Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to two Travel Dads podcast. Here we share our favorite destinations, travel tips, stories from our adventures and bring on awesome guests to share insights into their travelsome lives. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and check out our detailed show notes at Dash episode.
Hey, welcome back to two Travel Dads podcast. I'm Rob.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: I'm Chris.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: And today we are going to talk about the good times.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: I love the keys.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I love the keys, too. And we have been down there lots of times. We've taken your parents down there. We've gone down and stayed on a bunch of different keys. We've just stayed on Key west. We've done it all.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: We haven't flown down there.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Well, because it's a road trip for could. I wonder how easy that would be, actually, for us to just fly from Jacksonville to Key West? I don't think there's a direct flight.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: I don't know. But the drive is nice, though, because I love driving across a seven mile bridge. But we'll talk about that later.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Yeah, sounds you want. How do you want to talk about this? Do you just want to say all of our fun, favorite things that we do, what it is we like about the keys? Your favorite or least favorite Florida keys moment?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Well, I always like talking about the food, but why do you like the Florida Keys so much? Why have we been there so many times?
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Well, I like the Florida Keys because it's sunny and warm and for me, the purpose of it is all of the water activities that we do, because here we're really active and we go to the beach and we get in our pool and all that stuff. But once we get down there, we're out on boats all the time. Everywhere. Like everywhere.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: I think you have to be down in the keys. I think that's something that we've learned right about the keys is there's just like one beach and the beach really isn't that amazing. So you have to be on a boat, but it's so much fun to be on the boats out in the keys because the water is so beautiful and I think it has an average depth of, what, like 8ft?
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And then when it's deep, it's like 14 to 20ft.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: And then there's times where if you don't follow all the channel markers, you're going to end up as one of those other hundreds of boats that are just beached.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I love the keys because I do like the road trip down there. I think it's a lot of fun because we always have a stop over there in Miami, spend a little bit of time having fun and some good food and then making our know down to the rest of the keys. And the drive is just so beautiful as you're crossing through each one of the different keys on the way down.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: I think part of the cool part of the drive, part of the cool part of the drive is once you are kind of departing the everglades and you're in Homestead, Florida and you start the overseas highway, all of a sudden the highway dividers are aqua colored.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Aqua blue.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, oh, my gosh, I'm now starting my Florida keys road trip. And it just kind of.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: And there's just one lane.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: And it's just one lane. And if you are not going super fast, everybody honks at you and all that. And then they use the turn lanes to pass you.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: They try, but yeah.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: No, I think the road trip is really cool, especially because once you get onto Key Largo, it's interesting because key Largo is the biggest of the keys.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Is that the first one you get after leaving?
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Um. But one of the interesting things about key Largo is there's not really. I feel like an actual town to it. Most of the Florida Keys don't really have a town center once you get to Key West. I mean, you can walk around and there's actual city blocks and clearly there's a structured town. But the rest of the keys, it's just.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: There's a strip and there's homes on the left and right and businesses on the left and the right.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: Some shops. Here's some restaurants, some more homes, a hotel. It's like somebody forgot to call a zoning board and make a plan.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: But there's not a lot of room too, either.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: That's true. So they do take advantage of all of the space very deliberately.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think it's the first time I've ever been like, ooh, look to the left, there's water. Ooh, look to the right there's water. And very close by because it is a small strip, it really. Of sand is.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: So which of the keys is your favorite? I know which one is my favorite, but I'm curious to hear what you think.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: I mean, I do enjoy key west. There's the most to do down there.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: There is the most to.
So, yes, key west, the most to do. I get that. What is it about.
I know what the answer is. You like the food.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: I like the food. I love to eat. And Key west has the most delicious restaurants.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: What's your favorite?
[00:05:05] Speaker B: That's tough. I don't know.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: That's okay. You don't have to have a favorite.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: What's that one that we go to for breakfast that's also delicious.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Oh, Harpoon Harry's.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: No, Harpoon Harry's is good, too, but, I mean, it's a great place. It's a super unique spot. But, no, the one that has the great air conditioning. No, it's outside and across the street from it. You can go get cocktails, like, in the morning.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: What are you talking about?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: We've been there, like, the kids were playing ping pong, and we got cocktails from the little shack and, like, blue heaven. Thank you. I kept wanting to call it, like, rainbow heaven or something. No, blue heaven.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: That's funny. Yeah. No, that's actually, like.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: That's what it is.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Icon.
