We watched this documentary as part of school ahead of time. The engineering and history of the bridges to bring the keys together and make them accessible by land is interesting and impressive!
We awoke early and drove straight on down to Key West, a beautiful three hour drive over many bridges of beautiful ocean. About 21% of the drive is on bridges, including the 6.76 mile long "7-Mile" bridge! (Yeah, I'm nerdy like that sometimes.)
It wasn't quite what I expected, though not disappointing either. I guess I expected it to be lots of big resorts, beaches, and fancy places, but in actuality is mostly all local businesses with a smaller, old beach town feel. Delightful in its way, really.
Of course, it was first things first when we got to Key West:
Many google reviews by locals said this was the place they liked to take people for ice cream. It's all their own and they have many fruit flavors inspired by the keys including, of course, Key Lime! Personally, I very much enjoyed their Cookies and Cream. Really good chunks of cookie in it!
While we ate, this rooster and a chicken wandered around us. The kids fell apart in laughter though, when they crossed the street. ...Yes, my friends, the chicken crossed the road. We're all witnesses!
From there we took a walk on Duval street to do some window shopping.
Amy: I brushed my hair this morning!
Humidity: Oh really?
The southernmost point in the continental US. Well, actually, it's not, but it's a convenient spot to put it so... convenience wins again! They used to have a sign many years ago, but it kept getting stolen. No one seems to want to steal this large cement marker!
We didn't drag the kids window shopping too long. We soon went back to the car to eat lunch, then over to a splash pad.
Making lunch in the car. I love living with this woman and I'm so grateful she's on this adventure with me!
It was a pretty good splash pad, park, and playground!
We considered going on a tour of the US Coast Guard ship that was docked right next to this playground. In learning about it, however, it turns out to be $10 per person for a "self-guided" tour, meaning pay ten bucks to run around it, or for us, $70. Mmm, nah. We'll wait for a guided tour of a ship somewhere else me thinks!
We decided to do one last thing before beginning the drive back--the beach! There's not a lot of beach in the Florida keys due to all the coral. The coral keeps waves from breaking against the rocks and pummeling them into sand, thus any beaches in the key are man-made. Smather's beach was perfect for us. No long walks from the car down to the beach or any such, plenty of parking on the road right by it, only 20-30 yards of sand to cross to reach the water, and a long shallow beach without waves that everyone could play and swim around in. Even Rebekah enjoyed floating around with her puddle jumper on.
The drive back began just before sunset. You can't see the colors of the water very well from these pics, but there were many shades of light and dark blues all through it. It was beautiful!
The original train bridge
A sunset looking back!
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