Highway 1 to the Very End

What a great Saturday! We had a slow start and packed up to head all the way down the keys on Highway 1. We figured out how to take off half of the top of the Jeep and enjoyed some open air on the drive. Shari was an excellent driver. It is quite a long road all the way down and you are surrounded by water most of the time. We were amazed at the engineering needed to build and maintain the road. We stopped a couple times to look at the ocean and then arrived in Marathon. We enjoyed a nice lunch right on the water. The restaurant even had a pool and live stream!

After our lunch we headed over to the Turtle Hospital. We had a lovely tour with about 50 other people and got to meet all 48 residents of the hospital. It was really cool to learn about the history of the hospital (it used to be a motel) and facts about the turtles in the area. We even got to feed the permanent residents of the hospital! It was very fun. Most of the turtles at the hospital arrive because of tumors, entanglement or boat strike and 75% get released back into the wild!

After the tour we continued our trek down highway 1 all the way to our Aqualodge for the next two nights! It is right by a bar and a fish cleaning station, but has four beds (including one in a loft!)

After getting settled in, we completed the last part of highway 1 into Key West and had dinner at Jimmy’s Margaritaville. We then enjoyed strolling Duval St. We walked by lots of shops and went all the way down to the Southernmost Point of the Continental US, before ending at a “sunset celebration at the square”. The sunset was gorgeous and people clapped at the end! By this point, all of us were pretty tired and we returned to our houseboat to prepare for our seaplane tomorrow :)Read more