Key West

Dan had to work on Wednesday, so Bob, Gail and I took a day trip to Key West. While Bob got something to eat, Gail and I went shopping and browsing in several unique galleries. We then stumbled onto a homemade ice cream shop…oh baby, the key lime ice cream was to die for!

After walking down Duval Street and Whitehead, we pass the Hemingway House and continue on to the Southern Most Point.

Since Gail and I had eaten only ice cream, (remember eat dessert first!), we headed to lovely outside restaurant and found a place in the shade. We were entertained by two parrots while we ate a delicious shrimp and mahi-mahi salad. We made our way back to Conch Key in time to relax.

Since Dan was caught up on his work, we took another trip to Key West the next day.  Of course, we had to stop at No Name Pub again so they could try the pizza. It was not a fluke or the low carbs, it was just as delicious the second time. When we got to the Key West, Bob wanted to see the Mel Fisher Treasure museum. He was a famous treasure hunter who after 16 years of searching discovered the Atocha that sank in a hurricane in 1622 off from Key West. It took him years in court to finally claim the $450 million dollar treasure cache: over 40 tons of silver and gold, including 100,000 Spanish silver coins, Columbian emeralds, silver and gold artifacts and over a 1000 silver bars.

Dan, Gail, and I went to the Hemingway House, an 1851 Spanish-style villa where Ernest Hemingway lived and penned many of his classics in the 1930s.

Nestled in the Old Town Key West, the quaint home and studio is home to over 60 cats, including descendants of the legendary original six-toed cats.

Papa Hemingway had the most famous drinking fountain for his cats. The top of the fountain is an old Cuban olive jar and the trough at the bottom is one of the urinals from “Sloppy Joe’s" bar. Apparently, Hemingway’s wife Pauline thought it was in poor taste and had decorative tile added to help disguise it.

We then made a quick stop at the Key West Lighthouse and Keepers Quarters built in 1847. Although we were too late to go up the 88 step iron stairway, I was glad that we were able to visit this historic site.

 From Whitehead Street, we made our way down Duval Street to the meet Bob at the Hog’ Breath Saloon.

We enjoyed some margaritas while listening to live music. The bar had a web cam.We called Jeremy and Lalanya so they could see us waving to them on the internet over the web cam. 

From there we walked over to Sloppy Joe's, another bar that had live music. Dan asked the guy next to us what they played and he replied, “comedy”. He was right; they were quite humorous in a raw sort of way. By 10:00 we were all ready to head home to the beach house. Bob and I sat out in the lounges and enjoyed a lovely, star-filled night, counting our lucky stars! There is not a day that goes by that we do not appreciate our good fortune and our many blessings.

Conch Key

On Friday, Bob, Gail, and I drove a few miles north to Long Key to check out the campground and hike on their trails. The sites were all on the ocean, but the campground parallels the noisy main road. We enjoyed a leisurely one hour hike on Golden Orb Trail among the palms and mangoes.

Saturday, March 13, 2010 was Bob’s 62nd birthday. He got to sleep in and wake to the smell of his favorite breakfast…bacon and pancakes with real maple syrup. After relaxing in the morning, we all headed to the Original Marathon Seafood Festival at the city park.

The festivities were in full swing when we arrived, including live music, an art festival, vendors, educational programs, and tasty delectable’s from the sea. After listening to some music and making our way to all of the vendors, we sampled the golden crab and grouper fritters. The crab was good but way too much work to get at without scissors or claw crackers. We are just spoiled eating Alaskan King Crab. We did buy 5lbs of stone crab for $20 to have for dinner on the way out.

I hope that Bob remembers who cracked it for him! It was a fantastic day and gorgeous evening, and we were sad to think that it was our last night.

We were all up early as Dan and Gail wanted to get on the road by 8:00 am. I started to wash the linens and tidy up the beach house, saving the packing for later since we had planned to leave in the afternoon. Bob checked email and gave me the good news that the owner of the beach house offered us four extra nights since the next guests were not coming until Friday. We told her that she could bank another week at our home in Alaska. We were ecstatic and I was so glad that we had not packed up our things and moved them over to the 5th wheel. It was time to get the bathing suit on and get some reading time in on our little beach. Just me and my pelican buddies!

On Monday, we drove to the famous 7 mile bridge and walked on 4 miles on the old bridge built by the railroad and destroyed by a hurricane.

After we got back to our car, we went over to the Sunset Grille and Raw Bar across the street. John Bartus was playing and he sounded much better than he did when we heard him at the Dockside.

On Tuesday, we drove to Homestead, north of Key Largo. Eric and Jeremy had told us about a place called Coral Castle. It is a remarkable work of art, carved and built by one, 5 foot, 100 pound man. He began building the castle in 1920 as a monument to his lost love, his “sweet sixteen”. It took him 28 years to complete.

 Ed Leedskalnin was born in Latvia with little education. After being spurned by his one true love, he made his way to Florida. Although he had access to only crude hand tools, he carved and moved over 1100 ton of rock.

 One of his marvels is a nine ton gate that was so perfectly balanced, it swung open with a touch of a finger.

 Unfortunately, it no longer works even after a local engineering school volunteered to fix it. They picked it up with a crane, moved it to the school and after careful study of it for over a month, were baffled as to how Ed got the original gate to work and could not fix it. What a great story and even greater mystery!

After filling our propane and diesel tank, getting some groceries, we made our way to a fruit stand that Gail and Dan told us about called, “Robert Is Here”. We had already sampled some of the exotic fruit that Gail bought but we had to have more. The real treat was the Key Lime and Orange milkshakes. Definitely, worth the drive! Bob wanted to try the boiled peanuts but made a face when he popped the first hot, mushy legume in his mouth. By the time, we got home the truck stunk and the peanuts made their way to the garbage. It was a full day including the movie, Crazy Heart, on the way back to the beach house. Jeff Bridges definitely deserved the academy that he received for his portrayal of "Bad" Blake.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It is already Wednesday and our last day.

 Time to pack up and have the 5th wheel ready for our morning departure. Of course, we had to celebrate our Irish heritage, and returned to the Sunset Grille. It was packed and it was amazing how many people were already “lit” by 8 pm. We sipped our beers, listened to the live music, and watched the “show”. We decided that it was not a good night to be out late on the roads and left by 10:30 pm. The police were out in full force and we were glad.

On Thursday morning, after one last stroll on our little beach, we locked up and were on our way to Fort Myers, Florida. What a glorious 18 days in this tropical paradise right here in the US. We plan to return again some day to the Keys to embrace the beach life, practice the art of relaxation, and earn our title of "snowbirds"
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