I've eaten there three times, four times, and every time, no matter what time of day it is, my meal is actually the banana bread. Bananas foster.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: It's delicious.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: It's the most delicious thing on the menu. And when you're in Key west, you're usually on vacation, so might as well have that.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: You have to enjoy the food.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah, but, no, I think that my favorite place really is actually Harpoon Harry's because it's so chill and it's not fancy, but it's totally fun. It has one of those funny workout machines from the. Where there was the strap that kind of went around your waist and it shook you.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: That's right. It's in the bathroom, isn't it?
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah. No. So it's full of just kind of cool and fun stuff in there.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: I think maybe it's right by the marina, too. So the other place, though, is that cuban queen? Is that what it's called?
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Oh, cuban coffee queen.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Cuban coffee queen, yeah. Delicious coffee. And. Oh, my gosh. Best breakfast sandwiches ever.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: And they've got the one that's down there in the historic seaport. That's also where the key west mural is that everybody takes their picture in front of. So you got to go there. Anyways, I think maybe let's just talk about Key west on this episode.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Because I feel like we've got so much to talk about with Key west that it's totally fine. Let's just roll with it.
So let's start at maybe the farthest point, then. Dry Tortugas National park. It's considered Key west.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Oh, is it considered Key west?
[00:07:14] Speaker A: It is considered Key West.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: I thought it was Cuba.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: No, it's pretty darn close, though.
Dry Tortuga is such a cool place.
We have not gotten to fly there yet.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: How do you get there? What do you mean, fly there? Because you said it's in Key west.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Okay. So there is a 90 minutes catamaran adventure.
Some people get to experience it on a beautiful smooth as glass day. And some people get to do what we did and go rocketing across the waves hoping you don't puke.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: I didn't puke.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Elliot and I spent a fair amount of time on the way there and on the way back, sitting on the back of the boat, watching the people around us releasing.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: You had fresh air.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Yeah, we had fresh air, but, oh.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: God, Oliver and I just hung out inside.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know how come it doesn't.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Impact you guys, but we can ride rides and roller coasters.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, me and Elliot, we don't have that gift. But, no, once you do get there, though, after the 90 minutes boat ride, it's pretty amazing.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Why is it amazing?
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Why do you think it's amazing? Why don't you tell me and then I'll tell you.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: It's pristine.
I don't want to say untouched, obviously, because people are there, but because it's so remote, it really is pristine. I mean, amazing beaches, beautiful shells. The snorkeling was awesome. And, yeah, the ruins were super cool to go through and trek around and get lost in, but because it's so remote, there's not many people there. It's very pristine, very clean. And just the snorkeling and the shells and the beach, it was beautiful. It's like you're on one of those little private.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: It's, um. That's a good way to put it. Feels like a private island because there are not boats coming and going. Y'all get there the same way? Yeah, it's super duper.
You know, a couple different keys that are all in that little cluster of jai Tortugas. But Fort Jefferson is kind of like the main attraction. And it's cool. I mean, it's a civil war fort. I think Fort Pulaski is cooler up in Savannah. And then the really neat part of it, though, is when you actually get to walk the fort's moat wall.
And I mean, over the know, it's been hit by hurricanes, so there's chunks of it missing. But then the water around you, there's these big piles of bricks, and then you see barracudas and butterfly fish.
Turtles and sea turtles. Yeah, we saw a sea turtle in the moat.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: It's just really beautiful.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: It's a very different experience.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: And I want to camp there because. Can't you camp there?
[00:10:00] Speaker A: You can. And if you're going to camp there, then you have to get there on the catamaran to reserve all this far in advance. You have to bring all of your own gear, your own food and water because there are no services.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: There's no services whatsoever.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Like, there's a little tiny gift shop in the fort where a ranger hangs out so you can do your junior ranger packet. But, yeah, no, once you're there, you're there.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah, but I mean, if you just think about, like, a weekend or, I don't know, a three day weekend or something.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think they have a cap on how many nights you can spend there, probably. I think doing two or three nights would be amazing.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: But imagine if you wake up in the morning there without one of the boats bringing a ton of people in, and you've got that water. There's nobody there.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
You don't have to convince me. I will happily do that anytime.
Probably without the kids, though.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: I don't know. Good times anyways.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: I mean, they do have bathrooms there.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, were there actually bathrooms for the.
