Our Florida Keys Vacation

Wes and I have wanted to take a vacation just the two of us for a few years now but we kept putting it off due to one thing or another.  Finally earlier this year we booked a 3 night vacation in the Florida Keys through a travel agent.  The time between then and now just flew by and we took off from Louisville Airport last Wednesday April 17th on our way to Key West.  We had a short layover in Atlanta then on to the airport in Key West.  We landed there about 11:30 am so we had some time to burn before we could check into our resort.  We got our rental car, and something to eat, then headed to the Key West Aquarium since that is something we thought wouldn't take too long and we would like to see.  It was ok but didn't have a whole lot to it.  There were several sea turtles, tarpin, a big tank of nurse sharks that was pretty cool and some other native fish.  After going through the aquarium we headed out of Key West to find the resort we were staying at on Duck Key.  It was about an hour and a half drive out of Key West but we didn't have any trouble finding the resort and got all checked in and unpacked some.  We decided to just eat supper there and walk around and see what all there was to do.  It was a neat place they had two pools and two hot tubs and a salt water lagoon area with a beach around it.  It had a family of dolphins that lived in the lagoon around the island but it was expensive to do the dolphin connection things so we didn't but we could watch them swim around.  We ate at one of the restaurants at the resort and the food was good but expensive so most of the rest of the time we ate out at local places.

 The main pool at the resort

 The saltwater Lagoon.  A lot of the islands in the Keys chain don't really have any beach area it's mostly coral / rocky.

 The front entry of the resort

 Key West Aquarium - the sea turtle

 This pool had at least 15 - 6' nurse sharks in it.

Thursday we went back to Key West and took a Shark tour with Extreme Adventures.  It was really neat we had maybe 12 people with us and took a catamaran out a ways from shore to a spot they always go.  The sharks recognize the boat and come right up to it they feed them and the tour guides were really knowledgeable and able to answer questions.  All the sharks that came that day were lemon sharks there were probably 7-8 of them there.  They said sometimes they will get other type like bull, hammerhead but we didn't see any.  After feeding the sharks they headed to another area where another boat had said there was a pod of dolphins.  We found them and were able to watch them for a while it was neat watching them play.  After the tour we headed back toward the resort and decided to stop at Bahia Honda State park and check out the beaches there.  They are supposed to be some of the nicest beaches in the world.  Unfortunately it was really windy out and the waves were coming in and it wasn't all that great.  We tried laying on the beach but the wind was blowing the sand up so we looked for shells and walked up to this old bridge there.  Then we headed back to the resort for the night. 

Friday we had reservations to go snorkeling at the coral reefs.  When we got there though they said it was too windy the waves were 6-8' at the reef so we couldn't go but they would take us to the bay side where it wasn't as windy.  We decided to go since we had never been snorkeling.  It wasn't near as pretty but it was still neat and we were able to see some fish and coral.  After the snorkeling we stopped at a gift shop then went back to the resort.

Saturday was our last day in the Keys we decided to go back to Bahia Honda and rent a Kayak and some snorkel gear and go out to a small island off the beach there.  It ended up being the best day we had there the wind had finally died down and the beaches were beautiful and the water clear.  The island was kind of cool it was mostly coral and had a lot of shells on it.  We went snorkeling around the island and saw some different fish and more bright coral and plants before kayaking back to shore.  After a few hours there we headed back to Key West to start our journey home.  We were pretty lucky that the flights were all on time and other than a rough landing in Key West we didn't have a lot of rough air or any other delays.  Overall it was a great trip and one we will hopefully be able to do again.

 One of the beaches taken from the old bridge

 The island we took the kayak out to.  The bridge in the background was really neat it was the old highway 1 and was built over a railway bridge.

 A huge conch on the bottom of the ocean it was at least a foot long.

 The beach on Saturday the water was so clear and shallow most of what you can see in this picture is only maybe 2-3' deep at the most.