Sunday 22nd February we left Homestead for the Florida Keys. We’d been trying desperately to get into one of the many beautiful looking state park campsites along the Keys but with no luck. They are fully booked for the entire winter season from 12 months before!! Determined that we wanted to at least see it we booked a KOA campsite. Not ideal as they were so busy we were going to have to move pitch after 2 days. But it seemed a small price to pay to be able to stay down there. We had also finally decided that we WOULD pay the small fortune to go out to the Dry Tortugas National Park, so we definitely had to be staying down there for that!
Before we left Homestead we went by Robert is Here one more time for a smoothie for the road. Then drove the length of the Keys. On the way we spotted all the lovely state park campsites on the beaches that we couldn’t get in to (bloody snow birds!). We stopped at Islamorada, which is where Will and John had gone fishing the week before at “Bud’n’Marys”. Supposedly it is the Sports Fishing Captital of the world (which may account for my brothers choice of holiday destination!). The boys were desperate to fish some more and we’d already seen people fishing from the bridges so we stopped to get some bait. Finally understood the very strange Florida state law that says you can’t fish from a vehicle on a bridge. Had struck us as rather odd, but having seen the huge numbers of people parked up on both ends of every bridge all the way down the keys it now made sense.
We stopped at Tom’s Harbour Channel Bridge which we were reliably informed was a good spot!! The turquoise sea made it an acceptable place to spend the afternoon so we sat back and enjoyed the view while the boys fished. Got our first experience of some pretty big lizards. One huge one nearly tripped me up then 4 green ones kept us entertained munching on our mango peel.
Both boys were fairly successful with their fishing; Charlie catching a grunt and Will catching something vicious looking that gnashed its teeth at us and nearly took his finger off. Randomly while we were sat there we were approached by a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I suppose while people are relaxing is as good a time as any to talk about God?! Just as we were leaving a man caught a bonehead shark and John netted it for him. Can’t lay claim to having caught it but it was pretty exciting none the less.
That day we drove all the way down into Key West past our campsite to check out the parking options for Tuesday when we were due to go on the boat trip to the Dry Tortugas. We’d been told there was no parking for RV’s in town and that turned out to be true. Tiny roads and tiny carparks and even the supermarket carparks have rude signs up saying no RV’s etc. Not very friendly!! Although I suppose bearing in mind the extortionate campsite rates they wouldn’t want anyone overnighting for free!! Even Walmart won’t let you stay overnight in Florida…
Our KOA campsite certainly seemed to be making the most of it’s space and we were packed in like sardines. The man In the yellow KOA t shirt led us to our pitch on his golf buggy shaking his head the whole way, adamant that we wouldn’t fit in our site. Told us we would have to take our trailer off – despite us telling him we couldn’t as it had to be next to us as it houses our transformer and without it we have no power. Lots of radioing to office – “oh ah… they never mentioned a trailer, they’ll have to park in the overflow carpark” etc. etc. John paced out the length of the RV and trailer then did the same with the pitch and declared we would fit. Cue much sighing from yellow t shirt man who asked me if John could ‘drive that thing’ – as apparently a lot of people in RV’s can’t!! John then reversed in to the spot first time. At which point yellow t shirt man said “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself!!” and slunk off on his golf buggy!!
We made the most of the campsites private beach and had a day sunbathing and swimming. Kids were delighted with the huge floating trampoline. Crystal clear water, palm trees and white sand – bliss. We saw a huge huge huge lizard wandering off the beach and a bit later I went into the sea, came back and sat down and one walked out from under my chair at which pointed I screamed very loudly. William however fed it with bananas and green beans (weird mixture) and wasn’t the least put off by it’s sheer size and sharp tail.
We met a nice Canadian couple parked next door to us, Rose and Frank. Talking to them about Canada made us long to be back there. Determined we will get up into Newfoundland when we return. Sadly we had to wave them goodbye as we had to move site. So we moved 3 pitches up to be next door to Charlie and Susan. Lovely couple who come down North Carolina each winter. We’ve never been to a campsite with larger RV’s (apparently to get a spot on the beach itself you have to wait for someone to die, as they are booked by the same people for years at a time). Everyone there was certainly in a party mood. The campsite bar was full from dusk to dawn, each
RV has a sign saying “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” or something similar and nearly everyone has a drink in their hand at all times of night and day, including cup holders on their bikes!!
Tuesday was our big trip to the Dry Tortugas. I had been very over excited about this National Park and had had to work pretty hard to convince John that it was worth the huge fee to get there due to it being accessible only by boat or seaplane. We’d done our recce a few days before and knew we weren’t going to be able to park anywhere near the ferry terminal. Shame really because we had to be there at 6am. So John dropped us off then drove off to the nearest supermarket and parked up then biked back to join us. In the meantime I’d got talking to 2 couples who kept grudgingly asking us what we did at home to be able to afford to take a years ‘holiday’. Despite me trying to explain it isn’t a holiday it’s an Educational Family Adventure they spent the rest of the day staring daggers at us.
The Yankee Freedom II set off from Key West at 6am for the 70 mile trip across the Gulf of Mexico to the Dry Tortugas. Named Las Tortugas (turtles) by Ponce de Leon who landed here from Europe in 1513 and found the seas brimming with hawksbill, leatherback and loggerhead turtles. Nautical charts warned that the 7 mile long archipelago of 7 low lying islands were “dry” because of the lack of fresh water. An issue for the residents of Fort Jefferson that was built here to protect the Gulf of Mexico’s shipping routes. A very impressive 45’ high 3 level hexagonal building with 2000 archways which run ½ mile round the outside. But most impressive of all is that it was built with 16 million bricks!!!
