Travel Day
Not bad actually. We left the house at about 5:45am when it was a balmy 60 degrees. Fast forward 35 minutes and it was about 35 degrees and pouring rain in Greensboro. An uneventful flight brought us to Miami where we sat for a few hours listening to New Yorkers argue with the American Eagle staff about the injustice of their missing their flight to Nassau due to airline regulations and flight 'closure times.' Karma is always ready for you...shortly after we got on our plane, the pilot realized that the number two engine wouldn't turn over. We deplaned, took the bus back to the gate and sat around for another 45 minutes until they found us a new plane. This time the blender worked and we took off for Key West at around 4pm. We landed safely and got our first taste of 80 degree weather. Finally, after years of being told that I brought bad weather (cold, rainy, crappy, you name it) to the Keys, we might get lucky!
We spent a relaxing evening at the house and had some fun getting caught in a brief rain shower. We giggled through Tropic Thunder with the Bixbys and headed to bed early.
Day 1
Our first full day in Key West was about 75 and sunny! We visited an old standby on Summerland Key, Summerland Sandal. I found a great new swimsuit and matching shorts. W picked up some new hiking / water shoes. We headed down to Hurricane Hole to rent kayaks, a frequent activity during our trips to the Keys. This was the first time we kayaked this far south in the Keys, and we were rewarded with a very interesting trip through a maze of mangroves, a visit to a saltwater pond behind the airport, and several specimens of wildlife, including a great blue heron and two rather grumpy iguanas.
Afterwards we relaxed at the house and then took a walk down to the end of Summerland Key. It's great to just check out the styles, sizes, prices and colors of homes in the Keys.
That night we had dinner at Parrotdise (home of Big Pecker Wines and some
fervent Ohio State fans) with Raye & Butch. Tomorrow we head into Key West!Day 2
On the second day of our visit, we spent the morning tooling around Summerland Key and its canals on the Bixby's pontoon boat. W and Butch spent 20 minutes trimming a tree that overhung the canal at our put-in point. It belongs to Claire, a friend of the family.
Once out of the water, it was low tide, which presented some challenges navigating the coral. Towards the end of our trip, we passed a tree that contained about five iguanas of different age, color and size. This was nothing compared to what awaited us back at the put-in point, the home of the Bixby's friend Claire. There we found two grown iguanas sunning themselves on the sea wall. Shortly after we put the boat up, one started to bite the other's tail. We expected a fight to ensue.....wow, were we wrong! As W's sister said later upon
viewing the photos....hot iguana love! Nature day continued when we stopped at a small salt pond to feed some tarpon that had been trapped there during recent hurricanes. There are now at least a dozen living in a little impromptu wildlife preserve, along with pelicans, iguanas and turtles. We had lunch at Sugarloaf Food Company (best sandwiches and bakery north of Key West) and prepared to head into town. We checked into the Hyatt Sunset Harbor. Raye was able to secure us rooms thanks to her connections. Our first stop after arrival? Two 'green things' from Jimmy at the Bistro, a pretzel from the Key West Pretzel Man, and Sunset ceremony at Mallory Square. It was a weekend for both new and old traditions, so we tried out a new location for dinner, Caroline's on Duval Street. Mark the bartender introduced us to the Mark-a-Rita and his mangorita...yummy! The sandwiches and salads were huge and affordable, a great combination in a location that offers plenty of people watching.
In Key West, you do the 'Duval Crawl'...a long, leisurely and typically inebriated walk up and down Duval Street, the main drag that runs across the bottom third of the island from an area around Mallory Square and the cruiseship drop-off point down about two miles to South Beach. Along the way are t-shirt shops, restaurants, bars, galleries and more. As our next bartender Gigs said when we inquired as to the quiet night at Bogart's Irish Pub, most cruise ship passengers and tourists get about halfway down Duval, see less crowds or a rainbow flag, and think 'oh crap...I don't belong here' and turn around (or they just tire of walking). Unfortunately they miss many of the treasures of Key West, including places like Bogart's and bartenders like Gigs, a Brit and an ardent Red Sox fan! They also miss the 'girls' outside of 801 Bourbon, advertising the 9 and 11pm drag shows. (If you talk to Gigs, he'll tell you the tall girl in the really short skirt, Inge, is really a baseball hat wearing bloke named Brian.) We finished up the night in typical style at Irish Kevin's, drinking beer and listening to JMH and New York Pauly.
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