Knocking on Heaven's Door in Islamorada

 for the duPont Registry

The curved teak gates swing open.

Follow a crushed coral drive, 800 feet winding through two acres of native plants and exotic animals, a deliberate wild.  Egrets pose, a white dove coos, an iguana scurries out of your path.  

Set amid impeccable gardens, the  great house looms. The front staircase splits to embrace a  massive royal palm stretching thirty feet, fronds feathering the roofline.  To one side is a salt water pond, your private aquarium. To the other is the conch house, an early dweller on this  six acre paradise,  just five feet from the water's edge. Grandfathered in, it's now your marina, leading to a dock that in turn leads to a 1000 foot deeded boat basin.

Tomorrow you can sail out for some tarpon fishing, or snorkeling at Hens and Chickens reef.  But now a hammock beckons from the island that forms and reforms with each tide.  An osprey flies by the lighthouse, its walls shot with red and gold by the setting sun.  

Inside the house is equally fantastical with floors inlaid with exotic woods and marble, a vast living room with a coral wall facing a wall of windows that opens to a 200 foot veranda overlooking the water.  Custom built by local artisans,  with no expense spared, the concrete walls will withstand 180 mile per hour winds.

There are nine bedrooms, ten baths. Downstairs is an indoor pool with waterfalls, a whirlpool bath, toys. There's an outdoor pool as well, of course.  What would a fantasy be without one?

And you're just an hours drive from Miami's hustle, just off Old Highway 1,  far from the traffic and tourists on Islamorada's Millionaires Row. It's as much of a commute as you might already have.  Take your pick of which car, there are four garages.

The sun has set. Night falls. It's just you and the stars, the ocean and the breeze.