The Fort

7AM...My daughter Alexandra and I head off to...one of my favorite places in the world...

The Fort!  Oh how I love the fort, and how I love the way I can sleep on a boat on the way there, like no other sleep in the world.  After the great Continental Breakfast the Yankee Freedom provided first of course.  Did I ever tell you my Mom and Dad used to secure my crib on our charter boat with rope so that the crib wouldn't slide across the deck?  And so I slept like a baby on the way out...(and in =)

Made it and ready for a beautiful day.  Well rested and ready to go....

This was the spot we picked as our home for the day.  It was a campers table and campers get first pick, but lucky us this one wasn't taken...just look at that natural green canopy, we already didn't want to leave and we just got there...the perfect spot to take our buffet lunch that's included with the trip.

The site was very close to the beach...

And what a beach..beautiful sand, with great snorkeling just off shore.  Unfortunately being Conchs, it was a little too nippy for getting in the water for us, 73 degrees? No Way! 

So we took a walk on the moat instead, it surrounds the whole Fort, all 16 million bricks, and there is a lot to see by looking right down into the water without having to dip so much as a toe in...

This is neighboring Loggerhead Key, where I used to go alot when I was younger, even climbing the lighthouse on several occasions.  It isn't open to the public anymore, but I have some very fond memories

This is a beautiful example of the grounds inside the Fort, looks like a lovely spot to have a Sunday service, or some sort of concert doesn't it?

Inside...

One of the many, many windows that make taking great pictures so easy...

I used to commercial fish out here, and was lucky enough to anchor just off the island every night.  This bench was a favorite place to sit, and read, and comtemplate the Fort and just what an amazing, hard backbreaking  job it must have been to build it, back in the day...

Work is always ongoing at the Fort, this is a pile of bricks, to be discarded or reused.  Which reminded me of a funny story.  I always seem to have a 'story' don't I? Oh Well, I'm sure you are used to me by now.  Many years ago, when my daughter in these pictures was just a little thing, in maybe 5th or 6th grade she had to do a 3 dimensional project for school.  And since I spent so much time out there, and she was familiar with the Fort as well including a camping trip with her uncle TJ, we all agreed that the Fort would be perfect.  She worked very hard, and made a great 3D Fort out of cardboard which she painted to look brick like, and did a really good paper to go along with it. She thought (and we all agreed) the only thing that was missing was an actual - authentic brick from the Fort.  And so I went to this pile and grabbed her one to take home.  Fine right?  Wrong!

One of the rangers stopped me.  He was a friend, but made it very clear that the bricks were Federal Property.  In answer to my "but they will probably just be thrown away" he said that it didn't matter.  Federal property made it a Federal Offence to remove a brick from a National Park.  Wow.  Even for Alexandra, whom he loved, there were no exceptions.  I went back to the boat empty handed, and when asked why, I told Alexandra's sad tale.  And wouldn't you know it, one Captain got on the marine radio, spread the message and within 2 weeks I had over two dozen bricks mysteriously show up in our yard at home during the strangest times!  How those fishermen all loved my Alexandra, we still laugh about it to this day, so here she is holding one for "Old Times Sake" - Oh, and she got an A+ on her project.

Another beautiful view....

The Dry Tortugas are also world famous for birders, not only fishermen...

In addition to the pelican and gull, this is the elusive lime green snow bird...whose covering will be mysteriously bright pinkish/red by the end of the day...

We loved the hairpieces on these gentlemen, kind of look like my exes....

And Alexandra made a couple of new friends....

They were quite noisy actually, it's so quiet out there and you could hear them crunching thier way around under the trees...

And watching the seaplane take off and land is always fun..and then it was time to go....

All in all it was a really really good day.  I made a pact with myself to not let so much time go by till the next time.  I highly recommend the Dry Tortugas - AKA the Fort to everyone.  If you want to learn more you can read about it on this websites PLAN YOUR VACATION page..I would be happy to make reservations or recommendations, because I think everyone needs a Fort to play in sometimes....... no matter what your age.

XO
Smiles,
Toni