Key West, Florida

The Florida Keys is a chain of islands that begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula; the islands of the Florida Keys run southwest from Miami. The Florida Keys span some 110 miles and are connected by bridges and causeways. The first island, and the largest, is Key Largo. The last island is Key West; it is also known as the Last Resort, the Southernmost Point in the continental US.

We drove to the Florida Keys from Fort Lauderdale. It was intended as a day trip since my niece (my brother’s youngest daughter) was going to be confirmed the following day and we all wanted to be there. I was with my two brothers, one of whom came from LA together with his wife. Our itinerary had been carefully planned out by my niece. It was a very pleasant drive; it took us about 3 and ½ hours. We first stopped at a beach then of course we stopped at the Southernmost Point marker.

It was quite hot and my sister-in-law wanted to change into something cooler. Since we were supposed to return to Fort Lauderdale that evening, none of us had brought extra clothes. So we hit the stores on Duval Street, the heart of downtown Key West’s commercial area. After looking through a few stores, my sister-in-law was so overcome by the heat that she had one of her dizzy episodes. It was fortunate that we were inside a store at the time she had her dizzy spell. However, as has happened before, she had to lay down (on the floor of the store) for quite some time;  she was unable to tolerate any movement. She has had these episodes before and based on their experience they (my brother and sister-in-law) decided that it would be best if we spent the night in Key West and head back to Fort Lauderdale very early the following morning. So we checked in at the nearest hotel; we were lucky to find an available room.

While my sister-in-law was resting, my brothers and I went exploring – just up and down Duval Street. There were lots of shops to check out. After a while I sent my brothers back to the hotel; I could tell they were getting impatient since I was going into all the shops. I had an excuse; I needed to buy clothes to sleep in. I ended up buying a pair of shorts and a tank top.

We were up while it was still dark and saw the sunrise as we were driving on the seven mile bridge (believed to be the world’s longest segmental bridge).