Day 5
I’d like to start by telling you all that a lizard just ran inside and over my foot!
I screamed a lot 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
OH and DS are off to get donuts for breakfast (healthy option) so I let them out of the back door which opens onto Pine Avenue but it’s quite over grown and is a lizard paradise.
Wowzers, that was much worse than a spider!
OH caught it in the kitchen and it happily sat in his had for a while.
I much preferred last night’s intruder 😍 🐱
Right, back to day 5
The alarm went off at about 6:30 so we quickly showered and were out of the door by 7 ish.
The guesthouse offers a free buffet breakfast which is quite small but actually there’s plenty there.
Fruit salads, cereal, yoghurt, bagels, pastries etc plus some hot options one of which looked like rice 🧐
Anyway, we were too early so we really were going to be consuming nothing but giant pickles and Ruffles all day 🤦🏼
We barely saw a soul on the way to Key West airport. Not sure there are too many early risers on a Sunday morning!
You get free parking if you’re going via seaplane so we ignored the paid parking and headed past the control tower to the SeaPlane Adventures office and parked up there.
I’m mentioning that as it may be worth considering all the associated costs if you’re weighing up the ferry or seaplane.
We checked in, paid the National Park entrance fee ($15 per adult) and were offered fins, snorkels, masks and drinks.
Like a whole cooler full of drinks!
I had not read the details properly so we already had plenty!
Take note! Drinks for the day are provided at check-in!
Once you’ve signed your life away you just wait outside for your pilot and then you’re off!
Our pilot was Kris and he didn’t even wear shoes!
The flight to Fort Jefferson only takes about 40 minutes and the ferry is about 2.5 hours!
This means you arrive when the park is empty (aside from a handful of campers) and can grab the best shady spot as your base for the day. Plus you can tour the fort without anyone else in your photos.
Now I don’t love flying but actually, small planes don’t bother me at all and I thoroughly enjoyed every second!
Kris pointed out all the sights and had loads of interesting facts about the wrecks we saw.
You fly over a section of water called turtle alley and you see so many of them! The view was far better on the way home because the water was so well illuminated at 3pm ish but we still saw loads on the way out.
Once we’d landed we grabbed a spot (swimmer’s beach, under the tree) donned our snorkels and got straight in.
I got out after about half an hours to take a few pictures and wander in the fort but then we all got back in the water just before the ferry arrived.
Photo spam coming up!
These are a mix of both journeys.
DS was very excited to ride shotgun on the way home!
The best snorkelling was either around the piles behind the helipad or around the back of the moat wall.
Because we’re actual idiots we forgot to take the GoPro so we have no underwater pictures at all 🤦🏼
Now as this is a food report I’d better find a shot of the rancid pickles before I move onto dinner which was much more civilised! 😆
They were so sour hence the hilarity. Their eyes were watering!
We left the island shortly after 3 and we’re back in the guesthouse shortly after 4.
We were absolutely starving so quickly booked a table at Lattitudes on Sunset Key on Opentable, showered, changed and made our way to Mallory Square for a drink before boarding the ferry over there