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A Magical Visit to the Floria Keys

Some friends of ours used to live in Florida and have been trying to get us to visit the Keys for a while. I’ve not spent much time in the ocean so I didn’t get the hype. I do now. I’m mentally trying to figure out when to suggest a return trip to the Keys.

Flying into Key West

For all of you desert rats who, like me, know nothing about Florida, at the southern tip of Florida is a grouping of islands referred to at the Florida Keys. The Keys span 113 miles and there is a highway (Highway 1) connecting all the islands. We spent our time in the southern Keys.

I’ve struggled to write this post because part of what made this trip so fun was the company. Spending 10 days with your best friends, exploring new places and in particular, the Keys, definitely makes for a good time. Everything about our time in the Keys was perfect. We rented a house on Little Torch Key and it made an excellent home base. The house had a pool, its own private dock, and a beautiful (screened in) wrap around porch where we watched the sunrise almost everyday.

Sunrise over the Keys from the porch

Every morning we’d wake up, have coffee, eat breakfast, pack some drinks and snacks, put on our swimsuits, and hop on the boat. The first stop was always snorkeling and eventually we’d go farther into the ocean to go fishing. Who knew that could be so much fun! I see a picture of that gorgeous water and am instantly taken back to those moments.

Snorkeling in the Florida Keys

Snorkeling was a new experience for me and one I do not particularly enjoy. For starters, I couldn’t figure out how to get my mask and snorkel to work. Seeing the fish and coral was incredible but the open water freaked me out. Not so much the animals but the fact that you can’t put your feet down and the ocean current moves fast. I’d put my head in the water and when I’d look up the boat was (what felt like) way far away which caused panic and then made it 10x harder to swim back to the boat. I decided to do my own thing and spent the week floating in an inter tube while my friends snorkeled around the reefs. It was glorious. At the beginning of the week I was tying my tube to the boat but towards the end of the week I was more comfortable floating untethered. But still close enough to swim back pretty quickly, obviously. Don’t be afraid to do you.

Floating in the Florida Keys

I’m not a big fisher but held a fishing pole a few times. Day 1 I caught all the fish! Somehow there are no pictures of this. I did enjoy ocean fishing more than lake fishing. Not all the fish we caught were large enough to keep but you basically cast your line and something almost always bites pretty quickly. I have a short attention span to this was nice.

Some other memorable moments while fishing: one of our friends caught a fish and as he was reeling it in, a barracuda was chasing it and jumped out of the water to get the fish off his line. It was a scene straight out of a movie. Another day we had a pod of dolphins swim under us. We saw a dolphin swimming towards us and next thing you know, it and all its buddies were swimming under our boat.

Our boat

We did a mix of things in the afternoons. Some days we stayed out on the boat longer, other days we came back and got in our pool, and some days we drove down to Key West.

Key West is lots of fun and there are so many things to do. Museums, cool architecture, restaurants, bars, shops, people watching. There’s a little something for everyone. One of my favorite places in Key West is Caroline Street. For obvious reasons. If I could have a house anywhere in the world, it’d probably be on that street. Just throwing that out into the universe. 😉

Caroline on Caroline Street in Key West!

As I was researching things to do for this trip, I learned of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. In 1985 Mel Fisher found $450 million worth of treasure from a 1622 shipwreck. Have you seen the movie Fools Gold? The story in that movie is loosely based on the story of Mel Fisher. I love that movie and after researching Mel Fisher’s history, I had to visit the museum where some of the treasure is on display.

Mel Fisher Martime Museum

While in Key West we took a day trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. I wrote a separate post on that trip so be sure to check out the link if you’re interested. It’s a fort in the middle of the ocean. Not much is cooler than that. You can only get there by plane or boat and reservations for both fill up fast so be sure to book as early as you can.

Dry Tortugas National Park

We went in late June and it was warm but not unbearable. Definitely bring bug spray though. I didn’t notice the humidity much in the Keys but it was horrible in Miami. Speaking of Miami, If you’re wanting to go to Maimi and the Keys, start in Miami and end in the Keys. Do not start in the Keys and end in Miami. That’s what we did and it was a terrible decision. After spending a chill week in the Keys, Miami was a bit much. Overall, I’d highly recommend a trip to the Keys. The gorgeous warm water, chill vibe, and fun things to do all make for an excellent vacation.

