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Published: August 7th 2012
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We've had two very different days in Key West. One clear and hot, the other raining and cool. Yesterday was clear, today is rainy. Rainy rainy rainy.
We left our Key Largo place at about 10am, and started driving south on Highway 1. We crossed Islamorada, Marathon and all the other little keys along the road to Key West. We stopped along the road at the Bahia Honda State Park, taking advantage of the beautiful beaches there, lying under our beach umbrellas, reading, walking the beaches and spending time in the waters. The beaches at Bahia honda are somewhat famous, having won a best beach in the US award in the 1990s, so we expected alot, and it delivered. The best was Calusa beach, with its bright blue water, shallow entry beach, warm water and soft sand. It is a small beach, both narrow and short, but it is gorgeous. Palm trees offere shade to the early comers, and breezes off the Florida Bay keep things cool. We swam and snorkeled (nothing to see) and checked out the two other beaches in the park (Loggerhead and Sandspur...both rougher, more natural, and covered in mountains of seaweed, but with beautiful water).
After a few hours at the beach, we got on the road to Key West again.
We continued south, the water getting bluer and bluer as we went, arriving in Key West after 3pm. We arrived at our hotel, the Chelsea House, checked in and settled into our room before heading out. The room is small, with just a bed and a bathroom, a small dresser with 3 small drawers, and the tinyest bed side table ever (just one), but it is decorated to the nines and very chic. Too small though....and crappy internet. Live and learn.
We walked Duval Street, the main drag, and checked out Mallory Square, a tourist sunset watching and street performance space, and scoped out places for dinner. We ended up eating a casual dinner at Lobo Mixed Grill, which is a very small shack with picnic tables tucked in behind the action on Duval Street in Key Lime Square. The proprietor was so friendly, the food portions huge, the prices sensible, and the food quality very high. The California Burger I had was so juicy and tasty, the fries crispy on the outside and soft inside, the garden salad massive, and Jackie's
Turkey bacon avocado and scallion Quesadilla was hot and fresh and delicious. A perfect meal at a great price...and did I mention the super friendly server guy?
We walked the streets after, burning off some of that food, went to Mallory Square for the sunset, then headed home while munching on a frozen piece of Key Lime Pie dip in chocolate on a stick. What a treat.
This morning was a nice start to the day, with a small and simple breakfast of cereal and fruit at the hotel (least impressive so far), we took a walk to a grocery store to get picnic things for lunch and on our way back it started to pour rain. Jack and I tried to take cover under a palm tree, but luckily somone spotted us and asked if we wanted to shield ourselves on their deck that was covered by an awning. We chatted for awhile while the rain went past and at our first opportunity we made our way through the streets of Key west, seeing many of the sights. At around 12:30 it started to pour again and we made our wayback to our hotel for some lunch.
Lunch was followed by time spent in a cafe and some research for our dinner. After much debate, we decide to go eat at a cuban place called El Siboney.
We went for a walk, for a dip in the pool, and then prepared for dinner. However, on the way to El Siboney, we spotted a little off the beaten path place called The Flaming Buoy Filet Co, checked the menu, were intrigued, and decided to switch it up. And lucky we did so. It was one of the best meals of the trip. There was a special on wine, half off all bottles, and the catch of the day was Yellow Tail Snapper and Grouper. We ended up with a bottle of Rose, a spinach, egg, onion and bacon salad, and I had the Penne Marinara with Key West Pink Shrimp and Grouper, and Jackie had the grilled Grouper with cob corn, mashed potato and brocolli corn cake. We finsished with custard soaked banana bread french toast with vanilla bean ice cream and maple syrup. What a meal, and what an experience. It was a cute place, good service, great food, and a Darth Vader mask in the
men's room.....maybe I wasn't supposed to try it on?
We followed dinner with a tippsy walk down Duval St looking for a souvenir t shirt for me, which I did find...yippie! I haggled the guy down from 25 per shirt to 15 per shirt....that itself was fun.
And here we are at the end of the day, tired, full and ready for sleep.
Beach tomorrow....we need the sun.
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Louise Scheer
non-member comment
Great trip for you guys
Hi you too, I am enjoying your trip so much and your beautiful pictures. I did join the blog, but they said they would send me an e mail, but so far nothing. Louise