Vagabond Tales- Dry Tortugas National Park

March 11- This was a whirlwind of a day! A spectacularly long drive, spectacular weather, a spectacular seaplane ride…a spectacular adventure for both doggie and people alike.

We started off the day at 6:30 am driving from Camp Flamingo to Big Pine Key as a waypoint. Thanks to rover.com we had found Harriet and her husband who do dog sitting along with their toddler and, 6 month old baby, and their 85 pound dog, Beau. They live on Big Pine Key in a home that was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017. They bought it a year and a half ago and are working on fixing it up. Anyway, we decided we needed a place to take care of her on this day, as we knew it would be loooong. Thanks to some pretty detailed texting and lots of references, we decided Harriet was the one. It was a great day for Onyx even if it was a bit weird leaving her there. First picture is of Harriet, Harry and Onyx…she is over 6 feet tall. Second is of Onyx after we picked her up and the whole four hour trip back to camp.

Then on to Key West and the airport! We thought our flight was at 12:00 noon but when we arrived…we were told we had been changed to the 2:00 flight because we would enjoy it better. No cruise ships visiting at the time. They said, “Trust us. You’ll be glad.” Key West for lunch sounded good. Thanks to Trip Advisor… We found a little hole in the wall food truck. Yummy food!

Headed back to the airport where we would Board a seaplane with pilot, Adam and 9 other passengers. We flew 500 feet above the ocean and I saw, dolphins, many turtles and a sunken ship from my window. Nice narrated trip by the pilot in our headphones. If you see the circular plastic on the window shots. That was our vent…natural air conditioning. The windows are convex so pictures aren’t the greatest from the plane.

Once there, we really did have the place to ourselves. Two seaplanes= 19 visitors plus a college biology group running some studies. We didn’t see them much but we sure heard the ruckus they made. Video to follow.

The Garden Key Lighthouse is below. It had some damage during the Irma Hurricane in 2017, as well and they are working on it. I found it interesting that it will be taken down in three parts and shipped off to the east coast somewhere to be repaired and won’t be brought back until after this year’s hurricane season.

A group of biology students were banding and counting Sooty Terns using big nets. What a fun college field trip! The birds were none too happy as you can hear…They were louder than the mic on my phone would pick up.

2 hours later we were off. Fantastic, spectacular day!