Beach!
One thing the FL Key’s might be lacking is nice beaches. Being from the Northeast, I sometimes take for granted the huge sandy beaches we have at the NJ Shore. Luckily, though, there are a few nice beaches in the Key’s and today we visited one. We drove down to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park at the southern end of Key West. It is an awesome beach. The area had a nice little picnic/seating setup with bench tables, bbq’s, etc. They have a concession stand (out of the way) to get snacks and cold drinks. Most of all, they have great water with rocky jetties which make for great places to snorkel and see all sorts of tropical fish.
I had some fun taking video while I snorkeled. The only downside of this particular day was that water clarity was just fair. Well, that, and I didn’t learn until later that the Go Pro HD camera suffers from a design flaw that prevents it from focusing properly under water. So, out of water I get razor sharp, crystal clear images but while underwater the images are slightly out of focus – it bugs me, but nothing I can do about it after the fact. I am going to order an aftermarket flat lens that will replace the default domes housing lens (or, if Go Pro releases an updates housing I’ll get that) which will allow the camera to focus underwater just like it does above water. Still fun to see the fish on video though – see below!