Key West & Bahia Honda State Park

It took us two full driving days to get from New Orleans to the Florida Keys. We stopped into the state visitors center on our way into Florida. They gave us some free orange juice!

Free orange juice and some photo opportunities at the Florida state visitors center

In the visitors center parking lot

We camped out at a nice state park just outside of Tampa bay.  The next morning we continued on and stopped at a few places in the Everglades National Park.

View point at the Everglades National Park

The Everglades is one of Americas biggest national parks and one of the more endangered ones. for bDespite its size, it's only a small fraction of what the wetlands used to be. Much of the area was drained and reclaimed in the early 20th century for  vacation property.

If you look carefully you can see a claw of an alligator under the water

We did see one alligator. Wildlife is harder to see in the wet season, since their habitat is so much bigger for them to hide in. Park staff tipped us off on where to look though, and we were able to spot this guy carefully hidden in a pond.

Taking a sunset walk after settling in at Bahia Honda State Park

I booked us for two nights at a beautiful campsite at Bahia Honda State Park in the middle of the Florida Keys. The park takes up the entire key, is about an hour north of Key West and had some of the best beaches and snorkeling in the keys.

During our stay we spent our evenings enjoying the night life in Key West and by day we soaked up the sun on Bahia Honda's white sand beaches. 

A little crab in the sand

One of many white sand beaches that surround the key. In the distance is the highway that connects the keys to the mainland. It took three hours to drive the length of it

Relaxing on the beach with a book

The view from our spot in the shade

Starting my sandcastle

Lots of little white lizards running around

Completed!

This years sand castle

Bahia Honda is such a popular state park that when I booked our site I wasn't able to book for two nights. Luckily, the sight next door was available for the following night so before we headed out for the day we moved all of our stuff one site down. This is Bill's method for moving our tent without taking it down or deflating the air mattress.

Bill moving the tent, turtle style

After turtling our tent next door we, hopped in the car and drove out to Key West. 

Bill wanted to visit Hemingway's house and maybe see some of his six toed cats.

Watching the sunset and street performers from Mallory Square

We hit Duval street, Key West's bar strip and bar hopped for the evening, 

Our first stop - Capt. Tony's Saloon

Capt. Tony's Saloon has a long and interesting history in Key West. The site the bar stands on has been the site of a hanging tree, a morgue, a gay bar and Sloppy Joe's which was Hemingway's favourite hangout (until that establishment was moved across the street). From 1958-2008 it was run by Capt. Tony, who was in his time a gunner, a rum runner and at one point, the mayor of Key West.  Since his death in 2008, this colourful character lives on at this bar which is decorated with licence plates and bras among other things. It was our first stop on our self directed pub crawl.

Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet's bar

Jimmy Buffet started as a young hopeful in Key West and although he's long since moved to Miami people still hope to catch a gimps of him looking for his lost shaker of salt while they're here. We didn't see Jimmy, but we did stop in at his bar.

Showing off my tan at The Porch. Stop number three on our pub crawl

The porch is a new addition to Duval Street. The old Victorian style house has cozy outdoor seating on their big front porch and some amazing live bands playing in the front yard. To one side is a bar with a huge selection of craft beer and wine, the other side has fancy cocktails. It was a treat just to watch the cocktails being made, they're pretty elaborate.

The awesome Little Richard inspired band playing at The Porch

Last stop at the Green Parrot

Our last bar of the night was at the Green Parrot. This bar was tucked off away off of Duval Street but we still found it. They had a pretty roaring crowd going when we got there. Best of all, they have a free self serve popcorn machine in the corner!

Overall we really enjoyed our stay in the Keys. Sleeping out in the tent was a little difficult in the heavy humidity, if I were to go again, I don't think I'd camp out.