Key West, Again . . .
We got together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon today, first so Jan could get her toes down by Phillip, her favorite ‘toe guy’.
Then it was right down the road to have lunch at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro. And after having our usual great meal, we headed back to Santa Fe, getting home about 6pm.
Since that’s about all that happened today, I thought I’d repost the blogs covering the 5 days we spent in Key West, FL, starting May 15, 2009, during our 2nd year on the road.
Cheeseburger in Paradise … actually it was a Caribbean Club Chicken Sandwich
We pulled out of the RV park in Homestead, FL and headed down to Key West about 11:30 am.
This is later than we had thought to leave, but we were waiting for the mail to come at the park office.
Our daughter Brandi had send us a Priority Mail letter on Monday containing a replacement debit card. One of the two we normally use has lost its magnetic strip and will no longer scan.
It should have been here Wednesday or Thursday, at the latest. But it still hasn’t shown up. Since we’ll be passing back thru Homestead on our way back north, the RV park is going to hold it for us, assuming it ever shows up.
We’ll see.
We arrived here in Key West about 2:3opm and have a waterfront site here at Geiger Key RV Park. We’re about 10 miles from Key West proper.
Here’s a couple of pics of what we see from our site. Nice!!!
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We actually about 5 ft from the water’s edge.
After we had gotten things set up, we headed into Key West to grab a late lunch/early supper.
We decided to try Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Cafe in downtown Key West. We’d eaten at his sister’s place in Gulf Shores, AL called Lulu’s at Homeport, so we had to try Jimmy’s too.
We were surprised how small the place really is.
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Jan had the Caribbean Club Chicken Sandwich and I had the Caribbean Chicken Salad. We both really liked what we had.
Hopefully we’ll have a chance to go back.
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Tomorrow some friends of ours are coming down with their RV from West Palm Beach and will join us for a few days. We really look forward to seeing Charlee again. It’s been a long time.
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Old Friends and Good Times…
Our friends showed up about 4:30pm after driving down from West Palm Beach with 5th wheel trailer. They’re parked about 3 spaces down from us here at the RV park.
As soon as they got settled in, we headed the 10 miles down the road to Key West and sunset on the historic Mallory Square.
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From where we were on the pier we couldn’t see the sun set directly, but it was beautiful, none the less.
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After watching the sunset we walked across the street to the world-famous Hogsbreath Saloon. The food was really good and the drinks were great.
Jan had Chicken Tenders and Jalapeno Poppers appetizers, and I had the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. But the drinks were a whole ‘nuther story.
Jan had the Goom Bay Smash, which is pineapple juice and coconut milk mixed with Bacardi Coco Rum. It wasn’t long until she feeling very, very good.
And I think my Hogarita was made with rocket fuel. The few times I order a mixed drink I normally complain about the fact that there seems to be little or no alcohol in it.
A couple of weeks Jan and I were eating a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Disney, a commercial shopping/restaurant area that’s not actually part of the Disney theme parks. Since I had never had one, I decided to order a Mojito, a drink made with rum, sugar, lime juice, soda, and mint leaves.
And I would swear that this drink had absolutely NO alcohol in it whatsoever. I mean it was sugar/lime/mint favored, but I might as well have been drinking ice tea, and it would have been a lot cheaper, too.
However I think my Hogarita had my drink’s alcohol in it and two or three other people’s drinks worth. I certainly got my money’s worth.
And I’ll just say that I’m glad I wasn’t driving us home.
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Sponge Bob and Tarpon Frenzies…
After eating a great breakfast at the Geiger Key Marina Smokehouse Restaurant here at the RV park, we headed back down to Key West with our friends to spend some more time exploring.
The first thing we noticed was that there was a new addition to the scenery. Since we left last night, a Disney Cruise ship had docked right on the square.
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After finding a place to park, we wandered some of the many gift shops before taking a tour of Key West on the Old Time Trolley. It’s a 90 minute ride going past all of the major sites in Key West. Our tour guide, Tim, was excellent and really kept us laughing.
We also came across what seems to be the original ‘Sponge Bob’, although his pants weren’t square.
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After wandering thru more gift shops, we ate a late lunch at Alonzo’s Oyster Bar, right on the water at the Key West Marina. Once again the food was good and the scenery was great!
Right across the dock from us, a fishing boat had come in and was cleaning some of their catch, throwing the waste overboard.
This attracted a lot of gulls, and some very large tarpon, all of them fighting over the feast.
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Some of the tarpon seemed to be at least 6ft in length.
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But now it was time for us to head back to the RV park since our friends planned on heading back up to West Palm Beach, about 220 miles north.
We had a great time visiting together and will see them again in a few days when we stop over in West Palm on our way up north.
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Last Day in Paradise…
Today is our last full day here in Key West.
After lunch at the Eat N Grinn deli, we headed over to Mallory Square to catch the Conch Train Tour.
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We had already taken the Old Town Trolley tour on Sunday when our friends were here, but we wanted to take the train since although there is some overlap, the Conch Train concentrates more on the historic Old Town part of Key West.
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One of the places we visited was the Southernmost Point of the United States.
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Another place we drove by was the old shrimp boat docks.
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Twice in the early ’60s I was on one of my father’s shrimp boats when we docked here at Key West for supplies. There wasn’t a heck of a lot in Key West then, except for the docks and the Naval Base, which closed down in the ’70’s.
After wandering thru some more gift shops, we headed down to the Old Town Mexican Cafe for our last Key West meal. We ate here Monday and really liked it so we thought we would try it again. Still great!
After dinner we headed back to our rig at Geiger RV Park. We’ve been parked right on the water with a great view.
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When we got back, Jan was putting clothes in the washer to run a load. Right before she locked the door she noticed the clothes were ‘moving’.
A few seconds later, Mister popped out. He’s bad about crawling into places, and this time, he almost got washed and dried.
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Tomorrow we head north to West Palm Beach to meet up with our friends again. It’s about 234 miles, but will take us 6-7 hours due to the slow speed limits getting off the Keys.
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Last Day in Paradise – Redux…
Well, it turns out that today was not our last day in Key West.
I wasn’t feeling well this morning so we decided to put off leaving for another day. Just stayed around the coach all day and then walked over to the RV park restaurant for supper. This place is an outside bar/restaurant with the tables right on the water.
The food was great and the view was fantastic!
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Jan had the Turkey & Dressing and I had the Cuban Roast Pork dinner. Both excellent!
While we were sitting at our table a guy brought by a small batfish he had caught.
This is one ugly fish.
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Since we have a long trip tomorrow to West Palm Beach, we’ll try to get an early start, probably around 8am.
Thought for the Day:
Money cannot buy happiness – but it’s far more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than in a Yugo.
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