The Keys

Florida Keys – The Keys is just an awesome place, I love it! I am about a 7 hour drive to Key West – the furthest south you can drive and mile marker “0”. At the tip of Florida as you enter the “Keys” your thinking “Yey, I’m in the Keys” but you still have a drive on the only road that will take you all the way to KW, and the speed comes to a slower tropical limit so you can soak in the view all the way. The water becomes a different shade of blue, so does the sky and all of a sudden you can relax.
Now you can visit the Keys with kids and without, and what a difference between the two. I have done both – I’m a mom, I have to.
My first trip to the Keys was an all girls get-a-way, what a way to be introduced to these islands. I have since been on vacations with the kids for outdoor activities like kayaking and snorkeling, and with other couples solely to participate in the Duval Crawl.
The drive is like island hopping, your on one then here comes the next, you go over a 7 mile bridge (yeah, the one from True Lies the movie), one is known for the “Key Deer” a miniature version of the larger bucks you hunters are use to. Great places to stop all along the way. The Bass Pro Shop is huge, mom & pop shops with all kinds of key influenced knick knacks, and the one place you have to stop; mile marker 77.5 Robbie’s of Islamorada, they have been there since 1976. You can purchase some bait fish to feed the Tarpon – they swarm all over waiting for you to give them a free meal. It’s amazing, entertaining and a great photo op.

The Keys have many places to camp. John Pennekamp State Park (mm102.5) is a great place especially if you snorkel and like to dive. Is has approxiamately 190 sq miles of coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds. You can camp at Bahia Honda State Park (mm37)on Big Pine Key. We stayed on Sugarloaf Key a few years ago – a group of us rented RV’s and stayed at the campground. After looking around we realized we paid quite a bit and the place wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. What was cool was being able to fish off the old bridge, which cars have no access to so you can roam around without worrying. The water is so clear you can see Parrot Fish and sharks below.
Snorkling - Looe Key (National Marine Sanctuary) is one of the best places to see marine life (named after a frigate that sank in 1744). We took a trip out of Bahia Honda (on Big Pine Key), which was one of the countries top beaches on the travel channel. The Key is 8 miles off shore.
When in the lower keys look up to see the white blimp known as “Fat Albert” which is used to keep an eye on the boat traffic below.