Key West, Florida is one place that is very special to Scott and me. We have been there several times and, for us, it just feels so natural and like a second home.

In June of 2000, we drove our RoadTrek Van to Key West and, I believe, it was the first time either of us had been there. At the time, we had Aubie, our Cocker Spaniel with us. We had a second dog named Blazer, but I cannot remember if he was with us yet at this date. Anyway, Aubie went with us on this trip, as you can see from the photos below.

On our way down to the Keys, we stopped at Crystal River to do some geocaching and to check out the area. We were looking for alligators and manatees, of course, but we did not know that manatees would not be there in the hot summer months. Alligators were another story. We saw plenty of those.

The beaches were beautiful and we fell in love with the Florida coast, both gulf and ocean sides. Unfortunately, writing this post in 2025, I can see from these photos that the beachfront access is virtually gone today. In 2000, we were able to park and walk the beach in many different locations. Today, all the resorts are packed in together so tightly that you can barely see daylight between them, no ocean views from the road exist in 90% of the driving experience. Sad.

Not sure why Scott included this photo of me, but I can say that I can’t believe how young I was (or how old I am now). Sigh.

One of the highlights of this first trip was being able to visit the Southernmost Buoy marker erected by Key West. While not completely accurate (it was placed as more of a tourist attraction than a true geographic marker) it was fun to document the trip in this way by taking photos in front of the marker .