There were grey skies and rain on our trip over there, during which time there was a lot of moaning about how much fun would it actually be to be snorkelling in ‘tropical’ waters in the rain… As part of the ticket price you got Breakfast and Lunch onboard. I was expecting scrambled egg and truffles for breakfast and at least half a lobster each for lunch based on the ticket price. Sadly not. But miraculously as we approached the islands the fog lifted and so we got our first glimpse of this most beautiful remote and tropical National Park with bright bule skies and turquoise crystal clear sea!
We couldn’t get off the boat quick enough and had grabbed our snorkeling gear from the nice men on the dock and were in the water within about 5 minutes of docking. We did force the children to walk round the fort and fill in a Junior Ranger program for that all important badge, but other than that we didn’t get out of the sea all day. We snorkelled for hours and saw Barracuda, Trumpet fish, Rainbow Parrot fish and Goliath grouper as well as lots of other beautiful tropical fish. The shells were also incredible – we saw an enormous conch and loads of hermit crabs. William also loved all the birds – black skimmers, frigate birds which he told me were “magnificent” and then he actually said out loud “Ah Brown Boobies – they’re my favourite!” which obviously cracked us up!!
We spent the rest of the week on the Keys, each day thinking we might leave and then booking for another night, then another, then another… We had to move sites again a couple of times and ended up right next to the beach and an RV full of English blokes. We were really struggling to motivate ourselves to move on knowing that from now on in we would be heading north which meant towards home and of course away from the sunshine. Interesting conversations with the kids about returning to the UK and the trip so far; William panicked that he no longer remembers how to tie a tie! We asked them what they would say to themselves as they were starting out on the trip, hoping for something deep and meaningful – they did say “Enjoy it while you can” but sweetly said they would say “On day 260 you will get a surprise” (that was Jacob’s arrival – sorry to anyone else who went to the effort and expense of coming to see us!!).
Friday was our 15th Wedding Anniversary so in a romantic gesture John gave me a whole afternoon to myself. He and the boys hired a small boat and went fishing. I made good use of the time off by… lying on the beach? Sleeping? Painting my toenails? No – writing the blog. I was behind then (let alone now as I write this 6 weeks later!!) and so it was very satisfying to spend a bit of time catching up on it. I write notes every day but then need to rely on good wifi at a campsite to upload all the pictures etc not to mention the time to then make my notes slightly more coherent.
Anyway, I digress. They returned having caught over 30 fish and claiming it was the ‘best day ever’ – tried hard not to be insulted that their best day in over 300 on this trip DIDN’T involve me!! We took the kids out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant near our campsite called Mangrove Mama’s. A really lovely place with a band and tables all set on decks in and around the mangroves. Delicious seafood, champagne and Key Lime Pie – yummy!
Saturday we were up early and on the road, heading north back to Islamorado. We were booked in to Theater of the Sea (grrr that spelling!!) for the kids to swim with dolphins. We’d booked it the day before and I hadn’t really been concentrating when John called them and asked about availability and prices and so had agreed with him that due to the cost it was probably best if just the kids did it. But as we drove closer and closer I started to get completely panicked. How the hell had we arranged for the kids to swim with dolphins MY life’s dream and not ME!!! By the time we got there I had convinced myself that it was great the kids were doing it and I would so enjoy their enjoyment and it was a lot of money and we are trying to live on a reasonably tight budget etc. etc.
But once we had got the kids into their wetsuits and walked round with them to the ‘briefing area’ I completely lost it. One of the 2 dolphins had swam right up close to us and was there with his head out of the water squeaking away excitedly not 2’ from where I stood. At which point I burst into tears and finally confessed to John how jealous I was!! Bless him he immediately tried to get me booked in to swim with them later that day but honestly truly once the kids were in the water I really did LOVE it for them and decided I would leave this particular experience on my bucket list for another time.
The kids were incredible – so very brave! Their dolphins were called Stormy and Daffy and the boys hugged them, kissed them, caught a ride on their fins, swam underwater with them and just loved it all. It was really incredible. And I did get my own little encounter with one of the dolphins after all. During one of the brilliant shows we saw there they asked if anyone wanted to come and meet the dolphins and if so they should put their hand up to be given a pass to come forward. I put my hand so far up in the air I nearly knocked Charlie out. I was bouncing up and down on my seat and the kids were staring at me in utter disbelief. I must have looked half crazed but it worked and Valerie the bikini clad trainer picked me!! I thrust my phone at Charlie and told him to video it and ran to the front pushing aside small children. I GOT TO KISS A DOLPHIN!!! See photo below – unfortunately I have no video evidence as apparently Charlie was just stood, jaw dropped at how crazily his mother was behaving and didn’t manage to hit record on my iphone.
Our second to last stop on the Keys was at the Key Lime Pie Factory. Dad and Carol had been there the week before to pick up desert for us on their way back. They’d told us the server would’nt sell them one as they didn’t have a cool box in which to transport it back. But we wonder if maybe it was the price that put them off!! Blimey!! I asked the server if we could possibly freeze it and wondered how long it would last in a fridge. She looked at me a bit strangely and 24 hours later we understood – no one in their right mind would leave that pie uneaten in a fridge for any length of time. It was the most delicious creamy limey pie we had ever eaten. Worth every single dollar!!!
We were still dragging our heels about leaving and so made one last stop at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. We did ask if they maybe by any chance had had a cancellation so we could camp there over night. Sadly not. So we had to make do with having a very quick swim and snorkel there before finally driving off the Keys. We all felt really sad, like you do at the end of a holiday and the sign that said “Now leaving The Key’s – Back to reality!” felt all too true!
Luckily we realised that although we were now heading north, which is in the direction of home (via Halifax to put Frankie on a boat), and the weather was most definitely not going to be as good we did still have at least 3 months left of our Educational Family Adventure (NOT a holiday)!!!
Wickenswanderings 