August 28, 2025
I was invited to the wedding of the youngest of the Torsilieri sisters, Holly, on Labor Day weekend in Key Largo, Florida, and I asked Scott to be my wedding date. After some initial grumbling and brainstorming of other people that could potentially go as my date in his place since he does not particularly care for weddings, he finally agreed to come along with me. We found direct flights from Asheville to Fort Lauderdale on Allegiant, and the slightly longer drive to the Asheville airport was worth it because they were quite affordable.
My parents generously agreed to take us to the airport and we flew out Thursday morning. We were pleasantly surprised by Allegiant and had smooth sailing on our flight. The only travel snafu that day that we ran into was some confusion on how to connect with the off-site rental car shuttle bus. Poor signage and bad intel from airport workers caused us to waste an hour or so but eventually we figured it out and arrived at Easirent to pick up our bright blue Nissan Sentra. Scott programmed his map app to avoid tolls and we headed south, skirting along the desolate looking Everglades once we got out of the city.
We stopped in Homestead for groceries and a much overdue lunch that was now bordering dangerously into dinner territory, and even though I had tried to strategically snack earlier to avoid getting hangry, I still got hangry. Scott was a trooper like always and put up with my hanger cheerfully.
The Airbnb we had rented was the “Reef Dreamer,” a vintage cabin cruiser boat docked at a marina slightly north of Key Largo, and we found it easily. We put our bags in the boat, took a quick tour of it, taking note of the strong smell of diesel inside it that we would be enjoying for the next few days, and then wandered around checking out the marina.
Like most marinas in the Keys, this one had orderly linear channels cut into the coral and mangroves to make a multitude of waterway lanes to optimize for getting as many boats docked in the small space as possible. At the end of our lane was a commons area that overlooked the mangroves and after dousing ourselves in Off! we were able to sit in the area and enjoy the view over the water, and eventually were treated to a stunning Keys sunset that cast a surreal orange glow over the entire area.
Sleep that night wasn’t great because a luxurious Tempurpedic mattress it was not. Rather, it was a simple piece of custom cut foam overtop plywood to fit the V-birth of the boat. I have become a princess of the Princess and the Pea persuasion as I have gotten older and hard mattresses wreak havoc on my body, so the next day I got creative and raided the small closet for any blankets and made my own mattress topper with what I found. We also gave Scott his own blanket so that his sport fishing blue marlin-like flopping about during the night wouldn’t wake me up. That and we dosed ourselves with Unisom and both slept like babies the second night.
August 29, 2025
Our plan for Friday was a day trip to Key West which is a little over two hours south of Key Largo. We also wanted to time the drive so that we could catch the sunrise at Seven Mile Bridge. So at an insanely early hour Friday morning we hit the road and headed south. We had to stop at a McDonald’s on the way for coffee because despite our attempts to get the coffee maker in the boat to work, Scott was only able to coax a few meager ounces out of it after fiddling with it for nearly half an hour.
We arrived at the bridge in Marathon a few minutes before the sun was slated to make its appearance. However, the weather had other ideas and instead of seeing the sun, brooding clouds awaited us instead. We walked a ways down the pedestrian portion of the bridge despite the skies and even though we never saw the sun, we got some dramatic shots of the bridge backlit by the threatening sky. Satisfied with our attempt, we headed on towards Key West.
A little ways north of the city we hit major traffic and inched along for nearly an hour making seemingly little progress before it eventually cleared. Because the Overseas Highway is the only route through the Keys, traffic is easily snarled if there are any incidents along it. We were getting the authentic Keys experience.
Eventually we reached Key West and easily found parking. Part of the reason for leaving so early was for exactly this- parking becomes progressively trickier to find as the day goes on. Scott’s YouTube research had emphasized the parking issue, and it’s things like this that make me appreciate his thorough online probing prior to our trips.
He had put together an informal walking tour for us and we headed off first in search of more coffee. We found the Caribbean Coffee Roasters and both got some sort of sweet and creamy iced concoctions before carrying on in search of Mallory Square, the central waterfront plaza of Key West. We found benches and sipped our coffee while looking out over the water and some of the smaller Keys in the distance. Although shy and illusive earlier this morning, the south Florida sun had finally made its appearance and was now boldly doing its job heating up the town despite the early hour.
