For those that have never been to Key West, flown to Key West or visited as part of a cruise do yourself a favor and please drive for your next visit. As most of you are aware Florida is a big state. Today we would be driving from our campground near St. Petersburg to the tip of Florida at Key West, which for us would take around 8-9 hours. For the most part on this drive it is like driving in any other populated flat state. Towns and trees pass with not much else to see. As it is Florida you do pass an occasional orange grove but not much else. From St. Petersburg we crossed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, then passed Sarasota, Ft. Myers and across Alligator Alley. From there we passed through Miami and south to the last city before the Keys, Florida City.
This is where things start to change. Gone are the highways, strip malls and fast food restaurants. In their place is a 20-mile, 2 lane stretch that takes you through the marshy wetlands to the northernmost key of Key Largo. This is where things start to feel different. Once on Key Largo more mom and pop shops appear. The pace of life slows down. The further south you go this continues. From Key Largo its slow going to Key West. This is due to the stretch of road from Key Largo to Key West being over 100 miles long and for the majority of it only a 2 lane road with a 45 mph speed limit. While this slow pace may frustrate some to me this is the beauty of the road. You are able to see everything at a slower pace and really start to experience what the Keys are all about.
Once you get to the end of Key Largo the drive really starts to get interesting. The islands get smaller and the bridges between them longer. From Key Largo you pass through bigger keys, Tavernier, Islamorada and Marathon before heading into the lower keys. As neat as this drive was this is where we started to see major hurricane damage. Hurricane Irma had passed through this area in September 2017 and as we saw damage from Hurricane Harvey in Texas this area was far from being recovered. We passed by nothing but foundations of homes, trash piles built up and in some areas the road was now so close to the water it looked like bulldozers had pushed the sand into piles so that the surf would not be lapping across the road. We could not even imagine what it had to be like if we were on one of these tiny islands as a category 5 hurricane passed through.
As we got further down the chain of islands hurricane damage started to be fewer and far between as Irma had spared the extreme lower keys. Our campground, Boyd’s Key West Campground, was located on Stock Island, which is directly next to Key West. This would be our home for the next few days. After we set up camp we walked around the property taking a look at its boat dock and watching crabs and other fish scurry around the ocean floor (it was only a few feet deep). As it had been a long day we made dinner, came up with plans for our time on the islands and got a good nights rest.
The next morning we woke up excited. It was a beautiful day and we were ready to go explore the town of Key West. As the island is pretty small we decided to leave Bubbles where she was parked and Uber into town. The first stop for the day was the Southern Most Point marker. This marker, which was first built in 1983 resembles a buoy and made of concrete. It’s survived a number of hurricanes and is one of Key West’s most popular tourist attractions today. The buoy reads “Southernmost Point in the USA – 90 miles to Cuba”. While some Internet sleuthing has told me that it’s not the actual southernmost point (that is on a navy base and roughly 500 feet further south and Cuba is actually 94 miles away) it is pretty close and a fun thing to see. We waited in line to take a picture, taking a picture for the couple in front of us while they took a picture for us. From there we stopped by the beach bar at the Southernmost Beach Resort next door and enjoyed a mojito while standing on their small beach while the waves gently lapped at our feet. It was pretty nice.
From the small beach bar we decided to stroll down Key West’s most famous street, Duval St. Duval St. is about 1 ¼ miles long with restaurants, bars, shops and everything else under the sun that Key West has to offer. After stopping in a few shops and finding our favorite watering hole, The Rum Bar which had hundreds of rums to choose from! The Rum Bar was part of a small inn, in which the building was formerly owned by a Cuba to Key West rum-runner! From the Rum Bar we headed over to a true Florida Keys restaurant where we ate conch fritters, local fish and finished it off with Key Lime pie. It was pretty tasty. From the restaurant we wandered down to a sports bar where our favorite hockey team, the Tampa Bay Lightning were playing. We met a few Tampa locals on vacation in Key West and watched the game with Kim & Dan. It was a lot of fun even though Tampa lost to Boston (Tampa ended up winning the series so it was ok in the end). From the sports bar it was time for our sunset champagne cruise! We had booked it earlier in the day. The cruise was around 2 ½ hours and took you around the port of Key West pointing out landmarks while you watched the sunset and sipped on champagne. Funny enough, while on the small boat Julie had one of those small world moments. Also randomly on the cruise was and old friend from her hometown of Avon, NY Ricky Gage. Ricky was currently training cadets at the nearby Key West naval base and was treating his crew to a night out. It’s always great to see old friends, especially while watching the sunset in Key West! After the cruise we headed to the nearby Commodore’s Boathouse Bar & Grill for dinner before calling an Uber and heading back to Bubbles on Stock Island. What a day!
