This is a continuation of my last story about visiting Miami and the Everglades. If you want to read that first, you can find it here. I also made a video of the trip that you can check out here. My family and I drove down to Miami, the start of our road trip across the Overseas Highway. After exploring Miami and the Everglades, we were exhausted, but it was time to start the next section of the trip by picking up an RV in North Miami. We had an hour-long drive from the Ernest F. Coe entrance of the Everglades to the neighborhood where we picked the RV up, and then Mom and Dad had to get a full explanation of how to use and operate the RV, which took a little over an hour. During this, the rest of us decided to go grab some coffee at Aroma Espresso Bar. I really enjoyed it, but it did seem a little expensive to me. Knowing we still had a decent amount of time, we made a quick stop at Haulover Park, which is known for the pass from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic. This pass is usually very rough, forcing boats to brave large waves. But it was low tide when we visited, so there was nothing too exciting there.
We eventually met up with Mom and Dad who had the RV at this point, and our first priority was to run by a Walmart to pick up supplies for the rest of the week. We were told that the Walmart in North Miami Beach isn’t nice and were directed toward the one in Florida City, over an hour away. And I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but the traffic in Miami is awful! It takes forever to get anywhere, and we were using up all of our daylight just trying to reach this Walmart. Before going inside Walmart, we decided to grab something to eat first and drove around looking for a restaurant in the middle of a large downpour. We struggled to find a decent restaurant, and the storm made it a little stressful, but we eventually ended up at this place called Cilantro and Limes, which was a very authentic Mexican and Central American restaurant where the waitress didn’t speak any English. I loved everything I tried there and would definitely recommend it! I also got to practice my Spanish, so that was cool.
We finally made it to Walmart and very quickly realized that everyone else in Miami drives out to Florida City to use this Walmart too. We waited an hour in line to check out, like you would expect from Walmart during pre-Covid Black Friday. Mom and Dad ended up leaving ahead of us because they had to go set the RV up. They drove down to Big Pine Key, about two-thirds of the way down the Overseas Highway to our RV park, which was a couple hours of driving. Once the rest of us finally left Walmart, it was already dark, but we started making our way down the Overseas Highway as well. We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t see anything on the Overseas Highway, considering it was dark outside. But it was still an interesting drive. We crossed through some towns that had red lights lining the streets and on businesses instead of the normal street lights. It had an eery feeling driving through until we found out they do that so baby sea turtles don’t mistake the street lights for the moon.
Then we reached a stand-still on one bridge and wondered why everyone was stopped. Next thing we knew, a helicopter landed on the bridge just a few cars ahead of us. It turned out to be life flight. In the Keys, there really isn’t any room for life flight helicopters to land, with the most space actually being on the bridges. So when there’s an emergency, the highway gets shut down so the helicopter can land. After finally being able to continue, we made a quick stop in Marathon so Logan could pick up some stuff from a friend and then eventually made it to Big Pine Key and were happy to finally get some rest. The next morning, we were surprised to see several tiny deer hanging out by our RV. They’re an endangered species called Key Deer found only in the Florida Keys. They’re the smallest North American deer species. They seemed very comfortable approaching us because a lot of tourists come and feed them. But this is highly illegal because of their status as an endangered species. Being hit by a vehicle is the highest cause of death for Key Deer, and it’s because they feel comfortable enough to wander into parking lots and RV parks where drivers aren’t paying attention. They’re very cute though!
After making a quick stop at 7 Mile Cafe for coffee, we made our way back across the Overseas Highway to the Miami area to visit Biscayne National Park. My main priority when planning this trip was to visit all three of Florida’s national parks, so this was a must. Biscayne is 95% water and the only underwater national park. In order to get involved in some sort of water activity, we booked a kayak tour of the mangroves. This wouldn’t have been my first choice to be honest, but most of the tours offered here had a group size limit of 6, and we had 7. But it was a nice tour and was unlike what I’d ever expect to be doing in a national park. We learned about the mangroves and how 80% of Florida’s mangroves have been destroyed for urban development, making this an important national park to protect this ecosystem.
