Liz and I decided to get married in a non-traditional way and have a long weekend party in Key West, FL. We flew to Miami and drove the rest of the way down to Key West. This is one of the best drives in the world; crossing over bridges that connect Key after Key. We knew that this would be a fun road trip for the two of us before all the wedding festivities started for the weekend. It was also the perfect time to do a bit of geocaching in the Florida Keys.
Geocaching Pocket Queries
As we headed out of Miami, I pulled up our *pocket query for Highway 1 heading south. I quickly found a geocache to go after on the first Key, Key Largo.
* Pocket Queries are pre downloaded geocaches. You are able to make a list based on location or the country you are in to search and find the caches. This downloads to your smart phone or GPS unit.
Geocaching Key Largo
The first geocache we went after on Key Largo had several favorite points on it for creativity. We pulled into a store parking lot and started out on our search. After looking around for several minutes, we were officially confused. The directions and hints were taking us over to this old cannon. I looked all around but couldn’t see anything that looked strange or out of place…I was just stumped! Then Liz came over toward the canon and walked right to the cache. Don’t you hate when that happens? This creative hide got our geocaching juices flowing and left us wanting more.
Seven Mile Bridge
We still had quite a drive ahead of us, so we got back in our convertible and continued south. Once we passed the Seven Mile Bridge, we decided it was time for another geocache. We pulled out the GPS and saw that there was a geocache with several favorite points a couple of miles down the highway on the left. After looking at some of the past logs, we realized that it was located right off the highway on a beach. Sold! We needed to cool off from riding in the convertible with the sun blasting down on us as we drive. Plus, the turquoise water looked so inviting and we were dying to at least put our feet in!
Before we knew it, we were at the pull-off for the beach and we immediately ran over to the water. It felt so nice to kick off our shoes and dip our feet into the warm ocean, but we were here for a Geocache. So after a few moments in the water, we got down to business.
We walked up the beach and cut over into a wooded area. I knew from the hints and past logs that we were looking for a funky looking tree. Well there were several, but we found one that was really funky and there we found our geocache. We signed the log, replaced the cache, and strolled a bit longer on the beach. Then we headed back to the car and continued down the highway.
Mile Marker Zero
Knowing that we had over 40 guests waiting on us to get to the end of the highway at Key West, we felt like we needed to make up some ground. We enjoyed having a little geocaching fun on this road trip before a busy weekend of full of festivities.
Once we arrived in Key West, we had to get the iconic Key West Geocache; at Mile Marker 0. This is officially the end of the line for Highway 1. It took a bit of searching to find this tiny cache and we had to use our Geo-Stealth to not give away what we were doing (there were a lot of “muggles” around). But we eventually found the cache, signed the log and put it back. This classic photo spot was the perfect place for our last geocache on the highway.
To cap off our night, we met up with some friends for an evening cocktail and watched the sunset over Key West. This was going to be a very special weekend for us and our friends, so doing a little geocaching was a great way to start the trip. If you were wondering… She said YES!
