Dry Tortugas & The Keys
Key West Custom House
Big Pine Key
Bahia Honda State Park
Our visit to the Keys was short but mighty as we packed in a lot in just 3 ½ days! The Keys offer much natural beauty, rich history, and tons of activities to fill your days. We booked last minute and were able to find an RV park on Big Pine Key which is just past the 7-mile bridge and about 40 minutes from Key West.
We arrived late in the afternoon which left us just enough time to set up camp and take in a lovely sunset…a must in the Keys. We headed to the beautiful Bahia Honda State Park which has much to offer. They have a campground with ocean views, a marina, beautiful beaches, and diverse wildlife. We went over specifically for an old railroad bridge which has been repurposed as a viewing platform. We enjoyed a beautiful view of the sun setting over the ocean. If you go in the evening to watch the sunset, there is a modest $5 entry fee per vehicle. This park was on our list of places to stay in the Keys. Having seen it in person, we will absolutely be keeping it on the radar for future stays.
Key West
Hemingway Home and Museum
Our first full day, we drove to Key West where we started our morning off at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. This is one of the top tourist attractions on the island. You can explore the house on your own or with a tour guide. The home is French Colonial style and was constructed in 1851. The house was inhabited when Hemingway and his wife Pauline purchased it. Well, in reality, when Pauline’s uncle purchased it for them as a wedding present. We don’t know about you, but no one purchased us a house as a wedding gift. The house was sold by his children, and the new owners opened it as a museum in 1964. The house is in great shape considering its age and the fact that it has been struck by multiple hurricanes. The house is famously known for housing six-toed cats. The first six-toed cat was a gift to Hemmingway and that cat’s descendants still live on the property today. In fact, they have about 60 cats living there, many of whom are also six-toed. The cats are free to roam wherever they please and are well taken care of. (Caution: if you have a cat allergy, you might want to stay away)
After viewing the house, it was time for some lunch. We had tacos at Amigo’s Taco Bar. They have multiple locations, but we would highly suggest you head to the one downtown. While the tacos and beer are great, the people watching is outstanding!! (5 stars) After lunch, it was time to burn some calories. So, we did some sightseeing and headed out on our quest to find the best key lime pie in Florida. We stumbled upon Harry S. Truman’s winter home…the Little White House. We had no idea that he vacationed here. It was a fun little find. After popping in and out of stores, we found Kermit’s Key Lime Shop. This place has everything Key Lime related that you can imagine like, of course, key lime pie, but also frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, key lime cookies, key lime jelly beans, key lime ice cream, key lime….well, you get the idea. Best of all, they offer an abundance of FREE SAMPLES! It’s like the key lime version of Costco!!! After trying countless samples, we got down to business and ordered a slice of key lime pie. This was number three in our taste challenge and it quickly got the judges’ attention. We followed Kermits up with a visit to Blue Haven which is known for its “mile-high key lime pie” (which is a great marketing slogan) If you love meringue, this is the place for you. They take their meringue so seriously that only an experienced chef is allowed to slice the pie to prevent the meringue from collapsing. You will have to stay tuned as we provide a wrap up on our key lime pie taste test.
Dolphin Research Center
As some of you probably know, Christina is a big turtle lover. There are multiple stories and much photographic evidence of her stopping traffic to save a turtle found crossing a busy street. So, when we had the chance to visit either a sea turtle hospital or the dolphin research center, John was shocked when Christina chose the dolphins. The research center focuses on dolphin cognition, behavior, and husbandry. Some of the dolphins and sea lions have been rescued from the wild. One dolphin survived a shark attack but lost a part of one flipper and his dorsal fin. Another was the first dolphin rescued after the BP oil spill in the gulf. He was so young when he was rescued that he was unable to be returned to the wild after his recovery. We had a great day watching and learning about these highly intelligent mammals. They were just as interested in us as we were in them. The park wasn’t busy, so we were able to sit at the edge of their enclosures and interact with them. They would swim close to us and roll to one side so they could get their eye above the water to watch us. They would make sounds and blow bubbles at us. One seemed to get a little jealous that the other was getting attention so he would swim away and then come back bobbing his body up and down out of the water. So adorable!!
Dry Tortugas National Park
Interior of Fort Jefferson
On our last day, we visited our 24th National Park - Dry Tortugas! Located 70 miles off the coast of Key West, Dry Tortugas is famous for its spectacular waters and Fort Jefferson. Being in the middle of the gulf, you have limited options for getting to the park. You can go by ferry, seaplane, or a personal boat. As you might expect, this leads to the park being one of the least visited of all national parks. As we were short on time (oh, and we don’t own a boat), we chose to go by sea plane which was awesome! It’s about a 40-minute flight that is full of beautiful views of the Gulf. You fly slow and low. So, we were able to see so much marine life. We saw turtles, dolphins, and too many sharks to count.
In addition to sea life, we saw two shipwrecks which had, in essence, become artificial reefs. Both ships were clearly visible from the plane. We also flew over the area where the greatest lost treasure ever recovered was found! For those of you who aren’t up-to-date on your history of treasure hunts, (count us among that group), for 16 years, Mel Fisher and his team searched for a Spanish Galleon that sank in 1622 during a hurricane near the Keys. In 1985, they hit the motherlode, finding the ship and treasure worth well over $400 million.
Once we arrived, we were free to explore. We started with Fort Jefferson. This civil war era fort was never finished and barely used. It was never fired upon, nor did it ever fire upon anyone else. It is probably most famous for housing the group of conspirators who planned the assassination of Abraham Lincon. The building is impressive. It is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas. It encompasses 16 acres of land, took over 16 million bricks to build, and was designed to hold over 400 cannons of various sizes.
After we finished up with the fort, we were off to explore the island. We started with a little snorkeling. Well, let’s be honest, John started with a little snorkeling. Given the number of sharks we saw on the way there, the warnings we received about the man-o-wars, and the desire to not spend the rest of the day with wet hair, Christina took a hard pass!! After some time in the water, we moved on to explore the island. We wandered over to the north side of the island which is less visited but absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, we didn’t discover this area until the very end of our day. Next time, this will be our go to location. We had a great day on Dry Tortugas and it definitely landed high on our list of favorite national parks.
Fun fact: The island was first “discovered” by Ponce de León in 1513 as he was searching for the fountain of youth. He named the island Tortugas (meaning “turtles”) because of the large number of sea turtles he saw in the waters there. The “Dry” part of the name was added later to let people know that there is no fresh water anywhere on the island.
