Just when you thought it couldn’t get better, it does. Here I am again on my newest favorite elliptical machine facing the ocean thinking about my day yesterday.

We’ve had a steady set of planned activities but it hasn’t felt like we ha e been rushed at all. Waking up in the AM feeling good (perhaps a little hung over), but not needing to jump out of bed right away for any reason. It’s been a great balance of excursions and R and R.

Yesterday was the piece de resistance thus far. A sea-plane ride out to the Dry Tortuga National Park. Arguably one of the most difficult to get to and therefore least visited National Park in the US. If you ever looked at a map of southern Florida, you would think that Key West was as far as one could go, but in fact it is not. It’s just where the highway ends.

About 9:45 AM we boarded a plane with 8 passenger seats (plus two more in the cockpit) and took off from Key West International Airport and glided a cool 500 feet above the water and tiny uninhabited islands until we arrived at our destination, Fort Jefferson. We landed on the water. That’s what makes a sea plane a sea plane, it can take off and land from water or a runway. It was super cool, and surprisingly a really smooth ride from start to finish. We landed near a beach at the north side of the island and departed into sand.

At the island there’s two main attractions, good snorkeling around the outside of the fort and touring the fort itself. The structure is massive. They said it was the largest brick structure in the Westen Hemisphere and can be seen from space like the Great Wall Of China. Three stories high and circular in totality. The interior of the structure was large enough for rooms and hallways and of course the inside a wide expanse of land. Built for strategic Naval positioning but most often used to house prisoners. Such interesting history.

Our first order of business after arrival however was to get to the snorkeling. I could do a whole post about that and since we are going again today (somewhere else of course), I think I’ll save that for later. Needless to say, with my fear of drowning, it was quite the experience for me.

The whole excursion, plane ride included took about 4 hours. It was just enough because the Florida heat and sun is unforgiving. On the way back, the pilot asked us if one of us wanted to sit in the cockpit. My answer.. “Hellz yes!!”. It was icing on a delicious cake.

I saw so many sea turtles out in the ocean. JS saw more than that, dolphins and Rays, but that’s probably because I don’t j ow what I’m looking at. Or what to look for.

When we arrived back at the condo we were wiped out and laid around napping for a few hours. Just enough of a rest to recharge and eat bedore heading out to find drinks and watch the sunset from “sunset pier”. There were literally thousands of people gathered there to also witness it. The pier is hopping with bars and shops and restaurants. After sunset we stopped to watch a steer performer… ridiculous Reece. Then we wandered around more and eventually decided to call it a night.

It was another amazing day and like I said, hard to top. We have a more chill day planned for today with no absolute scheduled activities. More snorkeling, visiting a few Key West sites, and whatever else we can find…

Live from Paradise,

~Miss SugarCookie