Post by Lauren, Photos by Dusty
In June of 2016, we loaded up the car and took a road trip to Key West. Just so you know (I didn’t until halfway through the trip), it’s over 1,000 miles! If travel is the ultimate relationship test, this road trip fit the bill for sure! The drive was great – in particular the drive south from Miami down U.S. 1
We booked a room at the Key West Bed and Breakfast – a pink Victorian located in the historic ticket. We parked our car on the street and did not use it again until we left (and unfortunately learned we had parking tickets!). Breakfast included locally available fruit, homemade pastries, and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was heaven. We highly recommend staying at the Key West Bed and Breakfast if you’re even in Key West!
Dry Tortugas National Park
On our first day, Dusty surprised me with a ferry trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. It’s located about 70 miles off the coast of Key West and features Fort Jefferson, turquoise blue waters, and an accessible coral reef. We brought our snorkel gear and explored the island. The ferry is great and offers meals, snacks and most importantly, cocktails!
Old Town Key West
Mallory Square is the center of activity. We attended the nightly sunset celebrations. There are lots of people around along with locals playing music and entertaining the tourists. We spent most nights there enjoying the sunset before finding something to eat for dinner. There are tons of great restaurants within walking distance that fit any taste and price range.
We ate great food everywhere we went. But, hands down, the best culinary experience was at Better Than Sex – a dessert restaurant. Wine is served in chocolate-rimmed glasses. All the desserts are creatively named in accordance with the sexy theme. The restaurant is dimly lit and the couples sit in private booths. They make dining there an experience. We sampled a few desserts, the standout being the Peanut Butter Perversion. After our engagement in 2017, we looked into how to get the Peanut Butter Perversion as our wedding cake. It made that kind of impression! Better Than Sex is a must.
Scuba, Snorkel & Kayaks
Before Key West, I earned my SCUBA certification. Dusty was already an experienced diver. So, this was my first real dive. The waters were crystal clear and we had great views of the reef. The only hiccup came after our dive. Our divemaster did not go down with us, so we were kind of left to our own devices. When we surfaced, we were about 100 yards from the boat. With the waves and current it was a tough swim! One of the divemasters helped me swim back, but poor Dusty was left to rough it on his own. So, we got a bonus workout with our dive that day!
On our last full day, we booked a backcountry snorkel, kayak and sail trip with Danger Charters. Dusty knocked it out of the park when he booked this trip. We saw other overcrowded charters with people snorkeling on top of each other. Not us! We were part of a small group on a smallish sailboat. The crew took us to more remote spots to snorkel and avoided the crowds. We kayaked through the mangroves in another remote part of the coastline and even got close with a few friendly nurse sharks!
Detour to Orlando
To break up the return trip, we spent two nights in Orlando. We spent the day at Universal riding all of the rides and especially enjoying Harry Potter! The next day, we went to Sea World, but bad weather shut down most of the attractions. This was the first day of rain on our trip. We counted ourselves as lucky and started the trip back home early.
Key West has a great feel to it – kind of like a beachy New Orleans. Everyone is so relaxed and reservations are flexible. We got used to the slow paced life and the days with no worries. We were sad to leave Key West but can’t wait to plan another trip back!
Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoyed!