Let's Take a Trip Down the Keys

Have you ever driven the Keys?  My travel buddy Jenny and I did it a few years ago.  We actually flew into Key West for our vacation and then flew back out.  So for a couple of days we rented a car while there and spent one whole day driving from Key West to Key Largo and back again.  It's not far, only 97 miles up to Key Largo. The first thing you have to be aware of is that the speed limit on Hwy 1 never exceeds 45 MPH and on Big Pine Key it drops to 35 MPH at night to protect the endangered Key Deer which are indigenous to the area.  Additionally speeds drop in areas that have populations.  So, you should plan at least two and a half hours going in each direction if you plan to make no stops at all.  But what would be the point in that?  Right?

On the day Jenny and I made our drive to Key Largo and back we started pretty early in the morning.  The first big stop we wanted to make was on Big Pine Key where we had decided we would have breakfast and then visit the National Key Deer Refuge visitor center and The Blue Hole which is an abandoned rock quarry that is now full of fresh water and is a watering hole for snakes, alligators, green iguanas and such.  The National Key Deer Refuge visitor center wasn't open when we stopped.  I don't remember if it was due to the time of day, the time of year or the day of the week.  But we ate breakfast next door and then went on to The Blue Hole.  We walked around the trails at The Blue Hole and took some pictures before getting back into the car.  It was pretty and peaceful, but really only requires 20 minutes or so of your time.

The Blue Hole - Big Pine Key

A green iguana with part of his tail missing.

Since we had only arrived in Key West around 9 PM the night before we were not really aware of exactly how humid it would be as we walked around in various stops in the Keys.  But I will tell you that Houston has got nothing on the Keys when it comes to humidity.  Before getting back on the road we stopped in the Big Pine Key CVS for extra sunscreen, beach towels and other amenities that we had decided not to bring with us so that we could avoid checking luggage and then we were on our way.

Our next stop was at the west end of Seven Mile Bridge just before we started to cross it.  We thought this would also be a great place to get a few pictures of our mode of transportation for the first few days of our trip.  Hey nobody wants to have to

drive these convertibles.  But you do what you have to....  Back in the car Jenny drove across the bridge since we had agreed that we could take turns driving.  At 45 MPH and very little traffic on a Saturday morning in mid September, the 7 miles across the bridge took a while to accomplish.

Jenny driving across the bridge

On the other side was our next stop and the big stop of the day, Bahia Honda State Park.  We had booked a snorkel trip through the state park that we needed to arrive for around 12:30.  We arrived a little early and had time to walk around before checking in.  Then after checking in we had another hour to kill before we actually had to be on the boat.  So, we just enjoyed the park.  You can spend time on both the Gulf side and the Atlantic side with just a two minute walk between the two bodies of water.  There are three beaches to choose from and since it was only the second Saturday in September we had our pick of places to enjoy.  Of course you have to get pictures of the break in 7 Mile bridge from every vantage point so we got many from the water and then we walked down there on land to get more.

Entering Bahia Honda State Park

The toughest decision is which beach to visit first!

I'm not sure which beach is which.  I think we must have spent our time on Caloosa and Loggerhead Beaches since we just walked across the road from one to the other.  This was my first trip with my new Olympus underwater camera and we decided to make the most of it with picture after picture of us in water.  I can't tell you how many pictures I have culled through of feet in sand standing in 3 feet of water.  But below you can see one of the few that I allowed to get by.  After an hour or so of playing around the beaches we went over to the boat and climbed on board.

Here we are in the water on the Gulf side

Atlantic side

Now keep in mind that we paid about $20 for this snorkel excursion.  Once we were on board we had about a 20 minute boat ride out to Loo Key where we were supposed to do our snorkeling.  The ride out was pretty.  Going under the bridge had everybody's cameras clicking.

We had about an hour and a half in the water once we started snorkeling.  It is one of the few times I have ever snorkeled in which I was tired enough to be ready to leave the water when we were done.  None of the crew came into the water with us.  They all watched from the boat.  The captain gave us boundaries before we jumped in and then we were sort of on our own which I loved!  I jumped in before Jenny and as soon as I jumped in I saw a huge sting ray bigger than any I have ever seen swimming away.  He was probably 20 feet away and of course I didn't get a picture. :-(

 I think in this shot, Jenny is waiting to get in and I'm probably telling her about the sting ray.  She didn't get to see one that day.  But there were plenty of other fish to see.  Once we were back on the boat, the captain asked who had seen sharks and almost everybody had except me and Jenny!  I was so disappointed.  But now that I look back at these pictures, I wonder if I don't see a shark in one of them.....  If it is a shark it is a small one.  But the ones that people saw were supposedly small reef sharks.  So.... maybe....
You be the judge.

