Key West, FL

#179 (January 26, 2023): With Emily and the 4 kids all outside the truck watching from different points making sure we didn’t hit any trees, parked vehicles, or any other obstacles, we successfully squeezed ourselves out of this super tight campground, narrowly dodging obstacles by an inch (literally!!)! Crazy! Boy, were we thankful to have escaped that campground unscathed!

We drove 2 more hours south along the Overseas Highway (the longest highway built over an ocean at 106 miles long and connecting 30 islands) skipping across the Florida Keys and parking at Sunshine Key RV Resort on Big Pine Key. Sunshine Key RV Resort is an Encore resort in the Thousand Trails network, and this is our first time using our Thousand Trails membership which we purchased in December while booking our Florida reservations. Yay!

After setting up camp, we explored the campground and marina, spotting pelicans, needlefish, tarpon, and striped sergeant major fish (thank you Seek app for making identifying plants and animals so quick and simple). In the afternoon, Bethany and Emily both won Candy Bar Bingo, and at night Chris and Emily played $4 Bingo with the adults, while the kids stayed back in the RV and watched the 1980s classic, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

#180 (January 27, 2023): A cold front came through last night, dropping the temperature about 10 degrees. Today is cloudy and windy and unseasonably colder than usual, definitely too cold for water activities (high was 70, but it stayed in the 60s most of the day). To get a better idea of how to best spend our time here in the Keys, we headed to the Key West Visitor Center about 10 minutes away from our campground, where a very helpful lady gave us lots of information and tips and booked us two excursions for hopefully warmer days.

Emily forgot that she purchased a GuideAlong tour for the Keys a couple days ago in preparation for our trip to the Keys. Rats! We should have listened to it yesterday on our 2-hour drive. Oh well, we will play catch-up on the first part of the tour when we drive back to the mainland of Florida in a few days. No biggie! We were just thankful to have the tour for the rest of our drive to Key West from Big Pine Key for today.

Per Mr. Dave’s recommendations, we drove into the Key Deer Preserve and spotted key deer (they are so small and cute!) on No Name Key and grabbed hot sandwiches and pizza to go from No Name Pub. Next, we went to the National Key Deer Refuge Nature Center and played the Who’s Scat game, and looked at sand, a sea urchin, a sand dollar, a peacock feather, and a flower under a powerful microscope. Cool!

We continued listening to Mr. Dave as we finished driving to and then throughout Key West. We parked and walked to the Southernmost Point of the Continental US and took a picture next to the striped concrete buoy. We laughed at all the wild roosters, chickens, and chicks that wildly roam the streets and neighborhoods in Key West. As we walked back to our truck, we stopped at Rooster Treats food truck for some very mini “mini doughnuts” (cinnamon and powdered sugar) and dairy-free key lime soft serve ice cream. The mini doughnuts were laughably tiny and just okay, but the key lime soft serve, oh my! It was so good and refreshing, and the creamy texture and taste reminded us of the Key’s signature dessert: key lime pie. We all agreed that we surprisingly preferred the soft serve version to the original pie. It was SO good!

That night, we sampled our exotic fruits from the Robert Is Here fruit stand (it takes a few days for the fruit to ripen to recommended ripeness): black sapote (supposedly chocolate pudding-like, but we disagree; maybe we just couldn’t get past the look, texture, and oozing black juice. Ha!), apple-bananas (a tiny banana with a curious hint of apple sweetness…very good if you like bananas), Asian guava (sort of like an underripe hard pear), canistel (looks like a giant yellow Hershey kiss that supposedly “tastes like a sweet, creamy egg custard”; we weren’t fans of the texture and found it somewhat bland), carambola better known as star fruit(“tastes like a cross between an apple and an orange”; this one wasn’t too bad; more tolerable), yellow pitayaalso known as dragon fruit (“tastes like strawberry, raspberry, and kiwi”; it reminded us mostly of a kiwi in flavor and texture; not too bad actually), 2 kinds of lychee, some whiskery and some bumpy (these small ball-like fruits reminded us of how you “pop” out the slimy center of a scuppernong or muscadine and eat the insides whole; lychees were sweet and one of Emily’s favorite of the whole lot, maybe because it was a bit more familiar just with much thicker, rougher skin; they had a curious rose-like flavor though that was unexpected), a red passion fruit and a yellow passion fruit (“tastes like sweet fruit punch”; although the flavor was very sweet, the squished caviar-like texture was a hold up for most of us; bless! I think this would be more appealing juiced; this was Emily’s favorite flavor-wise though), sapodilla (“tastes like a pear with brown sugar” may be a pretty good description, but the soft mushy texture wasn’t appealing to us).

