"Jim" wrote:
Dood. Fly over the keys and don't hassle with the scenic flight over water.
That highway and link to civilization is a very convenient place to ditch if
you have to swim. Flying over the islands at 3000 AGL is a terribly cool
thing to do. The millions of islands and colorful water was a very
memorable experience.

I've only been down to EWY once. After a little minor negotiating about
over-water vs. following the keys, my clearance out of Miami was
essentially, "Cleared to Key West via whatever you want to do".