Trip to Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas

We've been wanting to go out to Fort Jeff again for a while, it hasn't worked out.  Mainly, we never made reservations.

There is only two ways to get to Fort Jeff if you are not travelling by your own boat (or seaplane).
Why is Fort Jefferson so special:  I'll let the fine folk at the NPS tell you.  It's 70 miles west of KeyWest, virtually the middle of nowhere.
Fort Jefferson National Park

The high speed ferry or seaplane.  We've done both, but I told Tim I wanted to do the water approach this time since we've become such big sailors :-).

There used to be two ferries, but one must have went out of business. It is a chunk of change to go out there. However, they do include breakfast/lunch/snorkel equipment.

The remaining company just recently built a new cat and put it into service in 2012.  She may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but she is smooth.  Although I was prepared for sea sickness, it never happened.  That there is good boat building.  They are also very proud of their boat. See here.

I highly recommend this trip to anyone and everyone. 

The rest will be a pictorial with commentary.

Getting buzzed by the seaplane going back to get more guests.
Our boat captain also flies the seaplanes.
I really don't think this would be approved of.

Approaching the Dry Tortugas.
Fort Jeff in front.  The light house on Loggerhead in the background

Walking along the moat wall.  Really good snorkeling in these waters.
However, we weenied out with the cooler water.

One of the bricks from the fort worn down by the waves.
That there be a 170 year old brick!

More of the bricks worn down to almost nothing.

Further along the beach we found a area of washed up 'people trash.'  We were told we can't take the bricks or any sealife off the island, but they didn't say anything about 'people' trash.  So I loaded up on a stellar load of sea glass.  Hey, didn't take the historical stuff, cleaned up.  Right?  And no, we didn't find a washed up Garmin.

Yes, it really is as cool as it looks.

The Tortugas are really good for bird watching also.  But, this time, I noticed a lot of dead birds, including three pelicans.  I thought, oh, great, what kind of killer virus is on this island.

This dude is a Royal Tern.  Love the crest on his head.

These guys. Awesome.

Close up.  Intensive research (wikipedia) informs me that they are Black Skimmers.
See how the lower beak sticks out further?

It's always good to know where to park your seaplane.

The beast.

Key West/Fort Jefferson Visit

We headed south to thaw out a bit.  We figured when you start thinking 20degF is 'warm', you've been in the cold too long.

After a brief visit to Miami Strictly Sail, mainly to look at boats we can't afford and say hi! to people we are starting to get to know 'in the circuit', we pointed the car south.

The first 75 minutes of our trip consisted of Tim having to listen to me alternately yell how every last driver in Miami needs to be shot with OH SHIT WE ARE GOING TO DIE.  We finally saw that beacon of hope:  Florida City-Gateway to the Keys.

The rest of the trip was uneventful until Key West.  Not much exciting we did in Key West other than eat too much, find our NEW favorite happy hour spot. Seriously: ANY WINE, ANY BEER, ANY LIQUOR half price and all small plate/appetizers half off.  After fresh shrimp, fresh smoked fish dip, at least a bottle and half worth of wine and 4 beers I think our check was around $35.  Our new secret hidey hole?  Alonzo's Oyster Bar on the Key West Bight.

We find another cool boutique hotel to stay at, also run by the Historic Inns of Key West.  All the rooms were modern, but the buildings themselves were built in 1888-ish. When you think of all the hurricanes and tropical storms, these old Conch houses are built pretty impressively to last.  (We won't get into the fires....)

The next day after we received our first souvenir from the fine folks at the City of Key West Parking Department.  (Whoops, blondie messed up her days when she bought her parking pass) we headed over to check the storage unit.  Everything is there, in good shape, and we discovered that the storage place routine WD-40s our lock for us to prevent rust.  Nice.

While over there, we had found out there was a new marina and at the marina there was reported to be a fantastic food truck.  Rock on.  Marina in good shape.  Food truck... AWESOME.

Shrimp Road Grille

Pulled pork queso fresco, fresh cilantro and chef's slaw.
Housemade pineapple/coconut jerk barbecue on the side.
The spouse had Mahi.

Our lunch companions were a flock of Guinea Hens, to which my spouse said:  How the HELL did you know what those damn things were?  Hello? Lived in rural Kansas for 6 years....I knows my poultry.  They also had a community garden that the marina live aboards and locals tended to. Did I take pictures?  Of course not, I get too much in this lookie lookie mode and not enough into clickie clickie mode.

Of course, here's the requisite Key West sunset shot.
Ummm, the earth is normal, I was.....not so much.
So, the schooner is NOT sailing uphill.

Snowstorm Nika

I'm still not sure how I feel about naming winter storms.  It irritates the piss out the NWS, which is amusing, but some of these names are just goofy.  But, it was entertaining to watch The Weather Channel people all say the name differently, you woulda thought that they might have had a pre-game meeting on that, hmmmm?

I think we brought this on ourselves.  Because I distinctly remember having the conversation with different people...didn't it seemed like it snowed more when we were kids?

(Then I thought, wait, when I was a kid I lived in places like Hawaii/Seattle/Okinawa.  We were stationed at Great Lakes, but you EXPECT snow up there. )

I digress...the conversations were made.  And I think Mother Nature overheard.

And she said: Oh really?  Well, let's bring it the f*** on!

So, while I watched Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel merrily hanging out at the KC Country Club Plaza saying how this area NEVER gets this much snow...

We did.  To be followed by temperatures in the single to minus digits.

That would be a little over 12 inches, thank you very much.
Not including the 1/2 inch of ice underneath.

But, since we are a bit smarter than those folks down in Atlanta, Northeast Kansas/KC Metro area pretty much shut down for two days.  Smart move, roads got cleared a lot faster, less people to rescue.

The spouse treated the folks that showed up at work well for those two days.  He's a good boss that way.

I got to work on cleaning our Matterhorn of a driveway.  But, first, I needed to gear up.  That consisted of Tim's old ski pants, my waterproof hiking boots, scarf up to my eyeballs, hat, and my big ass parka which later I decided looked like what Broadway Joe Namath wore for the coin toss at the Super Bowl.  But it's warm.  Finally, I put on Tim's NASA grade ski gloves and I was ready.  If I could figure out how to move with all of this on.

This is NOT my style.  I'm more of a shorts and swimsuit gal.

However, there was at least one carbon-based member of our household that was overjoyed with all of this nonsense.  And it's hard not to smile when you see a malamute in action in her element.

I love when my humans hide my toys in the snow for me to dig up.

Stop whining, it's great out!

Normally, there's a pool around here somewheres. 
Those are our lounge chairs.

This last bit is just for humor.  As I was TRYING to get a picture of both dogs romping in the snow, the crazy black dog decides to maul me.  Phone goes flying, I had to call it from the house phone to find it.  Found it, it works, but it wasn't until later I realized it took a picture while is was in midair.
Okay, I have cabin fever, it was funny to me.

 

One week until we fly to Miami and then down to the Keys.  Not that I'm counting.....