How are the mid and upper Keys receiving?

[MPERL]

We might want to do a warm water May vacation and want to see what the mid/upper Florida Keys look like. Any current reports?

 

[DeniseM]

What do you mean by receiving?

 

[Jan M.]

By May the daytime temperatures will likely be in the mid to higher 80's and the nights in the high 70's. In May there is enough breeze that it isn't unpleasant. When we lived in Pennsylvania we would have thought that was wicked hot. When it gets that warm in other parts of the Country there isn't a breeze to be had but here that ocean breeze we get due to the Gulf Stream makes a huge difference.

The rainy season in Florida is May-October. In our experience since moving to Florida 7 years ago, we are about 12 miles inland from Pompano Beach, it is later in July though September that sees the most rain and high temperatures. Then it can get to be a bit much for a lot of people. Our son and his family came down to visit us here one year over 4th of July because it had been for the previous several weeks and was for that week, cooler and less humid here than where they live in Ohio.

The one thing that we found difficult to adjust our thinking about was that it is completely dark by 8:30 in the evening here during the summer. It doesn't stay light until 9:30 or later like it did when we lived up North. Night falls quicker and comes earlier in the Tropics and Southern Florida is a sub-tropical climate zone.

 

[pedro47]

Is the OP asking how the Keys are recovering from the last hurricane?

 

[rapmarks]

Is the OP asking how the Keys are recovering from the last hurricane?

Probably was autocorrect

 

[moonstone]

I belong to a couple of RV (Camping) forums and saw a post by a guy from up north who had just arrived at their winter RV park in the Keys. They didn't think to call ahead and when they pulled up to the driveway all they saw was an empty field! The office building was gone as well as the clubhouse and most of the trees! The guy was asking if anybody knew of other RV park nearby would have a vacancy (with full hook-ups) for the next 3 months. Haha! He said they wanted to stay as far south in FL as possible for warmth and didn't realize the extent of the damage down there.

So many people on the forum wondered why anybody would drive all that way without checking on the condition of the park after the bad hurricanes last fall. The guy must have been living under a rock.


~Diane

 

[MPERL]

I hate autocorrect. Yess, I was asking how the mid and upper keys have recovered from the hurricanes. We are wanting a warm weather/beach vacation for the end of May in the USA

 

[moonstone]

I hate autocorrect. Yess, I was asking how the mid and upper keys have recovered from the hurricanes. We are wanting a warm weather/beach vacation for the end of May in the USA

I don't think you need to go all the way to the Keys for a warm weather/beach vacation at the end of May. We have been up in St Augustine at the end of May & it was almost unbearably hot for us Canadians. Unless you want to be in the Keys I think almost anywhere from Daytona down to the Miami area or up the west side from Ft Myers to St Petersburg would be nice.


~Diane

 

[Jan M.]

I don't think you need to go all the way to the Keys for a warm weather/beach vacation at the end of May. We have been up in St Augustine at the end of May & it was almost unbearably hot for us Canadians. Unless you want to be in the Keys I think almost anywhere from Daytona down to the Miami area or up the west side from Ft Myers to St Petersburg would be nice.


~Diane

I agree that anywhere on the beach in Florida will be nice in May. Add the Panhandle to Diane's list of other places in Florida to consider!

 

[MPERL]

We like a daily snorkel, hence the Keys.

 

[Jan M.]

We drove down to Key West today. With very few exceptions everything is back up and running. We were told the diving is good so you should have no problems there. There are still some piles of storm debris waiting to be collected. We saw some houses, business, boats, travel trailers, a lot of gas station signs and some other businesses signs too that were storm damaged. We saw some roofs with blue tarps but not nearly as many as I was expecting to see. Most of the damage seems to be in pockets.

If you remember driving over 7 mile bridge you probably remember the sections of the old bridge next to it. There are a couple of medium sized trees growing in one spot on the old bridge. They survived the hurricane with no damage!

On the way down to Key West we stopped in Marathon and ate at the Cracked Conch. Even though it was lunch time they were still serving breakfast so we said why not and both ordered the seafood lovers omelet. They didn't skimp on the amount of seafood in the omelets. There was Mahi-Mahi, shrimp, scallops and conch. We very much enjoyed our omelets.

On the way home we stopped in Key Largo and ate at the Fish House Restaurant. It was featured on Guy Fieri's TV show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network Channel. The food was excellent! My husband ordered one of Guy's picks, the Shrimp and Scallops Monterey. I had the baked, stuffed shrimp. Both of our meals were generous portions and the food was excellent. My husband's dinner would reheat better than mine so I had him help me finish my dinner and we took the other half of his home. When he was waiting for a box he separated the seafood from the linguine and other stuff. We've found when reheating seafood you want to be careful not to overcook it hence why he was separating the seafood. There was still as much seafood left as you get in meal in other restaurants. We were both very impressed. The New England clam chowder was very good too. We and the couple from Vermont at the table next to us got talked into ordering the key lime pie by the middle aged ladies sitting on the other side of the couple next to us. It had real toasted meringue on it and was some of the best I've ever had. We were seated in a small area of four tables pretty close together in a row and all of us were chatting, comparing notes about the food. The two women had eaten there for lunch and liked it so much that they came back for dinner. The couple next to us were only staying in the area for three days but said they were definitely coming back again before they left. The table of four men on the other side of us had brought the fish they caught that day in and the restaurant prepared it for them. They had a lot of fish so had selected three different ways to have it cooked and really liked all three.