One year my husband and I decided we were going to skip the typical holiday tradition with family and friends and opted to take a long road trip all the way down to the Florida Keys. To this day this is still one of my favorite road trips we have ever taken. We tent camped a lot of it and ate a lot of fruit, boiled eggs, and turkey sandwiches.
After taking our time to get down there and driving over the incredible highway over the ocean we came to our home for the week Boyd’s Key West Campground. This was one of the nicest campgrounds. We might have had the most humble little tent next to some of the million dollar campers but we enjoyed the pool, store, post office, shower house, and laundry room. They had everything we needed here. Something that is well known about Key West but not well known to me was the fact that there are chickens everywhere. This blew my mind when we first got there. It’s as common as seeing a squirrel or rabbit. They just roam the streets, parking lots, campgrounds, they are part of what make Key West iconic.
Our first day we went to Fort Zackary Taylor Historic State park. There is also a beach to lounge around on. We loved the fort and met a park ranger there and ended up talking to him for at least two hours. We wandered back into town and ended up at Mallory Square. I was very excited to walk around here and bring something back for my sister Mallory. Mallory Square is the tourist villa of the keys. While there, cruise ships would make stops let the passengers out to shop and see a small portion of the town before setting sail again. The shops were mostly outdoors and were more like huts you could mosey in and out.
After Mallory Square we went to US Mile Marker 0 to get a picture with the sign. Surprisingly there was a little bit of a line to get to it. We continued walking around town. We stumbled upon Harry Truman’s home which is now a museum and event center for private parties and weddings. I would recommend going there as well as going to Ernest Hemingway’s Home. I had read a handful of his books but knew relatively nothing about the author. His life story and inspirations for writing were interesting to learn about.
We got up early the next morning and went to the Southernmost Point of the US and got our picture with the 90 miles to Cuba sign. After that we walked around and tragically witnessed a dinosaur size… or dog size iguana get run over by a car. I yelled at the lady driving to stop! Unfortunately she stopped while she was directly on top of this poor iguana! He was making a screeching or hissing sound and flopping around. She finally drove away and the iguana scurried away as well. I like to think that he was completely fine and just had a few bruises. If that’s the case then I was definitely more traumatized than the iguana was. After witnessing the hit and run we somehow ended up at a beach cafe and had lattes and hot chocolate. The view was great and loved sitting on the beach watching the palm trees sway back and forth with only the sound of the waves. Something to note is there is not actually much sandy beaches aside from the resorts and a few spots at the state parks. It’s is 90% shells and rocks on the beach. Which is great for shell and rock collecting but a bummer for beach bums and sand castle engineers.
Christmas morning we woke up and went to the Kermit’s Key Lime Shop for breakfast. We did not get Key Lime Pies but we did get biscuits and gravy. We ate on their outdoor patio. On the back patio was a koi pond, the fish would swim by while we ate. After eating we went to Bahi Honda State Park. This island did have more of a sandy beach. We didn’t spend much time on the beach though we rented kayaks and spent a couple hours in the ocean paddling around. We couldn’t get enough of the ocean and it was Christmas so we wanted to do something special for the evening. We decided to book a sunset sail with Fury Key West tours. They provided drinks and snacks. The rock band played mostly Steve Miller band and Queen music. We made friends on the sail and talked to them almost the entire time. The sunset was gorgeous and the weather was beautiful. The last part of the sail was in the dark. Coming back to harbor so many boats and palm trees were all decorated with Christmas lights and Christmas was music playing. It was so odd but still very magical to spend Christmas like this. No cold no snow no evergreens, no coats, and still felt all the Christmas spirit even without it. After the sunset sail we walked to Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville and I had the best burger of my life. The next morning we packed up our tent and headed towards home.
Audrey Hikes a Lot 