dry tortugas national park

When we were planning what to do for fall break, we thought we would be conservative and drive somewhere and visit a national park. We thought, hmmm, maybe we'll drive to New Orleans, and along the way we can go to Hot Springs National Park. And then I got a wild hair and looked to see how many credit card points we had for flights, and realized it would be about the same cost to fly to Florida and do something extraordinary. We did the research, and then we debated and talked and researched some more because the whole idea seemed crazy. And eventually, we decided: We would fly to Fort Lauderdale, drive to Key West, and take a ferry to Dry Tortugas National Park.

Just to give you an idea of the scale of this trip, take a look at this map. You'll see Fort Lauderdale at the top, and Key West sort of in the middle, and Dry Tortugas kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Cuba is there for reference too.

Anyway, Mike has wanted to visit Dry Tortugas for as long as he can remember, but he never really thought about it being an actual possibility because of the difficulty and expense of getting there. It wasn't really on my radar as much — I thought it would probably be an amazing place to visit, but it was in the same category for me as Alaska and Hawaii: a dream for someday.

Well, today was the day. We got up bright and early and boarded the Yankee Freedom III for the 2.5-hour trip to Port Jefferson. They served breakfast along the way, and the boys definitely got their fill. During the trip, we made our plan for the time we would have there: first tour the fort, then eat lunch on the ship, then go snorkeling.

The fort tour was pretty amazing. It's hard to believe anybody thought building a massive fort on a remote coastal island with no fresh water was a good idea, but apparently some people did because here it is. The fort was never actually used in a war, but it was used as an extremely remote jail, mostly for deserters from the U.S. Army during the Civil War. After the war, one of the prisoners was the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth when he broke his leg jumping from the balcony after assassinating Abraham Lincoln. It's not super clear whether Dr. Samuel Mudd was actually a co-conspirator or not, but he was convicted of being one and was sent to Fort Jefferson. He tried to escape as a stowaway, and when that didn't work, he was confined to the dungeon for a while. About two years into his sentence, there was an outbreak of yellow fever, and the prison doctor died; Mudd took over and treated everyone on the island, and afterward, the soldiers stationed there petitioned for Mudd to be pardoned because of his lifesaving work. Two years after that, President Johnson granted Mudd the pardon, though his conviction was never overturned.

What a story, right?

We took our time exploring the deserted rooms, climbing up and down spiral stone staircases, and checking out the remaining battlements. It was pretty windy up top, but the views were amazing.

Back on the boat, we had some lunch, and then it was time to get our gear (which, happily, was part of the ferry fee) and head to the snorkeling area. We really wanted to see the reefs this time since we missed out on them at Biscayne. But like I said, it was really windy, so the currents were not in our favor. It was particularly hard on poor Henry, who gave up on snorkeling entirely after he kept getting pushed around by big waves. So Henry went up to the beach and splashed around at the water's edge while the rest of us soldiered on. Eventually, Max and Liam got tired and decided to join Henry, and right about that time I found the reef. And it was completely and totally worth all the effort. Mike and I probably stayed out in the water for another hour exploring and being amazed by every single thing we saw. The boys, meanwhile, didn't seem to have any problem at all entertaining themselves up on the beach (happily for us because we really didn't want to stop snorkeling).

Alas, all amazing trips must end, and the boat pulled out around 3:00 to head back to Key West. The boys were wiped out from all the day's adventures, and they put their heads down and slept the entire trip back. Tomorrow morning, we're driving back up the Keys and to Fort Lauderdale, and tomorrow night we fly back to Chicago. It's been a truly superlative trip, but we're all ready to go back home and see the pups and sleep in our own beds. We'll leave you on a high note, though: Henry earned his Junior Park Ranger badge, and we saw a funny bird.

travel day! key largo to key west

It's really only about a three-hour drive from our first hotel, in Homestead, to our second hotel, in Key West, but we pretty much spent the whole day getting here because there is so much to see along the way. Here's a little taste of travel day.

