Day Trip to Key West

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When we were getting ready to leave Chicago, I told Jan that I didn't care if we did anything down here except lay around and relax. Well, we're doing plenty of that! The weather has been better than the 10 day forecasts were saying last week at home. It was in the high 80's Friday when we arrived and Saturday through Monday it was in the low 80's and SUNNY each day. As much as I love winter snow and snowmobiling, the one thing I hate and I guess we all hate in the northern climes during the winter is the abundance of gray overcast days. The sunny clear weather is a tonic for the soul.

The forecast for Tuesday was for a cool day, with a high of 71, so we decided that would be our day to make a day trip to Key West. I was there by myself about 4 years ago in November on a motorcycle trip. My memories of that visit are fuzzier than Keith Richards memories of his LSD days I've been reading about in his new book. Jan was there a couple years ago on one of her "road trips" with her friends Jackie and Joan. But this is the first time we have been in the Keys together. I was hoping to find a boat trip or ferry to make the trip to Key West from here, but to my surprise, there is no such thing from anywhere near here. It's a 60 mile drive from here to Key West and we didn't want to drive it if we didn't have to. The concierge told us about a seaplane charter that would pick us up at the marina at our resort, fly us to Key West in the morning, pick us up there in the afternoon and fly us back to Duck Key. It was really expensive, but we thought it would be a unique experience that neither one of us had done. She told us the cost was around $700. When I called the guy told me it was $785-----------each way!!!! When I told him that the concierge told us it was half that, he said that he would burn that much gas alone. It's a Cessna 182 with floats for crying out loud. Even though he would have to fly from Key West to get us and therefore it would be 4 legs for him, I figured that the 60 miles each way would maybe cost him $150-$200 in gas. I'd like the pay and profit from the other $1,400!!!! So we decided to drive there.

Driving took partying out of the equation, but we had a couple beers at Capt. Tony's, stopped by Sloppy Joe's and had a nice lunch at the Hog's Breath. We did a lot of walking and a bit of shopping together. All in all a very pleasant day.

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Photos

Southernmost Point in the US
Mile marker 0 on US 1

Capt. Tony's-A Rare Treat
I get to indulge 2 of my vices at the same time. I thought my house was the last place in this country you could smoke and have a beer

Comments

[Sprague]

Very cool, I also like Key West. If you like to fish, Warren Clark, Ron Baker and have used a Tarpon fishing guide 3-4 times out of Bud & Marys in Islamorada. A 1/2 day trip for two is about $400. Small boat in close.

[Jackie]

I wish I was there too!! Is Captain Tony's the place that had all of the bras hanging up?

[Brett]

Hog's breath is better than no breath at all

[Snowhawg]

Hi Jackie
Yeah, That's the place..The Original Sloppy Joe's. Kind of a dump, but I'm a dumpy bar kinda guy.