The Florida Keys: A Floridian Experience
On June 26th, 2020 my boyfriend and I decided to take a trip down to key west. We started the day waking up at 5 am to drive 6 hours down to key west. For the first 3 hours we drove through I-75 south until we got Homestead, FL. At this point we continued to south Dixie highway and began the next 3-hour journey to Key West, Fl. As we started driving through the Florida Keys we decided to make some stops along the way.
The first stop we made was to feed tarpons at Robbie’s located on Islamorada. It was so packed! When we were trying to find parking, we had to make our own spot because there were no spots available. We walked up to the docks to get fish bait for the tarpon and had to wait over 30 minutes to get through. Once we got our bucket of bait we walked to a spot on the dock and started putting our hands out with the fish and huge tarpons just came flying out smacking the food right out of our hands. It was so cool.
Once we ran out of fish we left and got back on the road. As we continued our drive boyfriend and I saw this huge lobster statue on the side of the road. We decided to pull up and get some pictures of it. Right behind it we saw this vintage bug car with a sign called the bug pub. They served a variety of boozy drinks. I decided to get a strawberry colada and then we walked around and there were so many cute little shops and once you walked to the back it was a hidden gem of galleries and stores. There were so many trees surrounding this little boutique of shops I felt like I was in a place that truly represented Florida.
As we left the wonders of the bug pub we continued our drive to Key West. Once we got to Key Largo we stopped at this store called Shell World. I was able to get some souvenirs for my family and buy myself a key largo snow globe since I collect snow globes.
After we left Shell World we stopped at this scuba diver museum that wasn’t far from Shell World. It was filled with so many interesting facts about scuba diving. We were there for about 30 minutes and then we got back on the road and continued through the 7-mile bridge highway to Key west. By 4 pm we finally made it to our destination in Key west.
We were fortunate to have family friends in the Keys that let us stay for free at their house. Once we unpacked and got settled we went fishing. Within 2 minutes we caught a huge tarpon. It was awesome. We went fishing for at least 3 hours and then we went down to dual street where we got some food and drinks at Margaritaville. After we left Margaritaville we wanted to go to some bars. However, that night the police officers came crawling down the streets and shutting down everything due to COVID-19. At this point we just went to restaurants to drink and we also got to go to the smallest bar in the world and get some drinks before they shut it down. I kid you not this bar really was small. They had liquor in the small shot size bottles. It was outside to with no seats. I’m grateful we were able to enjoy some drinks before everything shut down.
The next day we spent fishing and I was also able to get some key lime pie. It was so delicious I wish I could’ve brought it back with me! That same night we decided to book a hotel room for the rest of our trip. We stayed at the double tree which had a very nice pool, hot tub, and tiki bar. Iguanas came to visit us by the pool and my boyfriend decided to feed them fruit. That same night our family friends sent us champagne in honor of our anniversary which made this trip much more memorable.
On our last day in Key West we decided to tour the Coast guard’s military museum. I love military museums because it makes me feel like I can connect and relate to the history of United States and our veterans who fought for our freedoms. The coast guard ship was huge. Not as big as the military ship I went on in Buffalo but it was still very big. We got to go inside of their quarters and dining rooms. We got to see the artillery rooms which was cool. After we finished our tour we started the long boring drive back home. I was able to sleep for the next 6 hours while my boyfriend drove home.
