I haven’t used my passport for eighteen months and counting. For six months, I took a few small domestic trips but mostly focused on saving money after buying a house. But around the time I was starting to gear up for major trips again, covid happened, and I’ve been nearly entirely grounded ever since. Desperate to be somewhere warm and have a relaxing Christmas, I decided to fly south.
When I landed at the airport in Key West, it reminded me of the airport in the Maldives where guests transfer from a plane to a boat. That airport offered a small cart which was wheeled inside to serve as the baggage claim. Key West was serving larger planes, including full-size 737s. The actual airport facility, though, was nearly just as small as that Maldivian building.
Right: Apron and tarmac at EYW (Key West Airport), FL. Notice there are no jet bridges here at all.
I decided to walk to my hotel, which was about 2 miles from the airport on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful, spectacularly sunny and warm day. Exiting the airport, the sidewalk ran adjacent to a beach, making it easy to enjoy the weather on my stroll.
Not too long into my journey, the path curved inland, away from the ocean. Walking through town, the Maldivian visions haunted me from my time in its capital city. Much of inland Key West felt shockingly similar. It was an odd juxtaposition of west and east, wandering through an American suburbia and feeling more like I was in the Maldives.
Eventually I made it to my hotel, but I really only had time to drop my things and walk right back out. I had to get back to the airport! This time an Uber took me to the private terminal, where I boarded my next flight bound for Fort Jefferson Airport, at Dry Tortugas National Park.
Dry Tortugas National Park
This Park is located about 100 miles away from Key West and 90% of it is underwater, made up of beautiful coral reef and other aquatic treasures. It is accessible only via boat or seaplane. I chose the seaplane option because it’s much faster than a boat and because a seaplane has been on my bucket list for years. The experience didn’t disappoint!
Wearing a headset inside the seaplane. 
Approaching Fort Jefferson at Tortugas National Park. 
Standing by the seaplane on Fort Jefferson.
The airplane had a smooth takeoff and did a few circles around Key West at low altitude before heading out to sea. Over the half hour flight, we passed over a shipwreck, a small atoll with a private mansion, and numerous coral. We approached the national park and landed just as the ship was getting ready to leave for the day; that left only plane travelers, rangers, and a handful of campers on the island. I counted a grand total of roughly a dozen people. After deplaning, I began exploring inside the fort itself, where I was entirely alone.
Walking around this abandoned structure with no one else in sight was an eerie experience. The fort was originally constructed for military defense beginning in 1824. It is the third largest fort by area owned by the United States Military. Fort Jefferson was an active fort during the Civil War and was used by union forces to defend the southern border and house prisoners of war. In its heyday, there were 160 soldiers living in the fort. But construction never actually finished. The fort fought a constant battle against Mother Nature with forces like hurricanes constantly threatening it. With the close quarters, diseases such as yellow fever also ran unabated through the development. In 1906, the property was abandoned as a military post permanently and in 1936 it became a National Park.
After exploring inside the park, I walked along the beach and eventually began to explore underwater. Subaquatic coral reefs actually make up about 90% of the area of the park, with most of the depths close enough to the surface so as to be perfect for snorkeling. I swam around the entire island.
Arriving back to Key West a couple of hours later, I began to wander downtown. In contrast to the other parts of the island, here I had vibes of the Las Vegas Strip, with numerous kitschy restaurants and shops that seemed custom built to cater to tourists. I ended up settling on a small burrito stall hidden away from the main road. It seemed to cater more towards locals and had great reviews on Google, but I was disappointed with my meal. The key lime pie I had from a tourist joint afterwards, though, was absolutely heavenly. Exhausted from food and a full day of activities, I prodded slowly back to my hotel.
Fort Lauderdale
The following day was the start of the next part of my trip in Florida: a classic overwater roadtrip from Key West back to Fort Lauderdale. I was initially excited for the drive, but ended up feeling pretty underwhelmed. It turns out that three hours of identical scenery, no matter how unique initially, gets boring. Worse was once I made it back to the mainland. The road ran through the Florida Everglades for a hundred miles and there was nothing to see but pavement and marsh. I made a brief stop at the Everglades Visitor Center, then continued to the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale.
At check-in, I was upgraded to an ocean view suite, thanks to my Marriott Titanium status. Although it wasn’t a multi-room suite, it was significantly larger than the base room I booked and it featured the most relaxing view of possibly any hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. I loved hearing the sounds of the ocean when I opened the windows and it was cool enough that I could sleep without AC, so I left them open all night and fell asleep to that relaxing sound.
In the morning, I enjoyed coffee on my hotel balcony while deciding what to do with my day. I settled on a relaxing beach walk in the morning capped with a delicious salmon benedict brunch. From there, I biked along the canals of Fort Lauderdale, marveling at the million dollar homes and equally expensive yachts in their waterways out back. I hadn’t realized just how exclusive this area was and the experience of biking past these houses from key to key was fascinating to me. Through most of my ride, I had the roads all to myself as folks seemed to be sequestered inside already-sparsely-trafficked streets for the holidays and the pandemic.
After a spectacular New Years feast on the beach, I enjoyed a nighttime stroll in the sand and a bottle of champagne back in my hotel room.
The next day, the final full day of the trip, was my dedicated beach day. I had a blast riding waves and relaxing in the Ritz pool, which was heated above 90 degrees.
Ultimately, this trip was enjoyable because it was perhaps the most exotic destination I’ve been to within the United States. I managed to catch vibes of a poor but sprawling Asian metropolis such as Male or Kuala Lumpur as well as the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip while on Key West. Within the bounds of the same state, I explored one of the least accessible national parks and traveled just a couple of hours to a posh resort that would have been perfectly at home at a high-end tourist destination in Asia Pacific. It was exactly the type of recharging trip I needed at a crucial point of stay-at-home orders and the ongoing covid pandemic.
