Dry Tortugas

This is it!  This was the day I was finally going to get to do the one thing I had vowed I was not going to leave the Keys again without doing... go to the Dry Tortugas!  The few other times I have been down to the Keys and Key West I was only here for a couple of days and didn't want to spend a full day taking the trip out to Dry Tortuga National Park, but this time I was here for 3 months and was determined to make it out there.  I kept waiting for the perfect day and had put off the trip one other time due to rain concerns (which ended up not raining) but I finally realized there may never be a perfect time and I just needed to go ahead and do it (take home life lesson- don't wait, just do it) and as it turns out- it was the perfect time!  It was a picture perfect day and I have the pictures to prove it.

First look at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are a chain of remote islands that are still a part of Florida and the Florida Keys.  Key West is the last point in the Keys that you can reach by car but there are still many islands that spread south and west of there.  The Dry Tortuga National Park is 70 miles from Key West.  There are two options of how to get there.  One is a 2.5 hour ferry boat ride (or your own personal boat if it is big enough and you are comfortable with your navigational skills) and the other option is a 30 minute seaplane.  I chose the second option after some encouragement by several of my patients and I am happy I did.  It is a pretty awe-inspiring sight to fly over the fort and come down for a smooth landing on the crystal clear waters surrounding the island.  The flight itself was fun looking down into the water and seeing sea turtles, islands, and even a shipwreck along the way.

 Ready for take off

 Just after take off- flying over Key West

View of Fort Jefferson from the plane

The islands were originally discovered by Ponce de Leon who named it the Tortugas because there were so many sea turtles here and Tortuga is the Spanish word for turtle.  The Dry part was added later to let other explorers know about the lack of fresh water on the islands.  Fort Jefferson was built on the island in the mid 1800s but was never fully completed due to the weight of the fort being too much for the little island. The fort was used by Union troops during the Civil War as a base to help stop supplies from getting to the Confederate soldiers from the south and was later used as a military prison.

The sand there is pure white and had some of the most beautiful shells I have seen including a full conch shell with the conch still in it!  I am told the island is surrounded by coral and lots of marine life and is a great place for snorkeling but unfortunately the water was a bit too cold for my Florida blood and I didn't get any farther than sticking my toes in it.  Just another reason to go back and visit some day!

 Beautiful shells on the beach

Conch shell with the conch still inside it

White sand beaches and crystal clear water

Pigeon Key

I am spending my last week in the Keys ticking off all the last few things I really wanted to see before I left.  Today I visited Pigeon Key located just south of Marathon, along the 7 mile bridge.  To get there you can either walk the 2+ miles along the old bridge (although right now it is closed to that route due to the walkway from the bridge to the island being under repair) or you can take a 10 minute boat ride out to the island from Marathon on the north Atlantic side of the 7 mile bridge.  We ended up being the only 2 people on the tour so it was a private tour for us which was fun and a nice little unexpected perk.  It was a cold, very windy day but the sun was shining bright so it was a nice day for the adventure.

Pigeon Key was instrumental in the building of the overseas railroad that was the vision of Henry Flagler to connect Miami to Key West.  It is on Pigeon Key that the housing for 400 railroad workers was kept.  To see pictures of what it looked like back in 1908 when the bridge was started, it is amazing that the conditions were tolerable back then.  Today there are beautiful, big shade trees and palm trees to sit under (although it was cold so we were looking more for the sun) but when the construction workers were living there, there were no trees at all.  I can't imagine the hot July/August sunshine and not a single tree to escape under!  The railroad was completed in 1912 and the island then became home to the swing bridge keeper.  Someone had to live there to work the bridge for when bigger boats needed to pass under it.  During WWII, military lived on the small island to protect the area from German U-boats.  It's amazing that such a small little island holds so much history and was so important to the growth of Florida and especially the Keys. 

It was a nice leisurely afternoon and in nicer weather you can stay and snorkel around the area but today it was definitely too cold to even consider snorkeling.  I'm happy I got the chance to visit before I left the area.  I love history but I love it more when I get to be in the place where the history occurred while I am learning.  I have always known that Henry Flagler was a huge part of the growth and history of Florida but the more I learn about him, his entrepreneurship and shear determination to make paradise a more livable place, the more impressed I become and the more I want to continue to learn about him.  I might need to consider a trip to his museum sometime in the near future.

Iguanas, Manatees, and Dolphins, oh my! (Ruth's visit!)

