We drove to Key West on December 30th. The 100 miles took about four hours to traverse because of heavy traffic on the first half of our day’s journey on the Overseas Highway. The drive was beautiful! A couple sections of old, unused highway and railway parallel Highway 1 along the way. One bridge is nearly seven miles long!
The waters of the ocean and gulf were beautiful blue, as was the sky. The occasional Pelican and other seabirds dotted the sky and the power lines and other roosting spots. Likewise, the occasional boat bobbed in the blue waters – either fishing, or just floating peacefully. We even saw a couple of lizards just casually hanging out alongside the road that had to be at least a foot or two long.
When we arrived on Key West, we drove straight to Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park ( https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/fort-zachary-taylor-historic-state-park) on the west coast. Key West is the most populated Key, and the real estate is tight. We were elated to be driving our tiny car, as a mid-sized car or SUV would have trouble navigating the narrow streets of the historic district.
The State Park is beautiful and includes a beach, and hiking. We enjoyed walking the rather small beaches (though the beaches are probably quite large for the Keys) and we ate at the concessions on the beach – they were unfortunately out of numerous items by the time we got there, including Key Lime Pie… 🙁
There are both guided and self-guided tours of Fort Zachary Taylor, a decommissioned US Army Fort on Key West that guarded the bay. We chose the self-guided option. The fort was active from before the Civil War through the Cuban Missile Crisis. It also has the largest collection of Civil War weaponry because the US Army Corps of Engineers ordered the iron guns be buried in the concrete during construction updates to decommission the guns. When the park was established, an excavation company extracted some of the guns. Some of the guns are still visible peeking out from the concrete.
Boats sailing past the old fort 
