America's Best Idea

Dry Tortugas National Park

We had an enjoyable ride driving the seven mile bridge. This was our first time in Key West, so I had a list of things I wanted to do: fishing, snorkeling, sampling multiple key lime pies, walking around on Duval Street, and exploring Dry Tortugas National Park.

Dry Tortugas is a remote park located 70 miles west of Key West. You can get there by either ferry or seaplane. My Christmas gift to Tim was the seaplane, which took less than a 30-minute flight compared to a 2.5 hour ferry ride one way. It was cool to sit up front with the pilot and watch him navigate to the island. It was my first time landing on water, so that was a really neat experience.

Seeing Dry Tortugas come into view from afar and arriving was amazing. The different colors of the water—so many shades of blue—were stunning. It was a clear day, the sun was shining, and we saw lots of sharks swimming from above. Once we got on the ground, we explored Fort Jefferson, made out of over 16 million bricks. The fort was originally used as a military fortress and a prison during the Civil War. You can also camp there overnight, which would be a neat experience for another time, to be able to camp out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

After exploring the fort, we put on our snorkel gear and jumped into the water. I've swum in the Gulf of Mexico numerous times when we traveled to Destin, Florida, but this water was a lot colder than the Gulf of Mexico water on the panhandle in Florida. We hardly saw any fish, and as we were snorkeling along the wall, we heard people screaming "shark" from the top of the wall, pointing at us. We turned around immediately and started swimming towards shore. I didn't see the shark, but Tim saw it swimming alongside us. I never swam so fast in my life that even my calves were cramping up, but I didn't care—we just needed to get to shore safely.

After our heart-pounding escape from the shark, we returned to the area where the seaplanes were picking us up. While we were waiting for the seaplane, we noticed an area of the park closed off. It was due to the Bush Key seasonal closure, which supports the largest breeding colony of sooty and brown noddy terns in the continental U.S.

As the sun began to set, the seaplane arrived to take us back to the mainland. To unwind from our adventurous day, we made several stops to sample different Key lime pies, each one more delicious than the last. We ended our evening on Duval Street, listening to live music and soaking in the vibrant atmosphere. The blend of excitement, history, and local flavors made it a day we would never forget.