My time here in the Florida Keys is slowly coming to an end and I am left with a mix of happy and sad feelings.  I'm happy I got to have this amazing experience living down here and meeting new people, eating amazing food, and being close to the ocean again.  I'm excited to see what lies ahead in my life and looking forward to new adventures but am sad to be leaving behind the new friends I've made and this beautiful place.

I have gotten use to waking up and looking at the canal in the morning while I make my breakfast and get ready for work.  Looking for the iguana that likes to lie on the bush above the canal and trying to find any manatees that might be swimming along. 

My best friend Ruth, her husband, and her daughter came to visit last weekend.  My previous two road trips to the Keys had been with Ruth so I was looking forward to having my partner in crime back with me!  We woke up Saturday morning and slowly got ready for the day, enjoying a relaxing morning when Ruth said "Is that a manatee in your backyard?" and it was!!   We went outside and watched in swim around the neighbor's boat before it came over to us!  It is so exciting to me to watch animals in the natural habitat and these fellows are sooo big that it is just a fun sight to see.

We got ready and headed into Key West for the Seafood Festival.  We spent a few hours walking around the arts booths and eating seafood including some delicious conch fritters and stone crab claws while listening to live music.  We spent some time sitting on the pier in Mallory Square watching the pelicans and enjoying the blue green water in front of us.  You can't come to Key West without walking at least part of Duval Street to see what all the excitement is about and ended up just off of Duval at the Key Lime Pie Company for Key Lime Pie dipped in chocolate which is AMAZING and I highly recommend to anyone who makes their way down here!  We made our way back to Mallory Square for the nightly sunset celebration with street performers and vendors all there to celebrating the sun setting one more day.  Unfortunately, the sunset itself was anything but exciting but just having the energy around us at the pier was fun to be in.

On Sunday we went up to Grassy Key to the Dolphin Research Center.  It is a non-profit research center that focuses its research on dolphins and their wellbeing.  There are currently 27 dolphins in residence there and 3 sea lions.  The dolphins do tricks in a smaller more intimate setting and are in pens in the actual ocean.  There were even a few baby dolphins there!  So cute!  You can pay extra for different interactions with the dolphins anywhere from petting the dolphins to swimming with them and even being a trainer for the day.  Erin and Ruth opted to pet the dolphins which made for a cute photo op.

We had lunch at the Island Fish Company in Marathon and the food there was excellent.  The highlight was the fried key lime pie.  Yep, you read that correctly fried key lime pie.  The pie was warm with a creamy center from the heat of frying it and had whipped cream with cinnamon and sugar topping it and it was Delicious!  I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.

Yesterday was my last day of work and my coworkers and I went out for happy hour and appetizers to celebrate.  We did a mini version of the Duval Crawl having a drink at different bars along the street and I had a great time celebrating with them and soaking up the energy of the night and lots of laughing.  I'm definitely going to miss them when I go.

While my time here is coming to a close very soon, I still have a few exciting things planned for this week and am really looking forward to it!

Christmas and the New Year in Key West

It's been a busy last couple of weeks.  My parents came down for Christmas and we had a nice quiet Christmas with just the 3 of us, eating, watching Christmas movies, and opening presents.  The day after Christmas the exploring of Key West started. 

We started our tour with a visit to Harry Truman's Little White House.  He loved Key West so much that he was able to take a house that had been part of the officer's quarters on the Navy base and made it into a working home away from home in the tropical paradise.  The house is what I expected of a 1940s tropical home hideaway with white walls and big open rooms for parties and entertaining as well as serious problem solving required of the President and his staff. 

The afternoon was spent walking up and down Duval Street wandering in and out of the stores and taking in the street entertainment, both people watching and street performers. The evening included plans for a sunset champagne cruise on the catamaran with Sebago.  It had been a bright sunshine-y day all day long but the second we boarded the boat the clouds started to move in so there wasn't much of a sunset but it was still a lovely evening out on the boat.  The staff was super friendly and our cups were always full if we wanted it to be.  The weather was warm and the breeze was cool making for a relaxing evening sailing past Mallory Square and Sunset Key and watching the sparkling lights around the island of Key West.

On Sunday we tried to go to the Hemingway house but the line was very long with 2 cruise ships in port that day, so we decided to walk across the street and go to the lighthouse instead.  Legend has it that Mr. Hemingway bought the house across the street from the lighthouse so that he could find his way home after a night of drinking.  The lighthouse has 88 steps up to the top.  They are very steep steps, narrow and circular with people going up and down them at the same time.  Personally, on my way down, I let people going up pass me and hung on for dear life to the middle pole while standing on the most narrow part of the step!  It does offer a great view when you get to the top and a unique perspective of Key West and how it is laid out.  At one time the lighthouse was closer to the ocean, but as Key West has grown it is actually quite a ways from it now.  There is also a little museum located in the keeper's quarters with one room done up the way it would have been when the keeper was living there and the other rooms tell the history of the lighthouse and the light.

