Beauty in the Salt Life

When you think of the Florida Keys, it’s only appropriate that you think of the phrases; tropical paradise, ocean oasis, and maybe, tourist trap and booze cruse. It’s easy to fall victim to the lure of the tourist destination of Key West, but there is much more to the Florida Keys than just that. The key to the Florida Keys is to go where no tourist has gone before and the only way to that is to go where the locals go.

My boyfriend and I needed a break the daily grind, without breaking the bank. We decided on a road trip to the Florida Keys and spent the weekend living like locals in Big Pine Key. BPK is a larger island, about forty minutes north of Key West. We took our adventure with Capt. Harlan and his glass bottom boat. We left around noon, dressed in full ‘wannabe surfer’ attire, looking pretty good if I do say so myself. We spent the day on the boat, eating conch fritters, and seeing fish, colorful reefs and even a shark or two, pass underneath the glass before arriving at the Looe Key Reef to snorkel and relax. The key to doing anything in the Florida Keys, is to check the weather, check it again and then prepare for the opposite of what the weather report said. Weather is an unpredictable beast and if you are out in deep water with some high waves, you better be able to swim.

Looe Key is the hidden gem, only the locals know the sweet spot. If you want to go to this special diving site, make sure you find a locally run charter company. Despite my fear of losing a limb to a hungry shark, we jumped in the warm water and swam with the Yellowtail Fish, Spade Fish and a few baby jellyfishes. A rough storm, not a rare occurrence in Florida, didn’t hinder our journey, it only created an even more colorful sky for the sunset ride to shore.

Dusk is not only shark feeding time, but it is also when the true beauty of the Florida Keys comes to life. The ride across the crystal clear waters, with the wind blowing your hair, looking up at a sky Monet himself couldn’t even have painted, in the arms of someone you love, is one of the most comforting feelings you could ever imagine. It almost feels like the ending to a movie, where the empowering/inspirational music plays and the main character knows that anything is possible. You feel invincible. It doesn’t matter what work deadlines you have coming up or how much traffic you were stuck in that morning or what bills are due at the end of the month, nothing matters except the effortless beauty surrounding you.