Because I remember for us, just as day visitors, we had to go back onto the boat. You know what? They have bathrooms for the campers.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: And then if you're visiting for the day, you have to go back onto the boat to use the bathroom. That's how it works.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: And no showers. That's the other thing. Good times.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: But you're supposed to.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: So dry tortugas. Amazing. It's, I think, the highlight of Key west, but other ways we get on the water. Gosh, we've done so many different things. I think my favorite tour that I've done on the water was with key west ecotours, and we did something really similar with danger charters on our last trip down, where we sailed out into the key West national wildlife Refuge.
It's amazing. Again with the pristine. I think that's the thing about the keys, is it's so pristine in so many places.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: It's really beautiful. And it's the water because it's so shallow. Right. That's what makes it that amazing. Aqua.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: It is color cool. Yeah. And depending on kind of what approach you're taking, you end up going out to these sandbars, and on the sandbars there are rays and sharks and birds and fish and all that.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: I just remember being on. What was it with island island charters, I think, or something. And we were, like, on the boat for forever. It felt like an hour or longer, and then we're in the middle of nowhere and we just stop and we can get out. Hop in the water, stand.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And you can just stand there and you can feel the ocean flowing past you, because it's not like all the.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Mangroves and everything all around you, too.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And once you get out into the middle of it, you're not feeling like you do at a normal beach where the waves kind of come in and out and they kind of pull you back and forth. When you're out in the sandbars of the keys, you can just stand there and it almost feels like you're just in a slow moving river because it's just flowing past and it doesn't ebb the other way. It's really unique. It's so much wildlife. What's your favorite wildlife you've seen? When we've been just, like, either out in the key West national wildlife refuge or anywhere else in the keys.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: What's your favorite spotted eagle ray.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yes, I love that.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: And the barracudas are cool, too, but.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: I like the spotted eagle rays, I think my favorite. So when Kelly and I were there, the month before we went this last time, when we were out with key west eco tours, we had sailed out on a catamaran, and we were out in the wildlife refuge, and we were in that sponge garden area, and there was a huge sponge. We're just swimming around it, whatever. And then we're like, oh, look at that. There's a huge nurse shark. There was about an eight, nine foot nurse shark. And then resting on the nurse shark was a grouper, like a Goliath grouper. Huge. Just sitting there and then swimming around them. And up on top of the sponge, there was almost like a school of lionfish.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: All of this. Just massive lionfish.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Those are amazing.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Did you catch them?
[00:14:12] Speaker A: No, because they got their poisonous barbs. But they do actually. People will fish them and hunt them.
I don't know what their process is, and I don't want to know. But, yeah, good times. But it's great because all these places are such easy kind of adventures once you're doing, like, the sandbar, the sponge garden areas, really easy to do with kids. It was so trying to figure out, kind of like, what the right words are.
It was remarkable getting to watch the boys finally feel confident snorkeling and excited about being in the water with wildlife, because that's something that for all the travel we do, they have not felt confident.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: No. They finally mastered it. Like, the last time that we were down there, they finally mastered it having just a life vest on. But because they've mastered snorkeling and having a pool made it very easy, but finally figured out, and the water temperature was perfect. Right.
And so they were able to just get in, hold our hand, and then just start checking out what's there.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Let's real quick talk about our last adventure down there. So we've been down. We've had four or five trips down there. And there was the trip that we did last year with your mom and dad where every single tour that we had booked, we had five different walks.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: The weather wasn't great.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: All five of them got canceled.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Very upsetting.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: But we finally. This year, we got a lot of steps in. Yes, we did. We walked a ton when we were down there in July this year. It was also one of the hottest times ever recorded in the keys. And remember that dolphin cruise we did?
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: So we went out with sunset water sports at sunset to do a dolphin tour, and we saw our dolphins, and it was awesome. And then it was time for us to snorkel. And I don't remember who jumped in first. I think maybe I did. But the water temperature that day was 104 degrees, and that's what we used to keep our hot tub at.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: It was so warm.
It was hot. It was hot tub.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: It was absolutely shocking. Like, when I jumped in, my body reacted like it was a hot tub. When you get in a hot tub and you kind of get goosebumps because you're not expecting to be so hot. And, yeah, after, gosh, we got the kids in there, and they were like, oh, hot.
After a few minutes of snorkeling, literally, you could feel your body just sweating.
I've never experienced anything like that. But also with that, if you dive down, oh, it drops.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: It was like the top foot of the water, and then you dropped down, and then you were fine.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah. As long as you could have the ability to kind of free dive down a little bit, and it's not like you can go far.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Is that when we saw the butterfly fish and all the beautiful fish there?
