Key West - Day 6

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through 6 days of our trip.  On our last day we got up early, ate breakfast and then headed out to Key Largo.  We had booked the 4.5 hour snorkel tour at John Pennenkamp Coral Reef State Park for early afternoon.  We got there in plenty of time, so we signed in early.  Good thing we did too - they were packed.  I highly recommend making reservations in advance for any of the activities you want to do here - everything was filling up quickly and we were there by 11:00 am.   Fortunately they are highly organized and used to dealing with crowds, so the process moved along quickly.

Once we were checked in we grabbed some lunch at the snack bar - they don't have a huge selection and we ended up with some sub sandwiches.  I suggest you stop and grab a meal before you get here if you'd like something more substantial.

After that we walked over to the aquarium.  We both enjoyed that and it's free!

The next few photo's are a really good example of the color and types of fish we saw on the reefs the entire trip.....

After the aquarium we grabbed some ice cream and headed over to the boat.  We went to 3 locations and each was slightly different.  The cost of the 4.5 hour tour is $ 38.95 and I thought it was well worth it.

Our favorite stop on this snorkel trip was getting to see the Christ of the Deep statue.   Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there were also 2 other boat loads of people there and it was a feeding frenzy as everyone was headed over to the statue at the same time.  Tradition is to swim down and touch the hands of Christ.

(credit - google images)

Chablis headed over, swam right down and touched it...

I tried 3 times but between the buoyancy vest, the current and the multitude of swimmers, I just couldn't swim hard enough to reach it.  I was exhausted and had to head back to the boat.  I'm not used to not being able to do something, so that was a real reality check for me.  I was so disappointed and frustrated with myself, but at least I got to see it.  The only advice I would give to the snorkel tours would be to somehow scatter their arrival so that so many people weren't trying to get to it at the same time.

Despite that, it was a fun afternoon.  If you do the 4.5 hour tour I advise to bring plenty of water and some snacks.  They supply a water bucket but we went through it really quickly and after 4 hours we were starving and we hadn't remembered to bring a snack with us.

After we returned to shore we headed over to our hotel -  The Hampton Inn.  This was by far our best hotel of the trip.  When we were checking in they had a tray of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies sitting on the counter - I'm ashamed to admit that I scarfed down 3 of them while we were checking in!  The room was very clean and they had a really nice beach on the gulf side that we didn't have enough time to use.  Since we were so hungry we took fast showers and headed down to The Fish House for dinner.  We had a great dinner.  We started off with the Smoked Fish Dip appetizer - OMG - it was excellent!  They gave us so much that I could have easily made a meal out of just the dip.  This is what what left after we already ate half of it....

I had the stuffed shrimp...

Chablis ordered the Fried Grouper...   Both were very tasty and they were large portions.  Another winning meal!

 Afterward dinner we went across the street and grabbed a geocache Castle in Key Largo.   It took me about 5 minutes to find it and believe me, I was working fast because the mosquitoes were out in droves.

Our full afternoon on the sea left us exhausted and ready for bed, so we made it an early evening.  Our room was a ground floor room and Chablis noticed that a laundry room and gym were conveniently located in the building next door.  When I woke up at 7 am the next morning I took all our clothes and bathing suits over and threw them in the washers.  While they washed and dried I did a few miles on the treadmill.  Let me tell you, it was nice to go home with clean laundry and not have to worry about it when we got home.  Hampton Inn gets 2 thumbs up for a winning hotel!

I want to leave you with a few last photos from Key West that I didn't get to include on my Key West posts.  One night when we were walking down Duval we ran into Harley and his pet parrot - Bones.  We had a lot of fun taking photos and talking to Harley....

Bones liked to give kisses....

I think these pictures perfectly sum up our Key West trip - crazy and a lot of fun.  We packed a ton of activities into 6 days.  I know it was probably a little whirl wind for some people, but Chablis and I enjoyed it and we got to do everything we really wanted to do, except for the catamaran ride that got rained out.

