Key Museums

We visited two museums that tell a lot about what they Florida Keys are all about.

The first was The History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. This houses the diving apparatus collected by one couple. It is an amazingly complete collection of items from all over the world and was well worth the admission of $12–unless you can get credit for the $2 coupon you should have printed out from the internet like we did. There is no parking for big rigs. We managed to squeeze into a corner of their lot with our small RV. Here’s some of what we saw:

The other “museum” was the visitor center at John Pennenkamp Coral Reef State Park. Their 30,000 gallon aquarium was closed for rehabilitation but we watched their 30 minute video and looked at the smaller aquariums and displays and felt we got our $3 admission’s worth. You can park big rigs here; in fact you can camp here.  It’s a state park with a lot of things to do within the park and you can see these displays for free if you pay for camping.

Some of the displays had sayings we liked. Like this one.

And the one that said, “Blue, Blue. Sail on Through. Brown, Brown. Run Aground.” We’d already seen evidence of the truth of that one.

I was sitting on a bench trying to see the shells in a display across from me. I couldn’t read the labels so I asked Dave, “What’s the one that looks like a helmet?” 

He read the label then replied, “A helmet conch.”

Of course.

I was hoping to be able to tell you more about the diving displays but I am writing this from a WalMart parking lot where Dave just finished shopping and we need to go buy propane before the place closes since we will be boondocking back at Everglades National Park for the next couple of nights. We’ll not have the capability to upload all this there and I chose not to make you wait. For once.

TTYL,

Linda