The next day we woke up a little tired from all the activity the previous day. This was day two of three in the Keys so we decided to take it easy today. After a leisurely breakfast we called an Uber and headed back over to Key West. First stop for the day was the Mallory Square area. Mallory Square is the area where cruise ships dock in Key West. It’s also famous as a gathering spot to watch the sunset on the island. As we were there in late morning we were there to see the cruise ships. I’m not sure how many of you reading this have been on a cruise or seen a cruise ship close up but these ships are massive. On average they have 16 decks, which equates to roughly 1200 feet tall. As a person standing at sea level these look like skyscrapers and dwarf everything in town around them. There were a few in port that day which we walked by and checked out before heading back toward Duval Street. Today we did a bit of shopping as Julie needed new shorts and I needed sandals. We were lucky to find a Gap outlet for Julie so finding new shorts was a breeze. There had to be 100 shops selling sandals on Duval so that was not an issue either. After shopping a bit more and stopping by a smoothie shop we leisurely wandered around Duval street and the adjacent neighborhoods before calling it a day and headed back to Stock Island for dinner and to relax for the rest of the night.
We woke up the next morning excited and ready to go. Today we were going snorkeling! We ate a quick breakfast and headed over to the Mallory Square area where our boat was. The boat left promptly at 930 with roughly 30 passengers and 5 crew. From Key West the boat traveled an hour south to an area of coral reef teeming with fish. The water was a bit rough (and Julie was very nervous getting in the water in the open ocean) but once we got in the water we were not able to feel how rough it was and her nerves calmed down. Besides a multitude of coral species we also saw fish of all shapes and sizes as well as a few sea turtles. It was really neat and we had a great time. If you are interested we went with the Fury tour company, which does a multitude of tours in and around Key West.
From our snorkel adventure we ate lunch at Alonzo’s Oyster Bar located right in the Key West marina. It was great being able to look out at all the different boats that were from Key West, other parts of Florida as well as a number of countries in the Caribbean. After lunch we headed to a cigar shop getting a few before heading back to our new favorite bar in Key West, The Rum Bar. We sat outside sipping on rum while smoking a cigar and thinking just how good life is. From the Rum Bar we headed back to Bubbles, made dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.
The next morning we woke up a little sad. We were leaving Key West today. After breakfast we packed up Bubbles and headed back north on Route 1. We island hopped over the lower keys, passed the hurricane damaged middle keys and after Key Largo we were back on the mainland heading north. We had a great time in Key West. It really is its own world on the tip of the state.
Lastly here is a little fun fact about Key West. Key West got its nickname “The Conch Republic” due to a disagreement with the U.S. government in 1982. The government had set up a roadblock at the entrance to Key Largo to try to catch drug smugglers and illegal aliens. The Key West City council complained that this was hurting tourism on their island as the roadblock created a traffic jam that went on for miles and prevented people from traveling to their little island. After requests were repeatedly ignored to remove the roadblock the city council voted for independence for Key West as they argued that the roadblock was equivalent to a boarder station. Independence was declared on April 23, 1982 (all very tongue in cheek). As local citizens were already referred to as Conch’s they took the name “The Conch Republic”. This was all done to increase tourism and Conch Republic Independence Day still occurs in Key West every April 23rd. The roadblock was also taken away shortly after “independence”.
Next up…We visit with friends in Palm Bay, FL and spend some time in Tampa!
