Key West Adventure, Part One

Good morning! As I anxiously await news of a government shutdown I'm thinking fondly back on our weekend in Key West and Jake's birthday. Key West is an interesting town and for how small the island is it's packed with character and charm. We found no lack of things to do and I actually wish we'd had more time for just relaxing. I'll touch on some of the highlights.

It was rainy and about 39 degrees when we hopped in the cab to Reagan National early Friday morning. Fortunately I knew warmer weather was ahead. Jake finally saw we were flying to Miami and decided he wanted to know the plan. He was very happy when I told him we were driving to Key West.

It was raining in Florida as we picked up our car and began to make our way towards Route 1, the Overseas Highway. Once we reached Key Largo, the first of the keys on that route, the sun was shining and it was warm. We stopped at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada, about halfway to Key West for some lunch and a tasty beverage.

The longest of the 42 bridges along Route One is 7-mile bridge. You can see the old Overseas Railroad tressles to the right here. The water was blue and gorgeous, of course.

Our drive through the Keys took less than 3 hours. We were lucky it was extremely smooth even with our lunch stop. We checked in to our guest house, returned our rental car and cabbed it to Louie's Backyard to unwind from the traveling. Their patio was right over the water and the drinks were tasty. We watched a number of people play with their dogs in the water.

Our guest house, Heron House Court, was really fantastic. The manager, Roman, was extremely delightful to deal with. He was so helpful and even booked our Sunday kayaking trip for us. They had this jacuzzi outside but given it was 85 degrees and humid out that was our last choice of activities.

After leaving Louie's we walked the entire length of Duval Street checking out the scene. That evening we landed at Sloppy Joe's for dinner and entertainment. The duet that played were amusing but their schtick of inappropriate songs, although funny, got boring after a while. We headed up the street to Irish Kevin's for another round while listening to their fake Irish guitar player. He did play one actual Irish drinking song while we were there which made Jake happy.

So huge houses like this are all over Key West's Old Town. Just gorgeous! We spent Saturday, after a breakfast of crepes at Banana Cafe, touring around Fort Zachary Taylor Park and then back through downtown before resting a bit before catching the boat for the sunset sail I had reserved us for.

 The Southernmost Point Buoy is probably Key West's most photographed landmark. Incidentally it's not actually the southernmost point but that doesn't stop tourists from lining up 30 or more deep for a photo. We opted for a side photo with no wait...

 ...and then we found this fire hydrant painted as the buoy's replica. I was thoroughly amused by it.

 This is the Key West lighthouse popping up from the trees.

 Before reaching the Fort we found the end of Route One marker. Oddly enough no one was waiting here for a photo op so we hammed it up. We've been as far north on it as Freeport Maine (L.L. Bean Factory Store!!) but it continues further to Fort Kent, a place I will most likely never go.

 Fort Taylor was an interesting but mildly underwhelming site. It was more interesting to think that they had completely landfilled around it. In its hey day it was out in the ocean.

 The beach adjacent to the fort was nice and crowded on this hot Saturday. We put our feet in the water for a bit.

 On our way out of the park which is adjacent to a Naval annex we stopped to tour the retired Coast Guard cutter, the USS Mohawk. It's not a particularly large ship but it has been very well-maintained and the self-guided tour gives you a really good feel for what life was like onboard.

After leaving the Naval Annex we headed back to Duval Street in search of food. Then we rested a bit before the sunset sail. I'll go more into that in my next post!