Dinner that night was at the Conch Republic on the harbor.  It is always fun for me to play the "pick your dream boat" game and there were plenty to choose from while you are sitting waiting for your meal.  The food was very good there... so good that I went back again the next week with my brother and his fiancé while they were visiting.  The second visit I had bacon wrapped stuffed shrimp and if you are ever down here visiting they are definitely worth it!  So delicious!

Todd and Serena came down to visit for the New Year.  We went to Old Town Key West for dinner and to walk around and see the excitement on Duval Street.  They like to "drop" things here.  There is a conch shell, a unicorn, a pirate wench, a key lime wedge into a martini glass, and the one we wanted to see for ourselves, a high heel shoe drop with a drag queen in it (who coincidentally was getting married on New Year's Eve as well).  We made it down to see the shoe and saw the conch shell all set up but it is a crowded place and decided to go home before the shoe actually dropped but it was fun to see a little of the craziness before it got too crazy!

We decided to relax a little in the morning and slowly make our way into the day.  We did go on another sunset cruise with Sebago tours and this time were treated to a gorgeous colorful Key West sunset.  Somehow all sunsets feel better to me when watching them from a boat.  Pinks, purples, red and orange all lit up the sky at different times and just when I thought it couldn't get any prettier, it did. 

On Saturday we had reservations for Latitudes on Sunset Key which was recommended to me by a patient.  We decided to go into town early and visited the Hemingway house first.  I've tried to read his work a few times and can't really get into his style of writing (although I am determined to read the Old Man and the Sea while I'm here- and I only have 4 weeks left so I better get on that) but I find his life fascinating.  He lived in Key West with his second wife and enjoyed the lifestyle here with lots of characters, fishing, sunshine, and drinking.  Lots of drinking.  The house is a really beautiful house and his wife had lots of style with pretty chandeliers and tiling in the bathrooms but I cannot imagine taking out the ceiling fans to put in chandeliers in a place as hot as Florida!

Then we were on to Latitudes!  I really think this has been one of my favorite experiences so far.  You need a reservation and I made this one for lunch about 2 weeks in advance.  The reservation time is the time you take the boat over to the island.  It's a short 10 minute ride but the little boat had to squeeze next to and then between the 2 big cruise ships parked in port that day!  Immediately upon arrival, they sat us at a table on the patio which turned out to be very nice.  It was a little warm that day and sitting out on the beach would have been a bit hot without the cover of the patio but we still got the relaxing view of the ocean, palm trees swaying, and white sand in front of us.  A delicious lobster roll in my stomach and a strawberry daiquiri to wash it down really made for a perfect afternoon.

I really enjoyed having my family in town even if we couldn't all be here together at the same time!  I'm looking forward to Ruth and her family coming to visit soon!

Bahia Honda

One of my favorite places in the Florida Keys is Bahia Honda State Park.  This was not the first time I had been there but the longest amount of time I had spent there.  The park is small, about 500 acres, and quiet but perfect for a day at the beach and a little exploring.

I took my bike with me and pulled it out when I first got there to get a better feel for the area and to try it out in a safe place since I hadn't ridden it in a couple of years.  It's true you never forget how to ride a bike but it is a little shaky when you first get on it again.  The speed limit is low and there are so few cars that you can take the main road from tip to tip of the park (about 3.5 miles) and have a nice, leisurely ride.  I walked up to the old bridge that use to be a part of the Henry Flagler railroad built in 1912 and was severely damaged in the 1930s by a hurricane, never to be repaired again.  It's a beautiful contrast to the backdrop of the vivid blues and greens of the ocean water below it and the old dilapidated bridge above the water. 

The beach was the real reason for my visit.  A little R&R, just me, my beach chair, a good book and a stunning view.  Walking down away from the parking lot and towards the old bridge made for a slightly quieter, more private part of the beach, making me feel like I had discovered my own little piece of paradise.  It's my favorite kind of lazy Saturday where the only worries are if the tide is coming too close and if I've put enough sunscreen on. 

I made it a point to stay until the sunset. The first few weekends I was in the Keys there was a lot of rain and I didn't get to enjoy much of the outdoor fun that the area is known for.  The sunset did not disappoint!  Full of vivid colors as it sunk into the horizon over the water.