So long Key West - we had an awesome time!!

Key West - Day 4

Day 4 was devoted almost entirely to our trip to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson.  I have wanted to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park for forever, so we were not making a trip to Key West and missing that.  Did I mention that it is accessible only by boat or seaplane?  This was a rare opportunity to see something truly unique.   It was the most expensive day of our trip, but worth every penny in my opinion.

We booked a ride on the Yankee Freedom and the cost is  $ 175.00 per adult, cheaper for children.  You leave at 8:00 am and it takes just over 2 hours to go the 70 miles west to the Dry Tortugas.

The outfit that runs this transport is extremely well organized and knowledgeable.  There's both inside (air conditioned) and outside seating and they have several bathrooms on board.  Once the ship is underway, they serve a buffet breakfast that's included in the price and you can choose cereals, fresh fruits, breads and bagels, meats, juices and coffee.

We sat both inside and outside.  It was quite windy out on the deck but the views are wonderful...

It's thrilling to see the fort slowly rise in the distance and take shape....

Once you reach the island your ticket includes the price of the park admission.  You can join one of the ranger led tours of the fort or feel free to wander around the fort at your leisure.  The history of the fort is very interesting - it's the largest masonry structure in America and building it was quite an undertaking.  You can read more about it here.  We chose to walk around and explore on our own....

There is a moat around the entire outside of the fort....

The fort is huge and the brickwork is amazing and intricate....

Just close your eyes and imagine a fort full of soldiers here....

We climbed the stairs and walked around on the upper level, which is also the roof...

 

Actually it was very cool walking around up top and the views were amazing...

Check out the colors of the water....

Cannons are still scattered about....

The lighthouse was open and we were able to go inside...

Lunch (also included in your ticket price) is then served on the ship after 12:00 noon and consisted of all the fixings for making a wide variety of sandwiches, plus fresh fruit and cheeses, salads, cookies, chips, water and sodas.

If you'd like to go snorkeling, they provide all the equipment if you don't have your own to use.  We brought our own equipment so after lunch we headed over to the metal pilings off in the distance....

I couldn't believe that nobody else was snorkeling over there - it was amazing!!  It was about 20 feet deep around the pilings and we saw all kinds of sea fans, corals, fish and sea shells...  Huge sea shells!  Unfortunately this is a "no take" area and you can't take anything - no shells, sand or coral.  I was so disappointed because we saw some of the largest shells I have ever seen in my life and I wanted one!

We spent about 2 hours snorkeling there and it was easily my favorite snorkeling adventure of the whole trip to Key West.  It was fun because I enjoyed swimming in and out of the pilings and the amount of fish we saw was unbelievable....

At 3:00 pm they head back to Key West.  At that time they have an open snack bar and mixed drinks available, altho you do have to pay extra for any of that.  Goodbye Dry Tortugas - you were even more wonderful than I imagined.

Now, here's a tip - we needed to drive to the wharf in the morning to board the Yankee Freedom and you have to park at a parking garage.  We chose one at Grinnell and James streets.  It costs $ 12.00 for the whole day and you put your parking sticker on your dashboard.  So when we got back from the Dry Tortugas trip we got our car, drove back to the hotel and took showers, and then drove back to the parking garage where we were able to re-use our pass that we bought that morning.   Good tip - right?  Then we walked down to The Schooner Wharf  for dinner...

I liked it because it was outside seating but I was disappointed in the place.  Our server seemed distracted and he got my drink order wrong and my meal order wrong.  I had fried shrimp and Chablis had fried grouper.  They were both just ok, nothing special.  It was our least favorite meal and restaurant of the whole trip.  I know other people love this place and recommend it, but for us, it was just ok.

By the time we were finished with dinner we were exhausted so we just headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Next up - more fun in Key West but you're going to have to wait until Monday for my Day 5 post.  I'm off to the 400 mile across Kentucky yard sale!

Link to day 5 here.