Day Four | Key West — Christina Anderson

You guys...if you do *anything* in Key West visit the Dry Tortugas aka Fort Jefferson. I happened upon a Pinterest pin about this. I had no idea but it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Not to mention the method of travel there kicked ass. Spoiler alert: we took a seaplane! Ok so if you want to do this you have a few different options: ferry, seaplane, helicopter, or private charter boat. I do not recommend swimming. Since Fort Jefferson is the most inaccessible state park, plan early. We got extremely lucky because I naively called two days before our preferred departure to book the ferry. Rookie mistake. The gentleman on the phone was super nice but literally laughed at me and told me they book the ferry about 8-10 weeks ahead of time. Plus, since it's a state park they control the amount of people allowed there daily. By sheer luck, they had two seats left on a seaplane on Friday. WE'LL TAKE THEM! Jumping at the chance, we booked the seats ASAP while eating breakfast on the marina two days prior.

Jump to Friday morning.

We got up and grabbed a quick bite at the coffee shop across from our hotel. Since you fly there, we hopped into a taxi and headed to the Key West International Airport. The only option left was the half day excursion so we did that! It was approximately 4 hours total giving us two and a half hours on the island. The ferry is an all day affair with a travel time of three hours EACH WAY to the island but you do get around 4 hours on the island (and lunch provided) with the ferry. Once we were wheels up, our travel time was probably around 40 minutes each way. Absolutely worth the price difference in my opinion. We booked our adventure through Key West Seaplane Charters and everyone we interacted with was fabulous! Again, you will need $15 CASH per person for the entrance fee for the National Park entrance fee. Upon arrival, you check in and grab some snorkeling gear along with a cooler with drinks/sodas/bubbly water. We were greeted by our pilot, Charlie, outside the office. He escorted us to the plane and told us tales of how he flew in Alaska - and the weather sucks in Alaska to fly in. They only do water take offs and landings. I immediately knew I was in good hands. Plus, we are in a water plane so if anything happens we just land, right? I felt good.

Charlie offered up the co-pilot seat and obviously I jumped at the chance. It was super cool to see all the controls up close and personal. This was the smallest plane I've ever flown in. Soon enough we were taking off and heading west. Along the way the headsets provide a narration of things you are flying over as well as Charlie's interjections about sights to see such as sunken ships below. I mean, how often do you get to see sunken ships from above?? He pointed out one of Mel Fisher's treasure hunting ships which sunk without fatalities. There are also remnants of a World War II ship they sunk to "practice on." Whatever that means. See picture below to see what's left!

You fly around 500 feet above the water aka we were able to see so many sea turtles, manta rays, sharks, dolphins (porpoise?) and wildlife. Since the straights are 5-8 feet deep for TWENTY MILES you also can see numerous ships which have tested lady luck and lost by running aground. Abandoned to the mercy of mother nature. Honestly, this was my favorite part of our Key West adventures - really there is no competition of how fascinating this experience was.

We flew around to get the good view of the island from the plane. Landing on the water was incredibly smooth and props to Charlie. He's a badass pilot. He just backed us right up to the beach and we hopped off for our few hours on the island. Off we went to explore the fort! We took our snorkeling gear, cooler, and bag we brought. To the island we brought REEF SAFE suncreen, a towel, snacks, and cash. That's it. Travel light people. On the island there are plenty of picnic tables. By the entrance of the fort (there's only one was in one way out) we left our cooler and snorkeling gear because why haul what you don't have to? I felt it was a safe play.

We wandered around inside the fort and learned about it in its glory days for around an hour. Fun fact, it's the largest brick structure in the western hemisphere coming in at a whopping ~16 million bricks. HOW DID THEY GET THOSE BRICKS OUT THERE?? It was really interesting to learn about the fort as it "thrived." Another fun fact, there's typically no wind out there so it's HOT. Like, really hot. I am fine with heat but I can see how people could suffer. After doing workouts regularly in hot as heck temperatures at some point it's just "hot." Hence, why they transported prisoners out there. Anyway I digress, the fort has amazing views and photo opportunities so we took advantage of those. Walking around the huge out wall took around an hour as we went up and down between floor. Also be sure to check out the sea wall that goes around the perimeter. You can access it from either side of the entrance. Some of the wall had been washed away recently so it was blocked off. We looped around to the entrance to get into the water to cool off.

Picking up our snorkeling gear we headed to the right side of the island for the good snorkeling. Ask your pilot about the best snorkeling spot the day you travel. There are two old piers with just pier pylons remaining and those have tons of coral and life to view while snorkeling. Depending on the wind and tides your pilot can advise which one will probably be more protected and have greater visible life your particular day. We plopped our things down under a tree and waded into the water.

It felt so great after being in the sun for an hour! If you're a better swimmer you can swim a bit further out for the excellent coral. I saw SO MANY fish and types of coral. It was amazing. I was proud of my mother because she was terrified to snorkel but DID IT! WOOO GO MOM! The water was exceptionally clear and gorgeous. The greens and blues were astounding. I didn't want to leave. However, the time was upon us. I will say this, it was nice to go out in the middle of the day because the ferry left before we did so we almost had the island to ourselves! VIP style. We headed back Charlie's plane and jumped inside for the ride back. It's so interesting how they take off and land in water and simply back up to the beach. What a neat experience and I can't recommend it enough!!

We Ubered back to our hotel and showered before setting out to grab some dinner. I found a hole in the wall restaurant I wanted to try per reviews online. It was EASILY my favorite place we ate. Honestly, I wanted to fly my boyfriend David down here just to have dinner here because it was THAT GOOD. Fritas Cuban Burgers stole my hungry heart. I had their signature burger and my mother had the Cuban sammie. They have house made lemonade and it was so good we ordered two. The cuban burger was to die for. Really. It was that good. We topped off our already full tummies with their homemade chocolate shake containing local ice cream. I mean, COME ON! Pro tip - after stuffing yourself there, split the shake and take it to go as you stroll back to your hotel.