The Third Trip to Key West

It was a stormy day. My family and I woke up in the darkness and prepared in a hurry to depart to Key West where my kids mostly wanted to go fishing. They didn’t fish at all after October ended. Today we would arrive at Petersburg, VA sleep at a motel there and the next day we would sleep at a hotel in Jacksonville, FL. It would be a long journey. Our camp ground is 1,632 miles away from home. It took 25 hours by car to arrive there. But I already visited the Key West two times by my car, the first one was just a year ago, the second one was eight months ago. This trip to Key West would be the last if I will not come to stay again in the United States. This time we had companions- my neighborhood family.

Before we arrived at Sugarloaf Key KOA Kampground, I had to drive all day long in the rain hoping the campground would be sunny. Fortunately there wasn’t raining in the campground. It was X-mas when we arrived at our camp. Last night we had X-mas dinner at a Japanese Restaurant with my friend’s family. We arrived in the late afternoon but started fishing right away. My kids caught small fishes and I did also. We enjoyed fishing even after dinner in the darkness with the help of lanterns.

I woke up early in the second morning in Sugarloaf Key I woke up early to see the sunrise. It was cloudy but I could watch the sun rising behind the clouds. It was calm, peaceful, and awesome. When I travel, I like to wake up before the sunrise and to go to a beach to watch the sunrise. I could feel darkness, calmness, sound of the sea, flows of the clouds, and the dark blue sky dyeing red. The sunrise of the second and the third days were very nice. I could feel what I wanted at dawn in Key West.

After breakfast, we enjoyed fishing all day long. In the morning we went a fishing bridge located 20 min away from our camp. The bridge near the campground was beautiful but the water seemed not deep enough for big fishes to live. There we enjoyed fishing. I was happy because all of us caught some fishes. After a break in the afternoon, we went to another fishing bridge located beside the Seven Mile Bridge where we found a lizard that had lost its tail. We had fished until sunset. Watching sunset on a fishing bridge is also what I wanted to enjoy at Key West. The sunsets in Key West are so beautiful. You can see the beauty wherever you are but here on the bridge you can feel a different kind of beauty. Tomorrow we will go to Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles away from Key West.

Before sunrise, we all woke up early to go on board Yankee Freedom toward Dry Tortugas NP. We had to arrive at the harbor before 7:15AM. We arrived there in time and there had been no problem until we were on board. After departure my wife felt severe seasickness. She had vomited over 10 times before arrival at Dry Tortugas NP. It took nearly two and half hours. My frinds in Boston strongly recommended visiting this place when he had heard that I were going to Key West. He also recommended camping at this place.

We had only four hours to enjoy snorkeling and looking around this small island. It was cloudy. It’s not so good for snorkeling. But when I entered the water I could see beautiful scenery. I could watch several kinds of fishes including small and big ones, squids, and corals. When we finished snorkeling, it became sunny. The sea and the beach got their own colors, emerald water and white sands. The Fort Jefferson was built during the civil war but not used at all. It was too far from the land to come to fight. I was not sure why they had built it at this long, isolated, and beautiful island. My wife felt better and loved the Fort and the island. She said that she saw the sea that she imagined.

After we returned to Key West, we went to a Thai restaurant named ‘Thai Life’ where my family had already visited two times before. The food was delicious, and the waitress was very kind and friendly. This time we got a table on the top of the floating restaurant. We could enjoy sunset, soft wind, tarpons, and delicious and spicy foods. Tomorrow we’d planned to go for party boat fishing but due to my wife’s sickness, my family would stay at Key West for fishing and snorkeling.

The sun rose in the fourth morning. My friend’s family had already gone to Key West for party boat fishing. My family went to a state park in Key West for fishing. The scenery was good, but we could not get any bite. So we went to a harbor just near the state park where we had great fun previously. We enjoyed fishing in the morning there and returned to the park for snorkeling. But we found it was not so good of a place for snorkeling at all, even though the state park website announced that the park was one of the great places for snorkeling.

After lunch we went to another fishing pier located at the Key West AIDS Memorial where, on our first visit to Key West, we had first started fishing. The first sunset had been great. Today another sunset was also great. My family and my friend’s family had the last dinner in Key West in the downtown. After dinner, we went for shopping. My elder brother wanted a cigar from Cuba. But I couldn’t find a Cuban cigar at all. There were just several cigars made by Cuban or cigar of Cuban seeds. I had no choice other than to buy such cigars.

I thought about my brother who liked literature and painting but became a filmmaker, but now a Korean traditional architect. If he had come to Key West, he would have visited Hemingway’s house where I didn’t want to go and didn’t go. He would have enjoyed a cigar like Hemingway. If he had visited the Salvador Dali Museum, he would have enjoyed Dali and Picasso’s works that I cannot understand well. Life is unpredictable. Who knows? He liked Thoreau, Hemingway, and Picasso but didn’t have chances to visit their sites. I don’t know them well but I visited their places and enjoyed them. Tomorrow morning I would see the sun also rise from the sea.

Today my family left for St. Petersburg, FL, and my friend’s family went to Orlando. On the way we enjoyed fishing at Key West on a fishing bridge near Long Key where we stayed for few days before. We could catch large and diverse fishes. Because of the fishing we arrived at our campground late. Here we would enjoy fishing and Dali museum.

We enjoyed fishing at a state park, campground, and the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. In Wikipedia, it is written that the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park is the longest fishing bridge in the world- a mile long. There were parking lots and bait shot and restroom. Max, my second son, caught many fishes including a big black seabass.

We went to the Salvador Dali Museum in third morning. Dali was a leader of surrealism. We could see many great works of Dali and Picasso. I didn’t know that they were friends but parted ways due to political issues. Dali’s works were very difficult and complex to understand but funny because there were pictures in the pictures. Different views yielded another findings. My wife liked his works, but I was in doubt whether she did understand his works well. In fact I didn’t like works of surrealism and Avant garde which were difficult to understand. In the surrealism arts seem to be under philosophy. Anyway we enjoyed the museum, Dali’s mustache, and floating and distorted clocks.

On the way to Boston it was raining again. I was thinking in the rain that my family enjoyed the United States well enough. I like Walden Pond and Cape Cod and enjoyed them. My kids like Cape Cod and Key West. And my wife likes the Western national parks and Cape Cod. My kids have greatly grown up. The second kind got self-confident. The first kid became more brave and social. My wife also became more stable. But what happened to me? I’m not sure but I cannot forget the images of the great US nature and treasures.