Key West Vacation 2018

Our Key West vacation this year was a few days shorter than usual since my mom had to be back early. We packed each day so full that it turned out to not make a difference! Everyone else planned to arrive in Key West on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to take our time traveling. We left Saturday morning and stopped halfway in Key Largo overnight. The hotel we stayed in had really tame iguanas we had fun tossing berries at.

The boys wanted to be at the pool the entire time. They played in there the evening we got there, and the next morning before we checked out.

We had a lot of time between checking out of the hotel and when we could check in at the vacation rental in Key West. It was only a 2 1/2 hour drive, but we managed to make enough side trips to take 5 hours to get there! First we explored a coral reef exhibit at a state park:

James slipped and fell against the glass of the aquarium and made such a loud noise, it scared me to death! I thought for sure he had cracked the glass, but thankfully he didn't.

We stopped and got a picture at the largest Florida lobster replica in the world. We've driven by every year but this was the first time we stopped. They also had a little market with lots of interesting things to look at.

Next stop was a small bass pro shop since Anthony wanted to look for replacement rubber bands for his spear gun. They had a large replica of a boat owned by Ernest Hemingway. The boys loved exploring it and then pretending it was a pirate ship looking for treasure.

We made our annual visit to Robbies to feed the tarpon. They were hungry this year! I decided to try to hold the bait down for them to jump up and grab like Anthony usually does and the tarpon scratched up my hand pretty good. I was bleeding everywhere! Anthony got a video of it on the gopro, so we added it to our yearly key west video.

Our last detour before finally making it to Key West was to a historical aviation exhibit at the Marathon airport. It was free and the boys loved getting to sit in a real (decommissioned) airplane. As we were leaving James said, "Can coming here be part of our tradition of coming to Key West?"

They also had an old fire engine that they let the boys climb on. They got to ring the bell too, which was very exciting.

After we made it to our vacation rental, it was time for the first lobstering expedition. Not bad for the first trip!

James caught a baby lizard:

Ahhh, the wild chickens. The roosters start crowing at 5am and do. not. stop.

Nick speared a hog fish! I was on the shore with the boys collecting hermit crabs for the aquarium, so he brought me the fish to put in the cooler. I learned how to clean fish last year, so I got to practice some more on this guy.

This is what we see when they are out catching lobster. Just a dive flag and the occasional snorkel.

A full day's catch:

James likes to help grab the lobsters out of the cooler and help line them up with the lobster noose.

The Navy base we stay on every year has a new commander, so this year there were a lot of new rules. The lobstering crew kept getting kicked out of different areas and told they weren't allowed to be there anymore and while we were fishing under the bridge this year with the boys, a military police officer came up and told us that we weren't allowed to fish there anymore. Rett didn't understand what he was saying and he ran right up to him and said excitedly, "We are going fishing!!!". The guy looked at us and said, "Well now I feel like a jerk!" We all laughed!

I knew that Anthony would be fishing or lobstering the entire time we were there since we only had three days, so I tried to bring a few things to keep the boys entertained. I tried putting tiny toys inside a balloon, filling it with water and then freezing it so that they could hack them out. It was a hit! The boys called it "ice balloons" and they asked me all the time if they could play ice balloons.

My mom and I took the boys on a trolley tour of Key West and it was the perfect way of exploring downtown! We didn't have to worry about traffic or parking, and it wasn't too hot or tiring. When we first got on there were one a few seats, so Rett had to sit in my lap.

We got off at a downtown stop and decided to walk to the Ernest Hemingway house. I saw this cool flower that had a bee going from tiny flower to tiny flower and James told me I had to take a picture for Anthony.

Amazing tree! While we were walking underneath it, a huge thing of poop fell from the branches and almost landed on us. I'm guessing it was from an iguana, but the boys thought it was the funniest thing.

The end/beginning of US1:

A Kapok tree:

The boys didn't know who Ernest Hemingway was, so I tried to explain it to them. In one of the rooms of his house there was a replica of his boat, the one they got to explore at Bass Pro. Once they recognized the boat, they were so excited! James was like, "You mean this is the house of the guy who owns that boat???? Cool!!!"

James saw this little door under the stairs and he said, "It's a cupboard under the stairs, just like Harry Potter! You have to take a picture!"

By far, their favorite part of touring the house was trying to find all the five-toed cats. They told us that there are 57 hemingway cats (the ones with an extra toe) on the grounds. James took that as a challenge and declared that we needed to find all 57 of them. Each time we found one he would add it to the count.

While we were on the tour, Anthony and Nick lured a wild chicken into the house. Because why not.

More lobster!

It turned out to be a great lobster catching year, even though we had a lot less time than usual. They ended up catching 87, which was the same amount as last year. Anthony was happy as long as they didn't get less. Next year he wants to beat 87!

James found a coconut he wanted to crack open. He could hear the water sloshing around when he shook it, so he knew there was something in there. Nick had a drill we could borrow so we could get it out. 

I was impressed with how good the meat of the coconut was!

A friend of Anthony's who has a commercial collecting business (he collects snails, fish, etc... and sells them to fish stores) happened to be in the Keys the same week we were there. He offered to take us all out on his boat and do some collecting. We helped him get some blue leg hermit crabs, snails, and emerald crabs and we got to swim and explore at the same time. Win/win!

James found this huge starfish in a tide pool and it was so big and orange I thought it was fake at first!

Here is our video of gopro clips and lobster pictures we do every year. Enjoy!