We have had quite a bit of fun on our trip to Key West. But the trip had one, primary purpose – visit the Dry Tortugas National Park.
We had considered taking the ferry over but the 2.5 hour trip meant 5 hours of our day lost on the water and only a couple of hours left for snorkeling. We thought about camping overnight to give us more time to snorkel. However warnings of rats stealing your food gave us pause.
Another option to visit the island was to fly. That would give us 6 1/2 hours on the island and be plenty for snorkeling and seeing the fort.
We thought the $1,268 cost of flying was steep. It was only $435 to take the ferry and camp. However doing everything in one day and avoiding an overnight stay with the rats seemed worth it.
Thursday morning on the day of our flight was foggy and overcast. We checked in at 7:30 am and they gave us a large cooler with water and Pepsi. We added our lunch to the cooler and went outside to wait for our flight. At 8 am the pilot came out and said they would not give him clearance to take off because of the clouds. He said he would wait another 30 minutes to see if the skies improved and they would let us fly.
As we sat and watched we saw no change in the cloud cover. Our trip to the Dry Tortugas would have to wait for another day.