 I think there is a small shark in the upper right corner of the photo below.  It's very hard to make out but if you squint you can see the shape of a shark I think below the brightly colored fish just above the floor of the reef.  I've zeroed in on it and blown it up in the photo below this one.  Take a closer look.....

In the photo below the fish that I think might be a small reef shark is in the center of the picture.  If you don't think it is a shark, just don't tell me.  I want to believe that it is.  I mean seriously, how often do you get to swim with a shark?  Whether you know it or not?

On the way back the captain let this little girl drive the boat.  She was thrilled and her dad tried to take a picture but his battery was dead on his camera, so I took a couple of shots and emailed them to the family after we got home.  After our snorkel trip we left the state park and got back on the road headed to Key Largo.  We had decided to stop in Marathon for a late lunch but couldn't decide on a place.  So we ended up at a mom and pop kind of place that was okay but not great.  Since it was so late in the day we decided that we would just have appetizer type food and then have a good dinner after Key Largo.  I think our meals while driving the Keys is the only big mistake we made.  We should have planned out where we wanted to stop for meals before leaving and really enjoyed it.  Since there were so many great sounding places, we just sort of mailed that part in and I was very disappointed in our choices.  Since I am the seafood eater of our travel party and I was disappointed, there can be no doubt that it was no picnic for Jenny either.  I had Conch Fritters for lunch.  They were good enough.  But I think the grease they were fried in was a little old and I think I kind of expected better.  

Back on the road, our next stop was Key Largo.  One of the major things we wanted to see in Key Largo was the African Queen boat from the Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn movie African Queen.  The boat is now on display at a marina in Key Largo.   Let me tell you....  When we arrived to the place where it was supposed to be, I felt like I was on Amazing Race.  We new exactly where it was supposed to be and could even see a sign that told you where to turn.  But we couldn't find the boat.  When we asked people they were either very vague or they flat out just didn't know.  So when we finally found it, we jumped out of the car and ran down the dock to where it was and this is what we saw....

Yeah, I think you would have to have a death wish to "take a cruise" on this thing as the sign suggests.  We talked to some people after we found it and they said that it hadn't left the dock in years.  So anyway, we got a few pictures of it and then left in a panic because it was nearing sunset already and we simply could not miss our first sunset in the Florida Keys.  

Sunsets in the Keys are all you hear about.  Time stands still for that few minutes each day when everyone stops what they are doing to enjoy a spectacular sunset and I'll be damned if we were going to miss the first one of our trip.  So we jumped back in the Mustang and turned to head back toward Key West.  We finally stopped at Islamorada for our sunset.  At first we couldn't get a view over the water so we drove around a residential area until we found a private waterfront in front of some condos and sort of snuck out there.  Hey you do what you have to do for a sunset!  Okay, granted we were a little late and the sun was covered by clouds but I really liked this picture that Jenny took anyway.  My camera battery had died back at the African Queen and Jenny's was still going strong.  

Back in the car we once again started trying to decide where we should stop for dinner.  We probably passed 20 great places while trying to decide and finally did a U-turn and went back to a really lame touristy place called Hog Heaven where we had mediocre food if I'm being generous.  We sat outside where the water was lit and you can feed tarpons during the day.  But there was nothing going on that night.  

It was very close to 10 when we finally made it back to Key West that night.  All in all, the drive through the Keys was terrific.  I just wished we had planned a little more carefully on the meals.  But you live and learn.  I wouldn't trade the African Queen experience since we would have always thought we had missed something if we hadn't gone.  But in hindsight, it was a waste of time and it would have been cool to have seen something else instead.  

If you ever get a chance I highly recommend it.  But I think to make the most of it, you probably should just go one way.  A lot of people fly into Miami and then drive to the Keys in a rental car.  That gives you a full day to go one way and you can make plenty of stops along the way.  If you have the time, it's probably the best way to do it.  But again, you do what you have to do. Have a terrific week.  If you are thinking about spending some time in the Keys drop me an email.  It's one of my favorite places in the U.S.

My turn to drive!