Now you would think that after all the work it took me to get to sleep I would not be willing to get back up. But what you don't understand is that Dry Tortugas National Park is known for stargazing and Milkyway sightings. So at 1 AM we got up to look at the stars. There wasn't a very good view of the Milkyway, but you could see significantly more stars than you could at home, even with the moon as bright as it was. It was admittedly a worthwhile addition to our camping trip. And, luckily, that meant I had buddies for my nightly mid-sleep pee!
After undergoing the same sweat torture I did to originally fall asleep, I passed out. When I woke up, Mom and Dad were already dismantling their tent and Gideon was wide awake. I lounged around a bit and then got up and started packing up. We had to drop our bags off at the dock before the boat arrived for the next set of passengers. We dropped our stuff in the boat house because it was sprinkling, then went into the fort to grab some last minute souvenirs. At this point we were pretty sick of being outside in the sun, so we sat in the boat house playing games on phones or reading until the boat arrived.
As soon as the boat arrived it started pouring. No way we were getting out from under the cover of the boathouse. And everyone that was coming out of the boat ran right into the boathouse too.
We all stood there until the rain cleared up… just in time for lunch. We hopped right on the boat and grabbed the subs, chips, soda and cookies. Yum! Something other than pop-tarts and Uncrustables! We sat and hung around on the boat essentially until it took off. In fact, we spent so long enjoying the AC that I finished the book I was reading!
Then, we were on our way back to Key West. The boat ride felt quick again, because I slept through it. Again. When I wasn't sleeping we did play some family rounds of hang man, which was very exciting!
Once we docked we grabbed all our things and began the process of reorganizing the trunk once more. We wanted to stop and take a look at the southernmost point in the continental United States, but not only was the road to get there closed but the line was so so long. Yeah, no. We'll take a picture from the car. It's 5:30, I'm starving, we have a 3 hour drive to the hotel and I am not waiting for that.
Dad drove us out of the populated part of Key West, and then Gideon drove us the rest of the way out of the keys! The road was long and single-laned, but he did get to learn merging and he went 55 mph! He did lovely and I was even able to catch up with blog writing as he drove!
At the end of his shift driving, we stopped for dinner at Dairy Queen. We figured the least we could do was reward the guy with ice cream. Plus, from the Dairy Queen our hotel was only 45 minutes away! Nice job Gideon!
Unfortunately the day was just one bitch after another because we didn't have any more overnight bags packed, so we had to bring all of our belongings into the hotel. Four humans for a whole month is a lot of belongings. Luckily, the hotel had two carts to help us push in our things. One for each room!
Once everything was put away we all took our much needed showers and began the process of applying aloe to about every inch of our bodies at least 10 times a piece. But the burns were worth it for the snorkeling! My back was the color of Clifford the big red dog and actually had fun little raised spots right where my bra sat… yay! I was in extreme pain.
You know what overruled that pain, though? The comfort of watching Gossip Girl and falling asleep in a nice warm bed in an air conditioned hotel room.
Nice deed of the day: Mom helped a woman get napkins when her soda blew up all over her!
Boy Meets Comb:
Yeah, we're not packing in all of Gideon's hair products, but nice try.