In The Florida Keys - Pt.2

We got up bright and early to make it to the Key West airport in order to catch our seaplane. Today we were going to Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas. Garden key is one of the last islands in the Florida Keys and is home to Fort Jefferson.

I learned to snorkel on the beach just behind the trees on the left front of the fort

There is only one way into and out of Fort Jefferson. And although it was never finished, it was still used as a prison and a base of naval operations.

As if the fort wasn't difficult enough to enter or leave, there is a moat.

We spent our first half hour of our 2.5 hour stay looking at the museum and talking to one of the park staff, Neil, at the giftshop. Neil had great stories to tell about his past life as a Wallstreet tech guy. After a bit, he asked us why we were still talking to him. We should go have a look around the island!

After getting a recommendation from him over which way we should go, Connor and I had a grand time walking alternatively between the top and middle tier of the fort. 

After walking out of the fort, I could tell Connor was getting antsy. I hadn't realized that we had spent a whole hour touring! We only had an hour to snorkel. It turned out to be a really well used hour. After Connor gave me the basics on how to not drown whilst snorkeling, we worked our way from south beach to the first turn of the fort. In that time I saw many, many fish as well as coral. I never thought I'd ever get to see anything like that because I'm not a strong swimmer and I have a fear of being in the ocean. I took to snorkeling, well, like a fish. Three times we swam from the beach out to a destination. The second place we looked at was the seagrass that was out a ways. Connor spotted a huge conch shell. It must have been nearly as big as my head. We called to some people on the shore and found that we had about 15 minutes left before we had to get back to the plane. With that information in mind, I swam as fast as I could to the pylons. Our pilot, John, had recommended going to the pylons, choosing one, and staying still for a moment. Sure enough, groups of colorful fish soon appeared and did fish stuff. I was pleased to have swam out much farther than I ever thought I could. But we had to head back. We ran to the beach where the plane waited for us.

I encourage Connor to ask to be co-pilot, which he did. I stayed in the back and enjoyed the sights. Our pilot pointed out wrecks and the different undersea geographies. I saw a pod of dolphins, sharks, and a million sea turtles. The ocean was made of them. 

Upon leaving Key West, we headed towards Key Largo, where we would be staying with Connor's family at the Key Lime Sailing Club. Since we had missed things on our way down, we did our best to make up for it on the way back. At Big Pine Key we stopped at the Key Deer visitor center and got some recommendations on where to look for Key Deer. There were no guarantees, but we did end up seeing a bunch. Full grown, they are the size of medium dogs. We stopped at the end of a road that dipped into the ocean and ate our sandwiches, all the while watching white ibis hunt and lizards chase each other. It wasn't long before we headed north again, this time stopping by a scuba shop to get me fins before we snorkeled in Bahia Honda. (I know. I hadn't snorkeled in my life and this is the day I snorkel in two different locations.) Feeling confident, I swam, nay, raced Connor to a far out buoy. I won. Along the way we saw cow fish, a crab, and tarpin chasing after schools of tiny fish.

The next day we went kayaking (saw an iguana, but no manatees) and snorkeled even more after tying our kayaks up part way back. I saw upside down jellyfish and even had the pleasure of getting some of their stinging goo on me. Connor pointed out three parrot fish to me. And I watched a small barracuda chase after even smaller fish. Everyone was tired after the adventuring. But with only one more full day to enjoy after this day, Connor, his father Jeff, and I went out on a sailboat. 

Connor has his sailing license and the three of us cruised around Buttonwood Sound for two hours. I'd never felt so relaxed. As we came back in, I took a wee nap. When I woke up, we were closing in on the dock and saw some dolphins swim by. I took a few more snaps before sitting back and enjoying the view. This picture is a poor substitute for how beautiful it was out there. 

On our last day, the whole family went on a charter boat and snorkeled 4.5 miles off shore. Before we had come to Florida, I told Connor that it would be a cold day in hell before I'd ever do something like that. (Actually, I said "Maybe not this time", but I was thinking "Cold day in hell" in my head.) By the end of the trip, I told Connor I'd be disappointed if we didn't go. I am so happy we did. I was sure that I'd never see Brain Coral (my favorite coral) or a moon jellyfish (my favorite jellyfish) in the wild before this trip. We saw a large stingray hiding in the sand. A parrot fish decided to swim up to and stare directly at me. But the highlight, which Connor and I were the only ones lucky enough to see, was the saga of the octopus. Connor spotted an octopus being harassed by some fish. We thought it was neat to even see an octopus. After fighting a bit, it hid under a rock. We both floated nearby, just enjoying all the fish. All of a sudden, a nurse shark just as big as me (!) swims under me (!!!) and starts aggressively pushing the rocks with its snout. That poor octopus suddenly got sucked up by the shark! I attempted to say to Connor "Did you see that!" which sounded more like, "Aoooouuuaaa!" with some pointing. Of course he had. After an hour and a half we all headed back to the boat and the first mate asked everyone what they saw. He told us that in the 20 years he's been out there, he's never seen anything like what we saw.