We stopped at Mrs. Mac's Kitchen in Key Largo for breakfast. It seems like a pretty classic Keys joint, with license plates lining the walls and dollar bills lining the ceiling. The food was great! We all went for breakfast, but we started with a shared piece of key lime pie so we could really get in the spirit of it all. Liam and Henry both ordered the jumbo-size chocolate milk, which was fine for big, strapping Liam, but for Henry ... well, let's just say that our server bet him a dollar that he couldn't finish that milk plus his breakfast, and she won.

After breakfast, we headed down US 1 for a little while to Islamorada, where we stopped at the Rain Barrel Sculpture Gallery and poked around. Henry was impressed by the resident cats (who were not, I think, the six-toed variety famous on Key West), and it was fun to wander around and look at all the interesting artwork. We also saw our first Keys free-range chicken.

Also on Islamorada is a place called Robbie's. It's like a big complex with a restaurant and a bar and party boats and stuff. But we had our sights set on Robbie's famous tarpons. Specifically, watching while they leaped up out of the water to eat fish out of our hands. Apparently the story is that years ago, a tarpon had a big cut on its face, and the folks at Robbie's sewed it up and kept on feeding it ... so Scarface eventually let his tarpon friends know, and pretty soon there was a whole swarm of them all around the dock, just waiting for the chum buffet to start. Anyway, we took turns feeding them, which was by turns terrifying, gross, fascinating, and thrilling.

Readers, this is also where our trip started to go a little off-kilter. We all stopped in the bathrooms on the way out, and Mike was the last to go. But when he stepped out, he slipped on some wet rock. He caught himself before he fell and broke something, but in the process he scraped a huge layer of skin off his big toe. Not gonna lie, it was gross. I ended up going back to the tarpon shack and borrowing a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a bunch of paper towels, and some ridiculously small bandaids, and we did some first aid on the spot before any tarpon bacteria (or whatever) could settle in. Yikes!

After that little misadventure, we decided it might be best to just keep on going straight to Key West so Mike could avoid walking on it for a little while. We got to Key West with plenty of time to spare before check-in at our hotel, so we stopped at CVS and got some real first-aid supplies, got Mike all disinfected and bandaged up, then ventured downtown. We parked our rental van and headed to the Lobster Shack for lunch. Our lobster rolls were delicious, if extremely pricey. (Note to Lobster Shack: If you're going to charge $20 per sandwich, maybe throw in some chips or something, sheesh!) After we ate, we took a little walk to the southernmost point in the continental United States. I had read that there's always a line to take pictures at this spot, so we were pleasantly surprised that there were only a couple of people ahead of us.

We walked back to the van and realized we still had plenty of time, so we headed across the street to the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservancy. It was HOT in there (you would think by this point I would have acclimated more to Florida, but nope, I was sweaty and miserable) but the butterflies were pretty great. They also had a pair of flamingos named Rhett and Scarlett. Well worth the price of admission, especially considering that I had a coupon.

After that, we had one more photo stop to make: the end of US Highway 1. Or the start. Or the end. Anyway, it's mile marker 0. Hopefully someday we can take the boys to the northern end in Maine. But that will be an adventure for another day.

We checked into our hotel and got settled in, then we made a critical error by deciding to take the hotel shuttle back downtown to see the "famous" sunset at Mallory Square. This is not an activity I would recommend unless you are a big fan of drunk people, crowds of drunk people, street performers who cater to drunk people, or not being able to actually see the sunset. In short, it was not our scene (understatement), so we took off back the way we came in, found an empty restaurant (because everyone else was busy drinking ... I mean, watching the sunset ... at Mallory Square), ate some Thai food, and then took the hotel shuttle back to our room to sleep off a very full and eventful day.

Tomorrow is the grand finale, and the whole reason for our trip, so stay tuned!