3-29 Dry Tortugas

Wow!  What a day!  First off, we had great night's sleep.  I think our colds have finally decided to take leave AND we've adjusted to the time difference.  On to vacation! 

After a quick hotel breakfast we head back down to Duval Street.  We wanted to walk around without the crowds.  One of our stops was Kino's Sandals, a Cuban sandal maker who's been making sandals in Key West since 1966.  Pretty cool.  Everything is made locally. Their sandals are on a counter, you select a style, give them your size, a pair is grabbed out of the appropriate box (mostly discarded beer cases), you try them on and then either buy or not!  Check it out:  Kino's Sandals 

After our brief shopping excursion, we return to the hotel to prepare for our big outing of the day - boarding a seaplane to Fort Jefferson located in the Dry Tortugas National Park.  The Park is located on one of the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys.  Although never completed the Fort is the largest brick structure in the US. 

Dry Tortugas National Park 

At 1:30 we head over to the Key West airport, sign our liability release forms and join our fellow passengers on the 10-passenger seaplane for the 30 minute flight to the Dry Tortugas. Liftoff was surprisingly quick and before we knew it we were skimming only 500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.  Throughout the flight we skim over the shallow flats of Key West, an area off the coast that's less than 5 feet deep for miles off the shoreline, see underwater sand dunes, and the wrecks of two sunken ships.   The weather was a bit hazy, not bad considering rain was predicted.  We didn't know what to expect with a water landing in a sea plane.  But this one was incredibly smooth.  I've never been on a flight where the pilot encourages the passengers in back to open the back doors for some fresh air.  

Once on the island we were on our own for 2.5 hour.   Our first objective was to Walk through the ruins of Fort Jefferson.  And if time permitted, we planned to do a bit of snorkeling.  So we headed out to explore, walking through the 150 year ruins of an attempted fortress.  Check out the pics on my Flickr site.   

Did I mention it was really hot and humid (98%)? By the time we ended our tour we were both drenched. So we headed to the beach for a quick dip.  We did attempt to snorkel, but the water was quite rough making the water quite murky.  But the dip was very refreshing.

On the flight back to Key West, Tony got to sit up front with the pilot.  He was all smiles and was able to film a bit.   Will try to upload the video - if I can figure it out!

Time for bed.  Tomorrow we head back to Fort Lauderdale.