been pacing for a good while before I realized I was barefoot and standing in an open hotel complex in my pajamas with a camera around my neck.

At Robbie's Marina sometime later, I arranged for a kayak and went in search of a crocodile, one I'd been told would make a great photo. Alas, he wasn't there... and I ended up lost in the lush mangroves.

Perhaps my car's GPS has spoiled me. I don't have the best sense of direction, and the map handed me did look somewhat like a drawing by my first-grade grandson.

I eventually made my way out and returned to the resort for an afternoon nap in our hammock. A siesta at La Siesta! For dinner, Jay and I chose a place that looked like a breakfast diner--which it was--but that also had a rear outdoor patio that was actually an awesome gourmet restaurant (if you can call an "old Keys-style marina and fish shack" a gourmet restaurant).

I awoke the final morning of our trip to find the same curious pattern created in the sand during the night. I rather enjoyed the mystery and never inquired. Some things are best left alone.

"Time to drive home," Jay announced after breakfast.

One last time I insisted on stopping. "I must photograph Betsy, the lobster," I begged. Betsy is a huge roadside attraction, the type of thing popular back in the Sixties when drivers traveled Route 66.

So, for the record, here she is, a real beauty--and a perfect ending to our trip down the All-American Road in the quirky Keys.

If you go to The Keys:

Cypress House Inn
601 Caroline Street
Key West, Florida 33040
(305) 294-6969
CypressHouseKW.com

La Siesta Resort
Mile Marker 80.2
Oceanside, Islamorada, Florida 33036
(305) 664-2132
LaSiestaResort.com

Photos by the author and the Florida Keys News Bureau.

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