Needless to say, we all ended the night thankful that we live in a country that readily grows so many other yummy, sweet fruits (that aren’t dependent on the tropical climate either), such as apples, pears, cherries, and of course, the entire “berry” family. What a super fun cultural experience tonight has been! We feel like we just traveled the globe all while sitting around our tiny table! Thank you, Robert Is Here!

#181 (January 28, 2023): Today we woke up early and drove back to Key West and boarded a private boat for a dolphin and snorkel excursion around the island of Key West. First, we rode around looking for dolphin activity. After driving around for about an hour, we were excited to find a pair of dolphins during their morning feeding. We watched them circle around schools of fish and take turns zipping through the schools for a yummy breakfast. One of the dolphins even came up to the boat for a brief moment which was super exciting.

Next, we parked near a reef off the coast of Key West for a little snorkeling. Unfortunately, the water temperature was 10-15 degrees cooler than its norm (67 degrees rather than its usual 80ish) and it isn't sunny today, so the combo effect made it feel COLD! We were assured we wouldn’t need wetsuits when we booked the excursion, but turns out, that may have helped. But then again, maybe not; it may still have been too cold even with the wetsuits. Oh well. Only Emily was willing to put on the snorkel gear and jump in while the others simply laughed and watched from the boat (LOL! Gracious!). The water instantly took her breath away. She stayed in the water about five minutes trying to relax, slow her breath, and let her body acclimate to the cool water temp. (It is REALLY hard to breathe through a snorkel when your body is taking such rapid, short breaths! Bless!) Not seeing anything under water worth the time in the seemingly freezing water, she got out after five or so minutes. Since no one else was tempted to give it a shot after witnessing Emily’s attempt, we were done snorkeling for the day. LOL! So instead of snorkeling, our guide took us on a scenic boat ride around the entire island of Key West. When we finished and docked back at the marina at Perry Hotel, our guide invited us to swim in the hotel’s swimming pool, so we did. It was much warmer!

Afterward, we toured the Turtle Hospital on Marathon Key and learned about their turtle rescue program. We saw mostly loggerhead and green turtles. Many of these turtles are rescued because of bubble butt syndrome (from a boat accident typically), entanglement (from wire, rope, fishing line, etc.), or fibropapilloma tumors (a virus that is believed to be triggered by water pollution). The turtle hospital treats affected turtles and then releases the ones that are able to survive in the wild on their own.

On our way home, we ate blackened mahi-mahi fish tacos, fried fish baskets, and key lime pie for dinner at Keys Fisheries (another Mr. Dave recommendation). That evening we played pickleball.

#182 (January 29, 2023): Today was a nice quiet stay-home day. We enjoyed virtual church in the morning, and the campground’s swimming pool and pickleball in the afternoon.

#183 (January 30, 2023): Oh, what a blast today has been! This morning we drove back to Key West for our second excursion that we booked at the visitor center the other day. Thankfully today was a warmer day and the water was much warmer than it was a couple days ago! Sebago Watersports Power Adventure is a 6-hour excursion during which we snorkeled for an hour off the coast of Key West before docking at their private floating waterpark where we spent the rest of our time riding jet skis and a banana boat (pulled by a jet ski), jumping on a water trampoline (which is much harder than it may appear), and everyone’s highlight: parasailing. Each group of three enjoyed a 5ish-minute parasailing ride in the air. We all agreed that we wished our time in the air was longer! Surprisingly, it’s so relaxing, peaceful, and quiet way up there, and the views of course are spectacular! Overall, this was a fantastic deal with so many water activities included, not to mention a continental breakfast, hot lunch, and drinks, too!

In the evening, some of us played pickleball, while others swam in the campground’s pool. What a fabulously fun day we have had today on our last day in the Florida Keys!