State(s): Florida
Link: https://www.nps.gov/bisc/index.htm
Days: 1
Month: December
Hotel: Best Western Plus Miami Executive Airport Hotel & Suites > Casa Morada
Hikes: 1 = 0.7 miles
Ice Cream: Keys Chocolates & Ice Cream
For this trip, we flew into Miami and took a road-trip from there to Key West. Along the way, we went to the Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Biscayne National Park, and Dry Tortugas National Park.
Day 1
The majority of this park is water so we decided to take a boat tour to see as much of the park as we could. We headed to the Dante Fascell Visitor Center so we could get our stamp and check in for the Heritage of Biscayne Boat Tour. We packed lunch & snacks as we were going to stop at one of the keys around lunchtime. On the way to get on the boat, we saw an iguana.
On the boat ride, we saw double crested birds (diving birds). Juan was our guide and he told us about a cool story involving the Jones family who use to own one of the keys. You can read about it here: https://www.nps.gov/bisc/learn/historyculture/the-joneses-of-porgy-key.htm
Eventually we stopped at Boca Chita Key and docked by the pavilion. We had around 1.5 hours to explore so we headed over to the stone walls where the easy 0.7 mile Boca Chita Trail (locally known as blood donor trail because of the mosquitos) started. During our journey we came across a 4 car garage and found a coconut at the end!
Our next stop was the chapel. There was a stamp inside the chapel, but it turned out to be the same one as what was at the visitor center. Then we headed to the lighthouse & cannon. It was then time for lunch under a tree in the shade. After eating our PB & J, I broke open the coconut and it was unfortunately moldy.
After lunch, we walked along the beach area the water was so clear! We then found the Engine House, but it was all boarded up.
Next, we hopped on the boat and took it back to the visitor center. Along the way saw a few dolphins. We also saw a nuclear power plant & learned how the National Park was able to influence the plant to stop heating up the water like they were, causing wildlife to suffer. Captain Anthony & tour guide Juan were both great personable people who made the trip awesome!
We headed to Casa Morada for a relaxing night but were getting there a little too early so we decided to stop at a store right down the road from the hotel, called Lobster Trap Art Gift Shop and Gallery. This place was amazing – they had local artists paint and take pictures then used old lobster traps to make frames for the art. We highly recommend stopping here if you’re in the area.
After checking in and walking around the resort grounds, we headed down the road for a short talk to Lorelei Restaurant and Cabana Bar. We were there for happy hour so we opted to get fried pickles and a couple stone crab claws. After our appetizers, we got a Lorelei sunrise, lobster quesadilla, and snapper lightly blackened sandwich. For our first shared dessert, we had their frozen key lime pie. Everything was very good. We hung out there for quite a while, listening to the live music as we sat by the water and watched the sunset. It was great all around.
No dessert is truly complete without ice cream so we headed to Keys Chocolates & Ice Cream to get chocolate brownie & gator tracks ice creams. Yum!
Day 2
The next day we continued on our journey toward Key West in preparation for Dry Tortugas National Park.