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
Below the surface, much better than that top foot of water.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: And watching the kids dive down was super fun.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Oh, and it was so cute because they were so proud of themselves. But then it was funny because the next morning, we went out with danger charters. That's when we did the really cool sailboat and did the kayaking oh, that was so amazing. But that morning, the water Temperature, I don't know, maybe 1015 degrees cooler than the night before. Like, it was normal and perfect and amazing versus jumping into a hot tub. But that was, I got to say, one of the strangest Florida keys experience.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: I mean, we've also been there when the water was so cold, even having a wetsuit, we're like, nope.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah, our first trip ever, we were down there in December, and usually December in the keys is pretty great. We were there on, like, this weird cold snap. And it was when they do the falling iguana warnings, because iguanas will fall out of the trees once it gets a certain temp. And we had gone out with, who was it?
With honest ecotours. We do a lot of ecotours. You can read about all of them on the blog. We went out with honest ecotours and they gave us wetsuits. We were like, what? Why are we putting on wetsuits? And when we jumped in, the water was so cold. It was so shocking.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: The boys, they even put on the wetsuits. They were going to get in, and then they put their foot in like, no, we're like, okay, yeah, too cold.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: You can't pressure kids to do stuff like that.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: And it was so cloudy anyways, that day. Not cloudy in the sky, but cloudy in the water.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah, because it was so windy, turbid.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: It wasn't that great, but we've had.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Lots of other awesome experiences since then.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: I think one of my favorite things to do when we're down there, though, is to get out to the different reefs, because the reefs are completely different than the sandbars. And the sandbars are really fun with kids, and you feel really safe and there's not that unknown of, ooh, the big open water and big waves and all that stuff. But I think that there's the sand key reef. That one's pretty awesome.
But the one that is just to the, I guess, would that be like the northeast, the Lowie key Reef. That one was way better.
And Lowe key Reef, even though it's not actually Key west, it's just a little bit north of Key west. It's really easy to get to if you're just staying down there. And we went out with Captain hooks Adventures, and that was that where we met Tortuga Jack. No, that wasn't Tortuga Jack.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: That was a different one.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah, no, this was.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Oh, I remember now.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah, we went out on a dive boat.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: And they took us out to two different reefs, and that was the jellyfish adventure.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: The first stop.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: The first stop was the jellyfish.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: First stop was jellyfish adventure.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. And we're out on the open water, and everybody's getting in, and then, what do you know? There's just moon jellies everywhere.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Everybody's getting stung.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Everybody's getting stung because everybody's freaking out. And the thing with jellyfish like that is when you really create a bunch of craziness in the water, their little tiny tentacles break off and they still sting you, and they keep on stinging you. And now they're just floating everywhere, all around you. So one person freaks out, there's tentacles floating all across the surface, and you're getting stung. Stung, stung.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah. That first stop didn't last long.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Yeah. But then our second stop was amazing.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: There's still moon jellies, but a lot less. So easy. It was amazing. There.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: So few jellies there, and the water clarity was so much better. And that's where there was the two Goliath groupers. Just. They swam up and they hung out underneath.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: When you say goliath, what does that really mean? So people can visualize, what's a Goliath grouper? Like, how big is it a fish.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: As big as me? Yeah, there you go.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: It was huge. And they were just hanging out right under the boat, which two of them is super cool.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: But also, when you're trying to convince your kid to get in the water to see them, and you're like, there's a giant fish right here. It's bigger than you. Come get in the water and say hello.
