Florida Keys, Florida - Animal Seekers

Key West is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States. Only 90 miles to Cuba!
Key West is the county seat of Monroe County in Florida.
The Hemingway Home and Museum where Ernest Hemingway resided.
The Key West Lighthouse is open to the public.
A street view in Key West.
What a difference a day can make. The first day we arrived in the Keys, it was stormy and rainy, but clear and beautiful the next.
An island just off the coast of Key West that can only be accessed via boat.
Another view of crystal clear water on a nice day.
A boat in the Florida Keys.
A boat sails in the open waters.
We stayed in an RV park on an island near Key West. This is a nearby view of the water.
Key West is known for its brilliant sunsets.

There’s nowhere quite like the Florida Keys. You can drive for miles along a highway that connects to one beautiful island after another, each with its own unique identity. The water is pristine. It’s the best place in the continental United States to go if you want to get that “I’m on a tropical island feel” without actually leaving the U.S. After a day of driving from island to island back in February 2008, we ended up spending a day at Key West, the southernmost city in the continental U.S. and the end of the road literally. We visited the Hemingway Home & Museum, where there are a lot of cats! We paused by the sign that designates the southernmost spot. And we watched the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen as it slowly dipped into the ocean. The next day, we took a glass bottom boat tour of a nearby reef and saw the Key Deer on Big Pine Key.

Animal Sightings

Sighting #1

What: Yellowtail Snapper

When: February 2008

Where: Just outside Key West along a reef where a glass-bottom boat tour took us.

How: Via a glass bottom boat tour.

Sighting #2

What: American Alligator

When: February 2008

Where: Big Pine Key

How: Along a boardwalk of one of the freshwater lakes inside the island. The alligator was a bit hard to spot.