It would have been neat to have pictures of the snorkeling, but I had a far better time just experiencing it all. And what might be a poor substitute for shark and octopus pictures is a picture of the fun doodads we collected. I thought the Dry Tortugas patch would be the rarest one we would find, but because a strange sequence of events and because Connor is the luckiest man alive, we were given a Florida Park Service patch. 

We bought two luggage tags, a few magnets, and a heap of patches

I'm hoping to get going on my patch project soon. I'm still researching the best way to go about displaying them, but I have a pretty good idea of what I might do. In the interest of adding more patches to the collection and seeing places I might not have otherwise, does anyone have any recommendations of places to go check out? I'm better versed in what can be found in the west coast of the US, but am open to any and all suggestions.

In The Florida Keys - Pt.1

A strange sequence of events lead me to visiting Florida and the Florida Keys last week. Connor and I had planned to go to the Keys for our honeymoon. (It was a place full of vacation memories for him that he wanted to share with me.) It ended up being too overwhelming to plan around wedding, so we started looking into what it would take to go at our 1 year anniversary. But after learning that: 

1. He had previously gone only in May or August, which would guarantee warm water

2. His family was going to be there this August 

3. I had promised to see his family again sometime this year (Which would have been to Kentucky)

I told Connor, "I have this crazy idea."

The beginning of the trip was full of issues. (I've just deleted my long rant about what happened, but Expedia's customer service is non existent and we won't be using the service again. We felt taken advantage of and lied to. Jet Blue, however, was awesome even though it wasn't their problem to fix. We will be using them again.) We took a red eye out and upon landing I got teary and said, "I want to go home." Connor took me to a breakfast place at Miami Beach and my attitude improved. Then we walked out and I touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. I had never seen the Atlantic before and I was skeptical that an ocean even could be warm. I wanted to stay in it.

A wave hit my leg and went up underneath my shorts. But it was a warm wave, so I was ok with it.

From Miami Beach, we drove to the Everglades and took a fan boat tour at Buffalo Tiger's. Buffalo Tiger was the chief and as such, this tour company has more rights as to how deep into the Everglades they can go. He passed away this year at the age of 95, but we were told he was one of the last to be born on the tree filled islands that are in the everglades.
Our tour was 30 mins as opposed to the usual 60 mins due to low water, but that was more than enough for me. Our guide was wonderful. He also was able to give a demonstration with one of the male gators that swam out to meet us.

He told us he was keeping an eye on this guy's tail because the tail would tell him about the gator's intentions

We drove to Big Cypress before doubling back and going to the Biscayne visitor center. It had close a few minutes before we arrived. Luckily we weren't far from our hotel in Homestead. We popped out to a Cuban restaurant two doors down and Connor asked the waitress what she recommended. Connor likes fish, but he wasn't expecting to have it still look like one. I got a steak. It didn't still look like a cow.

How will I eat this?

The next day we got up bright and early and headed back to the Biscayne visitor center to grab a patch and walk around. It was beautiful out there, but most of the park can only be accessed by boat. I hope we get to visit there again in the future.
Much of this day was spent in the car as we took the Overseas Highway to Key West. We got caught in some traffic though, so we started singing silly songs to the tune of the Beach Boy's "Kokomo." My favorite was:

In the Florida Keys

There's a place we'd like to go

But the traffic's really slow

It's not moving at all

7 mile bridge towards Marathon Key

We skipped a bunch of what we had planned to see on our way down in order to get catch a late tour at the Hemingway House. It was worth it. Our guide was informative and entertaining. The house is full of cats descended from Hemingway's polydactyl cat. All of them have the gene, but only about half have the extra toes. Our guide also had a pocket full of cat treats, so some of the less shy cats followed us around. He also let every lady on the tour feed the cats, much to Connor's disappointment.

Me: "If you want to feed that cat, ask him for a treat." Connor: "I don't want to break the tradition."

After the tour we walked all around Key West. First we got me fitted for a snorkel mask. I had never been snorkeling and would be trying for the first time the next day. We decided that it was worth the investment because the best way to ruin a snorkel experience is to have an ill-fitted, leaky mask. As we passed by Key Lime Pie Co. Connor insisted on going in. I am not a pie person, but I was more game after I saw that they had a gluten free version. (Being gluten free is pretty trendy these days. I, unfortunately, am not doing it to be trendy....) The pie was amazing. After my first bite, I said, "Oh no!" then preceded to consume the rest of the pie in an unladylike fashion.

They marked by pie with extra whipped cream so we wouldn't mix the two slices up

We wandered around a bit while looking for a few more landmarks. Here is mile marker 0 at the beginning of US Route 1. (Not to be confused with California's Highway 1.)

Then we waited in an enormous line to take a picture by the Southernmost point in the continental USA. I have to admit, I'm a big fan of cheesy tourist destinations. 

After the picture, went to a nearby cafe that touted itself as the "Southermost" and watched the sunset while eating tasty seafood. After filling ourselves to the brim, we waddled back to the inn and passed out.
(A big shoutout to Chris at the Cabana Inn. He prepared us a breakfast to take to our room because we were going to leave before breakfast was served the next day.)