when we were just going about camping business outside there was no protection. My dad even got out the DEET spray--and they didn't care. So, poor dad has allergic reactions to bug bites, and so he was really uncomfortable after the Everglades, and now we had unknowingly presented ourselves as an afternoon buffet!
But even so, I still can't say I wish we hadn't been sitting out there, long after the other day-trip park-goers had gone--because after the rain came this:
What an amazing moment of beauty to revel in!
There is no such thing as too many pictures of a once-in-a-lifetime rainbow like this.
Just when we were all satisfied with our photos, it turned into a double! A double full rainbow! (My camera just could not capture the entirely of it)
Even when we moved from the bridge & boats to the swimming beach the rainbow persisted, changing moment by moment but never ceasing in beauty.
And then the sky show continued as the sun set in the brightest colors I've ever seen.
No-see-ums aside, it was another nice relaxing day and a treat to see Ligia. But the flourishes with which God was painting that night--that was unforgettable.
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