Life is best in Key West – A weekend in The Keys

“Hey Jessica and Brooke, we are going to The Florida Keys this weekend and you’re coming with us.”

That’s how it all began. Thursday night we began the trek down to The Keys by stopping at a friends house in South Florida to get some rest before our big weekend started. The grand plan was to rent a boat from a military base and snorkel at one of the amazing reefs in the area. It was a flawless plan. Until we realized that we had somehow forgotten our snorkeling equipment some 400 miles away from where we started.

Friday morning we woke up, made the obligatory stop at Starbucks and off we were in hopes that our luck would turn. Sad to say, at this point it hadn’t. We arrived at the marina and we were immediately told that the water is unexpectedly rough and the reefs probably would not be worth going out to. On top of that, we could not even take a boat until much later in the day.

There we were with no boat, no snorkels, and inclement weather over six hours from home with no backup plan. So just as anyone would do when things aren’t going as planned, we find a local place to grab some food and to collect our thoughts.

We decided that the islands were ripe with other exploration opportunity and we made a new start to our day by making our way to Bahia Honda State Park. The cool thing about this park is the close proximity to a small coral reef just off the coast. Sure it isn’t quite what we planned to see, but this place is absolutely beautiful. If it is a busy day at the park, I highly recommend going around to the east side of the island where you’ll find less people. This is also where you’ll find the reef a couple hundred yards off the beach.

From there we headed back down to downtown Key West for a bite to eat before we found another beach. This time we went to the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Here there is supposed to be an area to snorkel as well, but due to the rough water, we couldn’t even see 6 inches in front of our faces. Naturally, instead of just relaxing on the beach we decided to climb a few trees to grab some coconuts. It was all worth it, costing us only a few bruises and scratches.

It was getting late, so from here we rented some bikes to ride around the island on for the rest of the weekend. If you’re in Key West and want to just stay on the island, this is the best thing you can do. This is especially true if you plan on going out in the evening.

This being the only night we were spending down there, we wanted to get the full experience. We made stops at some of the local bars and pubs. One great thing about Key West is that everyone is there to have a great time, so talking to other groups is really easy (Prime Tip: If you want to be noticed wear bow ties! #AmericaIsIn). We finished off the evening exploring the major Key West attractions.

Our next day was filled with more bike riding around the beautiful area around Key West! Some of the main attractions we visited were Duval Street, Hemingway House, Mallory Square, the Old Post Office, and of course capping it off with a slice of world famous Key lime pie!

Our weekend was almost over, but we were going to end a weekend that started rough on a high note. We decided to have a cookout at the naval base along with watching an air show that was going on that weekend. The girls in our party had never seen the world famous Blue Angels in action, so that was an absolute must experience for them. It’s hard to not act like little kids again when watching the blue F/A 18 jets buzz the sky.

This weekend we learned a valuable lesson to apply to future adventure. We had to move on past the road blocks that we faced initially and make the most of our time. In the end, we had a fun and relaxing weekend where none of what we did had been planned.

Another Prime Adventure was in the books.