Throwback Thursday - Favorite Places Series - No Name Harbor and Bill Baggs State Park

Continuing with remembering the best places we've been, No Name Harbor is one of our favorites. I know a lot of people don't like it there because it's so crowded, but we just love to find our anchor spot in the middle of the week and then just wait for the party to start. We think often of the harbor with fondness. Part of the harbor charm is the access to Bill Baggs State Park, so I've included two posts here that cover both the features.

No Name Harbor Pics and Vids

Posted by Deb

February 22, 2015

 Since we're leaving for the Bahamas in the morning I thought I'd use up some of our data to give you full size pics from the last two days and a video. Enjoy!

Miami in the rear view mirror after leaving the Miami Marine Stadium

The little kid sailing class. It was howling 24 kts and these little kids were out in the middle of Biscayne Bay

We tacked back and forth across this charter Beneteau Sense 55. Tim was in love.

The Key Biscayne Yacht Club had their annual gala today. The boats were rafted up 5 deep on the wall at some point.

In all the times we've come to No-Name this is the first time we ever tied up to the wall for a day.

More party pics

Instead of the view from my galley window in a picture, tonight you get a video. 

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park Walkabout

Posted by Deb

February 6, 2014

The main reason that we went into No-Name Harbor yesterday was so we could take a hike down to the lighthouse here in the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park without worrying about the boat being by itself on the outside. We got up early and headed down the well-shaded walkway along the shore and I have to tell you that this was one of the neatest places we've been to yet. I'm going to let the pictures tell you the story, but if you're interested in learning more about the history of the lighthouse (which is fascinating) you can check out the Wikepedia article on it.

There's wildlife all over the park. I happened to catch this fisherman just as a wave broke on the rocks below him.

The park is extremely well maintained and clean. There are a string of solid concrete fishing piers along the shoreline and picnic areas all around with charcoal grills and clean bathrooms. The place was pretty much wiped off the map by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 so a lot of the stuff is pretty new, including most of the trees. There used to be some non-native pines here but they were all destroyed by Andrew and replaced with native vegetation.

We're nuts about reading history signs. If you don't like them, just ignore. From the point at the South end of Key Biscayne you can see Stiltsville, a group of homes and businesses built on stilts way out in the water during prohibition so that their owners could gamble and drink. You got to love American creativity.

 

The lighthouse has been restored on several occasions. Some of the removed parts are on display at the entrance to the lighthouse part of the park.

The walkway to the lighthouse

 

The lightkeeper's house. No air conditioning back then, and mosquitos that look like something out of Star Trek. They had to sleep under heavy blankets even in the summertime just to keep them from biting. No screens back then either.