Well today was a half travel day, in that we needed to drive from Key West to Tampa, which is about an eight hour drive, to return our rental car. It blows my mind to drive 8 hours and still be in the same state.

But that would come later, first we decided to head back down from Big Time Key to Key West to hit up the beach, since we didn’t do that at all the day before.

So it was a brief day and a half in Key West with my sister and brother in law, but it was a lot of fun, and I can’t think of two people I would rather have introduce me to Key West. Except maybe two topless women. No, I’d still prefer sis and bro.

Had to quick snap a picture of Irish Kevin’s

We had a quick lunch at Sloppy Joe’s (where I, of course, had a sloppy joe), and started the big trek back north. I think the highlight of the day was the drive back through the keys. The weather was gorgeous, and the drive is just beautiful.

The highlight of the drive however, was when we got stopped on the 7 mile bridge.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, the 7 mile bridge is the bridge (which is 7 miles, oddly enough) that connects the upper keys to the lower keys.  It’s a two lane bridge that runs for 7 miles over the Atlantic Ocean.  It’s pretty incredible just to drive over.  Well there was an accident on the bridge, which basically halts all traffic until it can be taken care of (again there’s only two lanes, and there’s really nowhere else you can go, as the only detour would be driving through the Atlantic Ocean).  However, much like everything else in the Keys, it was just an excuse for another party.  Everybody got out of their cars and took pictures and hung out, and from the pictures below, you can see that there are definitely worse places to get stuck.

So yeah, that was a welcome delay.  Then when we got to the top of the upper keys (Jewfish Creek Bridge), we got stopped there too, as the drawbridge was up, and when we turned to our left we saw this:

So yeah, the Keys really didn’t want us to leave.  But leave we did, and a surprisingly short 6 hours later we met up with my dad at the Tampa airport, who gave us a ride back to my Grandfather’s house in Ridge Manor.

And as is our tradition, though usually not at 2 in the morning, my dad and I (and my brother in law) headed out to Waffle House, where we got one of the surlier waitresses I’ve ever had, and that was exactly what I wanted.

Good times.

Goodbye Keys, hello rest of Florida.