They weren't convinced they got in.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: They did it.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah. But very briefly met eyes and decided that wasn't for.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: But we still swim around things. So they just didn't go face to face with the Goliath grouper.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: It's a little intimidating, but, yeah. No, I think that's definitely what I love most about the keys. And being down in Key west is all of these different water adventures. And we haven't even talked about kayaking. We've done so much kayaking down there. This last time you mentioned Tortugajack, we went out with the coolest old dude through Key west ecotourism. He took us out from Geiger Key, which is, again, just off of Key west, and took us all through the mangroves. And we were finding concs and we saw some sharks, and he just had all these stories. And I get poems. Yeah. So I get really anxious and uncomfortable when there's live music or when somebody's performing really close proximity to me. And he was reciting poetry he'd written, which was really special. But also that made me really uncomfortable, because I was really cornered on a kayak, unable to escape.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: He loved taking the kids around and sharing stories.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah. But I think my favorite kayak tour, though, that we've done was it was when our friend Alyssa was with us.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: The glass bottom.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Yeah. When she watched the kids and we went out after dark in the glass bottom kayaks, not like the big, fully clear ones that are like driving a bathtub, but actual, just like, good kayaks with plexiglass in the bottom and then led lights. That was so cool. Doing night kayaking in Key west, and I think, gosh, what was the creature that we kept on seeing? The seahorses.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Seahorses.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Remember? They were those.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: I was trying to remember. It was something very interesting. I was going to say an octopus. It wasn't octopus. It wasn't a cool shrimp. It was the Seaheir.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: It was the seaheir. And it kept on inking, and our guide was literally, like, touching them. And the reddish purple ink was just filling the water in the dark. But then there was lights, and it was creepy, and it looked kind of mystical and magical and also disgusting. Yeah, but, no, that was great. And then we saw a nurse shark when we did that, and there was sea stars that were kind of standing out against the sandy bottoms of the mangrove trails.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: It was beautiful, too, especially. I mean, it was at night, and I remember no bugs. I don't remember bugs on that. I know, which is a big deal for me, because I do not like mosquitoes.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Mosquitoes will ruin an entire vacation if there's one day of them.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: I know, but, no, it was a bug free experience.
And I just remember all the mangrove trails, and it was just a beautiful kayaking experience.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: So different.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Especially doing it at night. Yeah.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: So, so much of our trips, we just do daytime stuff and then chill at night. But I got to say, that is one of the coolest things you can do down in the keys. And it's kid friendly. I don't know why we didn't bring the kids. Totally kid friendly.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: I know why we didn't bring the kids. Because we wanted a night out. It was just us. It was fun.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I guess we went out and we had drinks and stuff, too.
Good times. That explains it. Anything else you want to talk about with Key west? And then I think we're going to have to record another episode just about all the different sites and road trips.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: Well, we just talked about, like, boating. I mean, there's so much stuff to do in the town of Key west itself, but also a really, I guess there is.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: There's museums and there's historic homes and lighthouses.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's just a really cute town. But then the last thing I think is, and it could be maybe the kids favorite activity was we did parasailing with them for the first time.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: Oh, I totally forgot about that.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: And they're kind of nervous and stuff at first, but it was like, oh, it's just so peaceful and relaxing. And they loved it. They so much enjoyed just, like, floating up in the air. But it was really funny.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Oliver really wanted to do it again.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Yeah, but then it was really funny once we were coming back down, at least with, like, he had seen his brother come back down and then hit the water and come to the boat. Oliver tucked his feet up so he didn't have to hit the water as we were coming back down because we were going to dip you.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that was hilarious to watch from a boat. And I couldn't tell what was happening. And I'm pretty sure he got a water enema because he still got wet.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah, he still did. But, yeah, I think if your kids are up for a parasailing, it's super cool. Yeah.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: And I think Key west really is actually a really good family destination. And, I mean, it's wonderful because if you're walking on Duvall street, it's so amazingly diverse. It's not know Florida backcountry folks who have all congregated in Key west and just hang out eating fried fish all day. It is people from all over the place, including the Florida backcountry folks and then the whole LGBTQ community, like, focused right in one area. Gosh, when we were there with your parents, that was so funny. We saw afternoon drag brunch, and we saw the kids loved it. A drag queen dressed as Ursula.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: I was going to say it was Ursula, right? Yeah.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Like, doing the whole thing just right there smack in the middle of Key west. And it's such a wonderful pocket of, I guess, the rest of America. Not just Florida, you expect.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah, there's just people. I mean, because you've got visitors from out of town, out of country, just people.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: I love it.
We will definitely record another episode or two about the keys because there's actually a lot to talk about. And I will probably also do one with Kelly because we had a very different trip than you guys.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: I know, because we go with kids.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: We go with kids. But yeah, good times. Thanks for tuning in. Check out the show notes on twotraveldads.com and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to also check us out on the instagrams at two travel dads. Have a great day.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: All right, bye.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Two Travel Dads podcast is created by Rob and Chris Taylor in St. Augustine, Florida. We'd love to answer your questions here on the podcast, providing both our experience and stories to share our own insights into whatever you're wondering about. Visitraveldads.com slash podcast episodes to leave your questions and to check out past episodes and show notes. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and have an awesome day.