After we finished our coffee we strolled along the pier that ran parallel to the water at the seaport. Fishing charters and tour groups were gathering for their day’s adventures along the docks and on the boats. I spotted my first Key West chicken and had to take pictures. I feel like chickens had featured prominently this past year in our travels, Hawaii and St. Croix were teeming with them, and Key West didn’t disappoint. In fact, they are known for them, and feature heavily in the local art, souvenirs and knicknacks. (One shop we went in even had a sign posted on the front door asking customers to please shut the door behind them so that the rooster wouldn’t come inside.)
On Duvall Street, Key West’s version of Bourbon Street, we found the Sculpture Garden, and spent some time exploring the busts of famous and influential Key West citizens, most notably Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams. Just a few blocks away was the Hemingway Home and Museum. We opted not to purchase tickets for the tour but still got our polydactyl cat fix as there was one lounging right outside the ticket booth that we got to visit with and count his little kittycat toe-beans (6 on each front mitten-like foot rather than the standard kittycat 5).
We continued down Duvall Street, passing the “Little Whitehouse on the way,” Harry Truman’s winter home, as we made our way to the dead-end at the water and the famous buoy that marks the southernmost point in the continental US. We were somewhat unimpressed but needed to say we had been here, especially since earlier in the summer we had visited the easternmost point in the US when we went to Point Udall in St. Croix; so instead of waiting in the long line to get our picture taken standing next to it, we got close enough and took a selfie. Doing the thing you’re supposed to do in the place you’re supposed to do it. Check.
After laying eyes on the famous southernmost buoy we found a nearby beach and waded in. That was short-lived because the sand was grossly squishy and the area stank of sulfur. However, there were beach chickens, and I was captivated by them going about their chickeny business along the shore, so we found some Adirondack chairs and sat in the shade and observed them (or at least I did- Scott is not usually as enamored by feral chickens as I am). He was more interested in the iguanas that were basking on the seawall and wandered over to take some pictures of them.
Next we headed in search of a restaurant called Blue Heaven for lunch that had gotten rave reviews online. It didn’t disappoint. It was all outside seating and sprawling oak trees provided a shady canopy over top that along with well placed fans, made it quite nice despite the day’s high temps. The patio’s funky decorations were entertaining to look at, as were the free ranging chickens that strolled by pecking the ground and eating crumbs dropped by diners. Scott and I shared their daily special- a lobster grilled cheese sandwich on their homemade bread and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We opted not to have their version of key lime pie, and opted instead to go to get slices from Moondog Cafe down the block which the internet claims to have the best key lime pie in town. We paid $25 for two slices and had them box them for us to take with us since we were still stuffed from lunch.
We were now hot and tired from walking all day in the 95° heat and high humidity, but we had one last sight to see before we could head to the car. We needed to go find the “Mile 0” sign on US 1 and take a picture with it. We walked several blocks to it and asked a passerby to take our picture. It turns out that they were originally from Laurens, SC, and now live in Myrtle Beach. My mom has taught me to love a good small world story, so this was the small world story for our Key West adventure.
We found our electric blue Sentra, immediately cranked up the a/c, and headed north back towards Key Largo. Scott had me look up directions to Bahia Honda State Park, alleged to be the best beach along the Overseas Highway, and we decided that a swim and possibly a nap in the shade would be nice about now. When we got there we decided that our first order of business was to eat our key lime pie so we found a parking spot and chowed down. It was good- the right amount of tang and creaminess and the slices were huge (thankfully, considering the price…).
Scott was disappointed to learn he couldn’t hang his hammock in the trees since it was a state park, so the chances of a nap were diminished, but we still had a nice soak in the water, although it felt more like standing in a hot tub than being in the ocean since the water was as smooth as glass and the water temp was 90°. It was better than not soaking at all though and we spent some time relaxing in it. A portion of the original Flagler Highway had been restored and now served as a viewing area over the water and eventually it started calling Scott’s name so he went to climb up it. I opted to stay in the water. There weren’t any decent shady spots for a nap so once he was done exploring we decided to head back to Key Largo.
Traffic was thankfully tame on the trip back up north and we decided to stop at a waterfront restaurant in town for an early dinner. The meal was somewhat unremarkable, the live music was laughably bad, but the views over the marina were entertaining. Charter fishing boats had just made their way back and we watched the crew cleaning the boat and dressing the day’s catch. The most exciting part of dinner was watching 4-5 nurse sharks gather round the dock expecting to receive the bits of fish that got thrown back into the water as the crew processed it. They must know the routine because they looked well practiced and would gobble up the fish as soon as it got tossed into the water. When we tired of watching them we drove back to our boat and called it a night.
