Beach Condition: Heavy Seaweed

At the Keys, the water is a breathtaking color of blue and green.

From the bridges, your are tantalized by how refreshing it looks.

Knowing there is a lot of coral along the coast, we felt lucky to find a hotel that was beachfront and cleared for swimming.

After touring around, we were excited to finally cool off in the tropical ocean.

So off we go...down to the beach, past the crowd floating contently in the hotel pool.

Ahh, the beach. All to ourselves. How lucky is this! And, where is everyone?

At the sand's edge, the water temperature had to be near 98 degrees. It was so hot it stung our feet. It was so hot, I'm sure I could've boiled a box of Ronzoni in it.

Amazingly, you get used to the temperature but we had trouble getting beyond the wide seaweed line that ran along the shore. You either had to swim in it or through it, to get to the deeper water. Or have some type of boat to float over the weeds.

Now the kids are complaining they are going to die.

They're hot, the water is hotter and in their defense, I didn't want to swim here either. Who knows what creatures were swimming in the seaweed or beyond it.

And then there's the stench, coming from the piles of seaweed that were baking on the beach!

All around, this was not a good mix.

Apparently no one mentioned to us that at this time of year, the Keys have an enormous seaweed growth. What to do?

We did an about-face, to join the rest of the hotel guests in the pool.

We learned that the seaweed season lasts a month ("or so"). Too bad, we won't be around when it clears but, this is something to note when you are making plans to come down this way in the summer....

I'm chalking this up as another 'Key Weird' experience...