We then had about an hour to explore the park ourselves before we had to return our kayaks, so we explored as much as we could. It was nice being able to see it on our own, rather than just being with a guide. But the biggest surprise from this experience was when we ran into a group of wild manatees while on the kayaks. We thought we saw something in the distance and started making our way in that direction. But then, Audrey and I were suddenly shocked to spot a very large manatee swimming right under our double kayak! We yelled out so the rest of the group could see it, and the manatee surfaced right in the middle of our group. This continued for a while with the manatees randomly popping up around us. This was so cool because it was completely unplanned, and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to experience it. This kayak tour turned out to be much better than it had any right to be and became a highlight of the trip for us.
After returning our kayaks, we wanted to find something to eat in Key Largo, and we eventually ended up at a place called Lazy Lobster. Of every meal I had in South Florida, this was by far my favorite! I ordered a Coconut-Crusted Mahi Sandwich with a Mango Chutney Sauce, and it was incredible! And then right after that, we made a quick stop at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which is considered a must-visit while in Key Largo. Unfortunately, we were not impressed at all. In fact, I’d say it’s the worst place we visited on this trip. The south wind blew algae all over the beach, giving it a terrible smell. And the snorkeling is supposed to be good, but Logan couldn’t see anything because of the mud in the water. To be fair, it’s supposed to be better if you take a boat out to the reefs, but we didn’t have time for that. Also, the guy working the gate to get into the park was a huge jerk who had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and insisted that manatees are only found in Central Florida after we had literally just seen a group of wild manatees about 20 minutes away. Overall, we were very disappointed with this park.
Following that, we headed to Islamorada to visit Robbie’s Marina. This was a cool stop where we were able to feed tarpon by hand. You buy a bucket of fish and then hold one over the water, waiting for a large tarpon to come snatch it out of your hand. It’s definitely a fun stop to make, and we also saw a manatee there too! We then headed back to the RV to get to bed at a decent time. Dad, Christian, Logan, and I got up very early the next morning to make it to our early morning fishing charter. Christian booked the trip with a fishing charter called “Hillbilly Hookers” and while the name seemed questionable, this was actually a very good choice on his part. We headed out into the Florida Strait, which is this area where the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean all meet, and this area is one of the reasons why this is considered the sport fishing capital of the world. We were about 30-40 miles out in over 1700 feet of water, and we were primarily focusing on fishing for Mahi.
The strategy our captain used was to search for birds on the horizon and then hurry to throw on whatever the birds were circling. Mahi usually stay in schools, so if you see one there are more than likely others around too. And when we would cast our bait into a group of Mahi, one of them would likely bite because they’re very aggressive. They’re also really cool to pull in because they have a bright, colorful appearance that almost seems to change colors while in the water. We stayed out there for 6 hours, catching a lot of Mahi and also attempting more deep sea fishing with electric fishing poles, where we pulled in some tile fish and rosies.
As we were leaving, there was a storm approaching, so we had to take a different path back to land in order to avoid it. Overall, I enjoyed the fishing charter more than I thought I would, and I kept myself from getting sunburn, so I’d call that a success! I don’t know the exact number of Mahi we caught, but it was around 20. When we returned to the marina, Mom, Morgan, and Audrey met up with us, and the captain cleaned the fish for us. There was another manatee here, and at this point I’m only mentioning it because of that rude guy at John Pennekamp that said they’re not in this area. We then headed back to the RV to get showers and change clothes before heading back to Stock Island to eat at the Hurricane Hole restaurant. I tried their mangrove snapper sandwich, and it was very good!
Our last stop of the day was Mallory Square in Key West. Mallory Square is known for its Sunset Celebration that takes place every night, starting a couple hours before sunset. The whole area comes to life, and large crowds gather to watch the sunset together. It’s considered one of the best places to see the sunset in the United States, and the energy here was very exciting. We also walked around a few of the surrounding souvenir shops while waiting for the sunset, and it was a good introduction to Key West. At this point we had really enjoyed the trip across the Overseas Highway and were looking forward to a full day of sight seeing in Key West. I’ll share those stories next week. Thanks for reading!
Tyler's Travels 