Confession: I have avoided my own site for the past week because Marty keeps winning tournaments

[Dan Druff]

No, I do like the drive there, and we did stop several times on the way to see/do various things, including looking at the washed out bridge.

However, on the way back it was raining, and that made the drive shitty, as the rain really kills the scenic aspect of the drive, and any "wow, I'm driving on a long bridge over the ocean" sensation was dulled by just doing it the day before.

In general, I hate retracing my steps on vacation. I always like seeing new things. Almost all of my vacations involve 1-way flights from different airports, or "loop" road trips. With Key West, your only choice is to do the long drive in and out.

Have you ever been to Dry Tortugas National Park? The beaches there look amazing, but I always say "I'll do it next time" because it requires a 70-mile ferry ride. I'm glad we didn't attempt it this time, because the rain would have ruined it.

The only place we ever stopped on the way down was on one of the other Keys to see the actual boat Humphrey Bogart used in The African Queen. Never went to Dry Tortugas. I want to go back one day and stay in the underwater hotel. http://www.jul.com/ Although the hotel underdevelopment looks much better http://www.planetoceanunderwaterhotel.com/

Are you SCUBA certified? Because that's a requirement for the hotel.

In the late '90s, I tried to get SCUBA certified, and took a course. Everything went fine in the swimming pool and the shallow ocean, but once I went 30 feet down, I didn't want to continue. Something about 30 feet of water over my head couldn't allow me to relax. I think it was the realization that I couldn't just immediately surface if something went wrong. If it were only 15 feet, I could probably stay down there for a long period of time with no issue.