KEY WEST!
It feels like we have left the US driving down highway 1 to Key West, where we will stay for a month and celebrate Christmas. One of the first things we learned is that it technically was not part of the US for a brief period of time. It is still known as the Conch Republic. They declared war on the US by throwing a piece of stale Cuban bread at a naval officerš„.All they wanted was a blockade at the beginning of the Florida keys to be removed so they didnāt feel like a separate country and it worked, they removed the blockage.
Our big bucket list item of this month here was visiting the Dry Tortugas National Park. You can only get there by a boat or a sea plane. We took the Yankee Freedom Ferry. It was a 2.5 hour boat ride that was a little rough on the way there. The boat ride was fun but words the end we all felt a little queezy but no one puked! We traveled over 140 miles on the boat! Most national parks have millions of visitors a year. Dry Tortugas has only 58,000. They served us lunch at the island which was Jersey Mikes subs. They were great after that long boat ride. After lunch, we got snorkel gear. It was my favorite part there. We snorkeled beside the seawalls of the fort and saw many different fish, but sadly our hunt for a sea turtle continues. The name āDry Tortugasā dry came from there being no fresh water on the island, and tortugas, being the abundance of sea turtles in the water around the island. We spent the last of our time exploring the fort. It was huge with 3 levels and a moat (with water). We started the audio tour of the fort but did not have enough time to finish, and if you ask me, I did not want to be stranded on that island. My brother and I completed our Jr. Ranger books so we got a free ice cream sandwich on the way home!
My mom and I planned a day trip up to the middle keys from Key West for all of us to take. First stop was the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, FL. We went to one a few weeks ago in Jupiter, FL but we thought this one was even better. I got to see the doctors working on a turtle when we got there which was one of my favorite parts. We also got to feed turtles in the natural tide pool, they were the permanent residents (could not go back to the ocean). Next stop was the Keys Fishery. Our neighbors had told us about it at the campground so we had to check it out. The food there was great. The coolest part was that you could see so many animals in the water at the restaurant! We saw 2 sharks, a lot of tarpon, and even jellyfish! Last stop was the Blue Hole. The Blue Hole was once excavated and used as a limestone quarry. Today, it is part of the National Key Deer Refuge. They are known for their alligator sightings, as well as deer. And we were lucky enough to see 2 gators, a deer, and even a peacock!
One of the other cool things we got to experience while in Key West was collecting our own coconuts. We got to harvest our own coconuts from the tree limbs they cut down at the campground. We were going to make art with them, but we were wanting to harvest the juice and make pina coladas (mine was virgin donāt worry). We got the juice out by using my dadās drill, and we found that the small green ones had the most juice. Also inside was a lot of the coconut meat we tried some plain and it was not great, but my dad loved it. We saved a couple extras to paint and make Christmas decorations with. My mom made a Christmas tree and the grinch, and my brother made Santaās sleigh.
SNUBA! My mom and I went to snuba at the reef off Key West called Cottrell Key. SNUBA is like scuba diving but you donāt need to be certified. You have tanks on a raft filled with oxygen and you could dive down and look at the different animals. We had tubes connecting us to the tanks that were 20 feet long. We swam with dolphins! Our captain said that it was the biggest pod of dolphins heād ever seen with divers. We also saw lion fish, crabs, a grouper, but sadly no turtles. Our Hunt continues. I think Iām going to get certified soon because this experience was awesome! My mom did say that not every scuba dive is swimming with a massive pod of dolphins šš¬!
Christmas in the Keys was really fun and different. Santa brought Eli and I each an electric scooter. We a on a trip to Pigeon Key on the 26th and got to test them out of the 2 mile bridge to that Key. They were awesome! Pigeon Key an island that was used to build to house people that were building a railroad down to Key West. Lots of the original buildings were still standing.
Our last adventure this month was a fun sandbar boat trip with Uncle Nate and Chrissy! They came to visit us for 2 days. We had a boat that took us to a sandbar about 9 miles from key west where we spend hours playing in the water and sand. It was an awesome way to end our time in the Keys.
Current leg: 141
Total miles: 3437