The bucket-list experience hiding under a dock in Islamorada...

Florida Keys Road Trip | July 7, 2026

Hey Keys lovers! We hope you had a fantastic Fourth of July weekend celebrating America's 250th birthday. While the fireworks have faded, the summer heat is just getting started. This week, we're looking at a brand new underwater habitat deployed off the coast, a bizarre strategy that won the Key Lime Pie Eating Championship, and the one dock experience in the Florida Keys that belongs on every first-timer's list.

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❓ Keys Trivia

What annual Florida Keys event pipes a live radio broadcast underwater to an audience of snorkelers, divers, and fish?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

📣 The Mile Marker Roundup

🥧 Bizarre Trick Wins Pie Contest

Kevin Renly devoured a 9-inch Key lime pie in 59.6 seconds to claim the 2026 World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating Championship in Key West. His winning strategy was to tackle the whipped cream first by diving chest-first into the topping to clear it, then flipping the pie upside down to eat the crust last. Read more →

🌊 New Underwater Habitat Deployed

Ocean engineering company DEEP has deployed "Vanguard," the first underwater ocean habitat in US waters in 40 years, at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The 35-foot habitat sits at a depth of 56 feet and will accommodate four aquanauts for missions lasting five days or more. Read more →

🐢 "Girl Power" Sea Turtle Release

The Turtle Hospital will release "Girl Power," a juvenile green sea turtle, at Sombrero Beach in Marathon on Friday, July 10 at 9:30 a.m. The release is part of the 2026 Tour de Turtles, and she will be satellite-tagged so the public can track her migration online. Read more →

🎆 America's 250th Celebrated

The Florida Keys celebrated the nation's semiquincentennial with events from Key Largo to Key West. Highlights included Key Largo's 50th annual Fourth of July Parade, fireworks at Founders Park in Islamorada, and the Casa Marina Beach Celebration in Key West. Read more →

🎵 Underwater Music Festival

The 41st annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival returns to Looe Key Reef this Friday and Saturday (July 11–12). Ocean-themed music will be piped underwater to hundreds of snorkelers and divers. A free kickoff event takes place at Mote Marine on Summerland Key on July 10.

🤝 Partner Spotlight

The Underwater Music Festival — Your Insider Guide

If you're heading to the Lower Keys this weekend, you don't want to miss the 41st annual Underwater Music Festival at Looe Key Reef (about 6 miles south of Big Pine Key).

Here is how to do it right: Book a snorkel charter from Big Pine Key or Ramrod Key early, as boats fill up fast. Bring reef-safe sunscreen (it's the law), and remember that the "concert" is actually best heard underwater, where sound travels faster than in the air.

Don't forget to check out the free pre-event at Mote Marine on Summerland Key on Friday, July 10, to learn about coral restoration efforts before hitting the reef.

🤿 Deep Dive

The Tarpon at Robbie's

There is a dock at Mile Marker 77.5 in Islamorada where you can hand-feed a 100-pound fish.

Not from a boat. Not through a fence. You lean over the edge of a rickety wooden dock, hold a live sardine over the dark water, and wait.

Then a massive silver shape rises from the depths, opens a mouth the size of a dinner plate, and the sardine is gone.

That is the experience at Robbie's Marina, and it has been going on since the 1970s.

The story starts with a single injured tarpon that a local fisherman nursed back to health in the marina's shallow water. He fed it by hand until it recovered. The tarpon never left. It started hanging around the dock, and eventually brought friends.

Today, dozens of Atlantic tarpon — some over six feet long and pushing 200 pounds — circle the dock at Robbie's every single day, waiting to be fed. Visitors pay $5 to enter the dock and $4 for a bucket of baitfish. The tarpon do the rest.

The trick, locals will tell you, is to hold the fish low and flat, right at the water's surface. The tarpon will roll onto its side and inhale it. If you hold it too high, you'll get splashed. If you hesitate, a pelican will steal it first — the pelicans have figured out the game and station themselves on the dock railing, waiting for an opening.

Robbie's is also the launching point for kayak rentals, snorkel trips to Indian Key and Lignumvitae Key, and one of the best bait-and-tackle shops in the Upper Keys. But most people come for the tarpon.

It costs less than a cup of coffee. It is one of the most memorable things you can do in the Florida Keys.

Read more and plan your visit →

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🏴‍☠️ Lore & Legends

Florida's First Millionaire

Long before the Overseas Highway or the railroad, Key West was the richest city per capita in the United States, thanks to the dangerous and lucrative business of shipwreck salvaging.

And no one profited more than William Curry.

Born in the Bahamas, Curry arrived in Key West in 1837 as a penniless clerk. He quickly realized that the real money wasn't in salvaging the wrecks himself, but in outfitting the wrecking fleets and buying the salvaged cargo at auction to resell up north.

Curry built a massive mercantile empire and became Florida's very first self-made millionaire.

In 1869, he built a modest home on Caroline Street. After his death in 1896, his son Milton demolished most of it and built the opulent, 22-room Curry Mansion that stands there today.

Today, the Curry Mansion operates as a historic inn and museum. And legend has it that the original cookhouse in the back is where a local cook named "Aunt Sally" invented the very first Key lime pie.

✅ Trivia Answer

The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival.

Founded in 1985, this quirky event takes place every July at Looe Key Reef. A local radio station broadcasts ocean-themed music (think the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" and the theme from "Jaws") through underwater speakers suspended from boats.

Divers and snorkelers often dress in costumes and "play" mock instruments like the "trom-bonefish" and the "Fluke-a-Lele." This year marks the 41st edition of the festival, happening July 11–12.

Until next week, keep your windows down and your watch off.
The Florida Keys Road Trip Team