Dry Tortugas National Park

I love the national parks and would love to visit them all eventually. Some are harder than others to get to and those I assume I may not get to. Dry Tortugas was one of them. It’s 70 miles off the coast of Key West and Florida has never really been on my list. Nothing against Florida but there’s just so much to do between Arizona and Florida that it’s way down on the list. A friend of ours is from Florida and convinced us to take a trip to Key West and boy am I glad we said yes! When we started planning and I realized how close we’d be to Dry Tortugas, I knew I had to make it happen.

Dry Tortugas National Park

The Dry Tortugas are a group of seven islands west of Key West. The islands were named Las Tortugas (The Turtles) in 1514 but later changed to Dry Tortugas to signify that there is no fresh water on them. The United States started building Fort Jefferson on Garden Key (one of the seven islands) in 1846 as a way to control navigation of the Gulf of Mexico and protect Mississippi River trade. During the Civil War, the fort was a prison for captured deserters and also held the four men accused of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Most notably, Dr. Samuel Mudd. (We’re huge fans of the National Treasure movies so seeing Dr. Mudd’s cell in real life and learning even more about the story was exciting.) Eventually the Army left the fort and in 1908 it became a wildlife refuge. In 1992 it became a national park and is home to endangered sea turtles, birds, coral reefs, ship wrecks, and Fort Jefferson.

Garden Key

There are two ways to get to Dry Tortugas – a 2.5 hour ferry boat ride or a 30 minute seaplane ride. I guess the third option is to take your own boat but that’s only for local boat owners. Of course no option is perfect. With the ferry you get to spend four hours on the island. With the seaplane you only get two and a half hours. I really wanted to take the seaplane to see the area from the sky but our group opted for the boat. As long as the sea isn’t too rough, you can stand on the front of the ferry which was fun for a little bit but so windy as we were going 30+ MPH.

Yankee Freedom ferry ride to Dry Tortugas National Park

Fort Jefferson is massive and was constructed with 16 million bricks. The color contrast between the red bricks and the different shades of blues in the sky and water make for absolutely stunning views everywhere you look.

Moat wall around Fort Jefferson

It’s so hard to decide how to spend your four hours because there is so much to do. Snorkeling, swimming, exploring the fort, walking on the beaches. We started with a dip in the water and a picnic lunch on the beach. Off in the distance in the picture below, you can see the lighthouse on Loggerhead Key.

Lunch views at Dry Tortugas National Park

After lunch we decided to explore the fort. There are three levels and throughout are signs explaining how the fort was constructed and operated. Every hall looked like the picture below. Some narrower than others but so perfectly constructed. Are all forts like this? This is the first I’ve been to so maybe this is normal.

Inside Fort Jefferson

In between each pillar is a window and I’m pretty sure I took a picture out of at least half of them. Jaw. Dropping. They each so perfectly frame the gorgeous sky, sea, moat wall, and beach. I could have sat there all day but only had four hours so we had to keep moving.

Looking out of Fort Jefferson to the ocean

You can walk on the top of the fort which is a little crazy as there are no rails. There are a bunch of cannons up there (I don’t know if they are original or replicas) and more signs explaining the history. The fort is so large that we didn’t have time to explore the entire thing.

Walking on top of Fort Jefferson

Inside the fort walls there used to be several buildings. In the left of the picture below you can see what remains of the barracks. The right side is the armory which is still largely in tact.

Interior of Fort Jefferson

After exploring the fort we headed back to the beach for more swimming and snorkeling before having to board the ferry back to Key West.

This was such a fun day and one of my favorite days on our trip. I cannot get over the insanely gorgeous water colors. I’m mostly a mountain girl but I can see why people love the beach and this part of the world. If you ever get a chance to visit Dry Tortugas, I highly recommend it. It’s a little pricey but worth every penny.