Mile Zero

My absolute favorite thing about military life is the plethora of opportunities to visit, explore, and see many places via road tripping! The many different places we have lived have afforded us a varied and full tourist life. We recently took a long weekend trip down to the southern most spot in the US; Key West! The drive down was as much fun as the few days we spent lounging and exploring the island itself. The first thing I will warn, (life lesson number 62,498, approx.) is to NEVER show up in Miami on a Friday expecting a quick overnight rest without a hotel reservation. We actually didn't expect to make it that far in one afternoon, but we found ourselves on the cusp of the Keys late on Friday night. We wanted to drive the Keys in daylight and enjoy the sights and stops, so we searched and searched for a place to hang our hats for the night. You'd think this would be a quick and easy thing to accomplish, but all brand name hotels were completely booked. There were, however, a couple $400+ rooms available. What??! We found ourselves near the airport in a very affordable run down motel. Not a place that would ever have even made the bottom of my list of  lodging that I would seek out to stay with my family. But, that is where our adventure began.
We survived the night in "motel de grunge" and embarked on a tropical journey. We found a great little Cuban diner in south Miami to stop and fuel our bodies for the trip. Miami is littered with Cuban culinary dives. I have yet to find one I don't like. After a leisurely breakfast we continued on down Highway 1 and  Overseas Highway.
Enjoying the scenic drive we found ourselves pulling in to the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center.

The center was free to walk around and explore. It operates entirely off of donations which help rescue and rehabilitate wild birds and educate the public. We learned about the dangers that humans pose to wild birds and how we can minimize our negative impact on the bird populations. We also got to enjoy some close encounters with some pretty special species.

 

                the elusive peregrine falcon                                                    brown pelicans

After our bird watching stroll we loaded back into the car and continued down Highway 1. After winding our way through some island roads we came upon the National Key Deer Refuge. We were able to hike a little ways into the refuge and spot some Key Deer. They are much smaller than the deer we are use to seeing.    

Along our route I tried to keep a list of the names of all of the Keys we crossed: 1.) Key Largo 2.) Taverneir 3.)Islamorada 4.)Craig Key 5.)Conch Key 6.)Duck Key 7.)Long Key 8.)Grassy Key 9.)Marathon Key- where we stopped for gas and Dunkin Donuts 10.)Pigeon Key 11.)Ohio Key 12.) Scout Key 13.) No Name Key 14.) Little Torch Key 15.)Big Torch Key 16.)Ramrod Key 17.)Summerland Key 18.)Cudjoe Key 19.)Sugarloaf Key 20.) Shark Key 21.)Big Coppitt Key 22.)East Rockland Key...just to name a few.

There are many possiblilities for lodging on Key West including hotels, vacation rentals, plenty of camp sites, as well as several military acommodations including the The Navy Lodge, Navy Gateway Inn and Suites, Trumbo Point Condos, and lots of camping on the bases. We stayed at the Navy Lodge. It was a little farther from all of the downtown action than some of the other lodging but it was enjoyable. It was a great little base for jogging along the water and iguana watching. 

The opportunities for adventure in Key West abound. From trying Conch (islanders pronounce it "Conk", while tourists say "Conch) for the first time and getting to blow on the Conch shell to bicycling around to all of the historic sites and points of interest.

 While on a jet ski tour around the Key we discovered the sub pits where there use to be a submarine base. Now THAT would have been a great duty station! 

We took this trip directly after King Triton returned from a 3 month deployment and directly before moving to the D.C. area. After arriving in D.C. and attempting to secure housing for a week or so we discussed the notion that maybe we should have taken the time we spent in Key West and did some more research on areas to live in D.C. instead of going on a mini vacation. Now after going back through these memories of our Key West trip and reliving it I am convinced that we did the right thing. Key West was exactly what we needed at that point in time.