Still waiting for Congress to give me the big "screw you". It's really starting to look like it will happen too. Yikes! We are fortunate enough to be well-prepared, plus Jake, as a contractor, will likely still be billable on at least one of his projects, but for others I know this will be a hardship. Regardless of what happens we're still headed off on our big trip next week!
Anyway, back to Key West (really, I wish!)... Late lunch before our sunset sail was at Willie T's on Duval. This place had a nice mellow guitar player going. Their "thing" was that they had dollar bills tacked up all over with stuff people had written on them. There is a room at The Brazen Head pub in Dublin with the same thing going on. Overall though this is the one place I wasn't really big on. Our waitress at the table was good but the food was just mediocre and the drinks were grossly over-priced. I moved to the bar for another drink after our meal ended and the bartender was unfriendly and disinterested, which stunk. The evening rebounded from that quickly though.
Don't we look cute here grasping our cups of margarita? The dress I'm wearing is totally
the one I ordered from J Crew to wear in Portugal. I figured I'd give it a trial run. We headed out in the evening on Fury's catamaran for their Commotion on the Ocean sunset sail. There was a live band and unlimited beer, wine and margaritas. We even got champagne for the actual sunset. It was pretty awesome. The boat was lively but not overcrowded and the 2 hours flew by. The band kicked off with a cover of
Southern Cross by Crosby Stills & Nash. It was perfect to set the mood. At actual sunset they serenaded us with
Sailing by Christopher Cross which I will admit is one of my favorite mellow 80's tunes. After that we danced up a storm until the boat re-docked. It was the perfect way to celebrate Jake's birthday. A note, if you're headed to Key West and interested in doing this, book ahead of time online at Fury's website. You'll save like 20%.
We shared a slice of frozen key lime pie on a stick, dipped in chocolate, from Kermit's after we got off the boat. Then we went in search of a wine bar. We found The Porch which was amazing. This small bar on the first floor of a very large house was inexpensive and comfortable. We befriended a couple of interesting local ladies and entertained them with our stories of newlywed-ness. We drank a bottle of pinot grigio which they then undercharged us for! We were having such a good time that this ended up being our only destination of the evening. We headed back for some rest after the NCAA tournament games ended.
On Sunday, Jake decided he wanted to do a kayaking tour. The van from Blue Planet Kayaks picked us up at our guest house around 12:30 and took us just out of Key West where we met the group leader and headed out. It was raining at first but eventually cleared out. I think this contributed to my sunburn, that and the fact that apparently CVS brand sunscreen isn't worth a crap. It was a lot of fun though, we crossed the channel and headed into some mangroves where we saw some cool aquatic wildlife. We were out there for probably close to 3 hours and we definitely got our exercise for the day!
After getting dropped back off we got cleaned up and ready to head back to Duval Street. We enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner at Caroline's (best shrimp and bacon club ever!) and then wandered down to Mallory Square to catch some street performers and the sunset. The Disney Magic cruise ship was docked there and I didn't take a photo of it but it's worth noting that their horn actually plays
When You Wish Upon a Star, which Jake likened to what it would sound like if someone farted that song. (Yes we are very mature.) The street performers are great and they take no shame in hitting you up for tips, of course.
After the sun set we wandered around a little before settling in at The Rooftop for some tasty beverages. I had a frozen key lime colada and the glass was actually rimmed with graham crackers. It was awesome.
We wandered around for a while after that just soaking up the Duval Street atmosphere since it was our last night. Jake endulged in a 2 pound chocolate chip cookie of which he only ate half and saved the other half for later.
On Monday we had most of the day since our flight wasn't until 5:45pm so we left our luggage with the wonderful Roman and headed out to see a few more sights. First stop was La Creperie where we'd tried to have breakfast on Saturday but it was too crowded. We got in with no problem on Monday and it was the best breakfast ever. Jake had meal-envy when my red velvet crepe came out covered in ice cream, strawberries and chocolate raspberry ganache. We headed off through the Truman Annex to find the Truman Little White House next.
There was no photography allowed in the Little White House unfortuantely, but thought the tour was just okay. Jake is the history buff and he enjoyed it more. Our guide was good but the house isn't that big and they don't show you all of it. Half of the tour was sitting watching news clips. Once we left here we headed back towards Mallory Square to visit the Shipwreck Museum. This was very interesting as I didn't realize that at one time there was such a profit to be made from finding sunken ships. I was excited about their tower too, for some photo ops but upon reaching the top we were disappointed to discover that the three cruise ships in port were pretty much blocking the entire view.
We wrapped up the last day with one final cruise up Duval Street and then stopped for a long, leisurely lunch at Sarabeth's, a wonderful little place just off of Duval. I had this macaroni and cheese with 4 cheeses and chile relenos. It was so good. I let Jake finish it because it was so tasty. We enjoyed a couple glasses of wine and then headed back to the guest house to get our bags and catch a cab to the airport. It was a wonderful weekend and we definitely want to plan another trip to Key West so we can enjoy some of the things we didn't have time to enjoy this time. As I sit here I am definitely missing it.
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