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.
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