Day Six: Mangrove Survey and Key West

​Today we were supposed to venture through the mangrove habitats by kayaking. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely windy and prevented us from kayaking. This may seem like a sad setback, but in reality it was just another path for us to travel on. 


Instead of kayaking, we took a leisurely stroll through a mangrove hiking trail. Here we learned how to identify all three types of mangroves in the Florida Keys. The three types of mangroves are red, black, and white mangroves. We also learned an interesting fact about the black mangrove. The black mangrove will expel the salt from the sea water into its leaves. This in turn makes the leaves shiny with salt crystals that you can actually taste! On our hike, we also saw a Cassiopeia or upside down jellyfish.


We then had an early supper of hamburgers that Mr. Park grilled for us. After the early dinner, we packed up the van and headed to Key West. Once we got to Key West we headed straight to Mallory Square. Mallory Square hosts a sunset celebration every night. The sunset celebration is intended on bringing everyone together. There were also venders and street performers after the sun had set in Mallory Square. The performers completed amazing tricks on stilts and juggling. After the sunset celebration, we went all around looking at all different shops. We all bought many souvenirs in these amazing stores. We also went to the Key Lime Pie Bakery. Here we had the most delicious key lime pie. It was sweet but had a superb tang to it. An interesting fact about key lime pie is that the fake is green but the real is a pale yellow color.


Once we got back to our rooms at Mote Marine, we wrote a letter on a seagrape leaf. The post offices in the keys will actually mail the giant leaf as long as it has an address and stamp on it.


Even though the waves were choppy and we were unable to go kayaking, we ultimately had an astounding time on the mangrove hike and at Key West! 


P.S. While in Key West we also went to the southernmost point in the continental United States and the mile zero marker!


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