We had many amazing days during our expedition in the
Florida Keys. However, my personal favorite, by far, is the final day of
expedition at Key West. My first thoughts of the area brought up some memories
as I thought to myself: “This is a lot like a tropical version of Gatlinburg,
Tennessee.” Well, it turns out that I was right, but in my opinion, that’s a
good thing!
When we first arrived around noon on March 6, we were
already having an awesome day. It was Zach’s seventeenth birthday, and we were
planning to celebrate. The celebration we got was not expected, however, as it
turned out that there was a tornado watch for the area. We didn’t get the
tornado, but we got almost every other part of the storm: heavy rain, strong
winds, super-bright lightning, and explosive thunder! It was actually a fun
experience for all of us, even if some of the guys described it as “imminent
death.” (Admittedly, I was one of those people!) Thankfully, it calmed down
later on.
After a long walk through the fray, we arrived at the Key
West Aquarium. Although we used it partially as a shelter, we got to see some
awesome creatures there: nurse sharks, horseshoe crabs, lionfish, and the
exotic sea cucumber! (It’s awesome because it spits out water for a defensive
habit!) We were going to look at some gators, but then we heard the
aforementioned explosive thunder. But when it calmed down, we got to touch some
stingrays and blow into a conch horn. The sound you hear is not unlike that of
a foghorn. (“Adventurers, unite!”)
A few hours later, we visited two different shops. The first
of these was Peppers of Key West, where we got to try several types of hot
sauce. Zach nearly passed out after the first few! (That’s a joke, but he was
certainly in hysterics!) James and I got through all of the samples without
much of a problem. I was also able to finally witness the somewhat legendary
ghost pepper sauce, although I was unable to try it. The other store we went to
was Kermit’s Key West Lime Shoppe, where we not only got to taste a lot of key
lime-flavored treats, but we each got a slice of key lime pie for Zach’s
birthday. Let me just say this: it was exceptionally amazing!
After yet another long walk, we finally found a place to eat
dinner. It was a burger joint known as BurgerFi. We attempted to all decide on
a meal for about half an hour, and then ordered our dinner choices. Each of us
got a soda from those really-awesome Coca-Cola soda machines, and we shared
three “bucket o’ fries” that we didn’t even finish. I approve of this place for
whoever goes to Key West, but beware: the massive amount of food that’s there
will leave you feeling sick for a while!
This day consisted of a lot of other smaller activities,
such as random store hopping, souvenir purchases, and other sight-seeing
opportunities. We were exhausted by the time we arrived back at the van, but it
was all during our final day of expedition. It was a finale that I approve of
greatly, and if I ever go back to the Keys, I will definitely return to the Southernmost
Point of the United States!
