Key West

In January, Kent told me he could really use a warm weather get away. I’m always up for warm weather, sunshine and the ocean so we started looking around. We ruled out international travel because air fare was nutty and also we wanted to spend more time ON vacation than traveling TO vacation. I’d never been to Key West, so I suggested that as our destination. Kent agreed and we started planning.

I can’t resist taking photos of the ocean from a plane—these are from our final approach into Key West.

We got to our hotel too early to check in, so we dropped our bags and headed to the Hemingway Home. While the tour guide’s talk was ultra-cheesy and a little annoying, the house itself was amazing. This photo is of the fountain at the front of the house. From above, you can see that it's shaped like a ship's bow.

Details from one of the fireplaces:

We saw cat art everywhere:

And cats:

I love how this cat is looking over her shoulder so disdainfully. She knew we were there and didn’t give a hoot. (This was in the writing studio above the carriage house/garage)

At the end of the tour, one lucky person was chosen to feed one of the cats a little treat. Sadly, I was not that person.

Here's another cat on the property. I like to think this is what Wally would look like if he were a Hemingway cat.

I love how cats are cats, even when famous and living in a famous person's house.

We got back to our hotel only the room still wasn’t ready. We saw another couple there having an absolute temper tantrum because they didn’t like the rooms they’d gotten using points. Seriously, they were way out of line yelling at the front desk, threatening to never do business with that hotel chain again, bragging about how much status they had and how poorly they were being treated, and then finishing off by dropping a lot of F bombs. Did you pick up on the fact that they weren’t paying for their rooms?

Anyway, we got into our room probably 40 minutes later and it was wonderful. Our balcony was very nearly the size of our dining room at home, and this was the view that evening:

You’ll find all sorts of rooster and hens strutting around Key West. They’re protected and they’re everywhere. I had to dodge them on my morning runs!

Sunday (my birthday and also Super Bowl Sunday only I don’t care at all about football), we took an all-day catamaran trip. While waiting to board, we saw this iguana. Someone there with us said if they start moving their head a certain way, they’re getting annoyed and might move quickly to attack. This guy was doing just that—I’m sure all the tourists snapping pictures got on its last nerve!

Once on the catamaran, we headed to Mule Key and kayaked all around it as our guide pointed out all sorts of wildlife and explained how the mangroves worked to protect the ecosystem in Florida. Thankfully both Kent and I had on rash guards plus good sunscreen, since the kayaking part lasted over an hour in mostly full sun.

Then the catamaran took us over to Sand Key, which is a coral reef with an old lighthouse on it. We went snorkeling there for a few hours. OK, neither of us snorkeled the full time because the water wasn’t all that warm. I saw two reef sharks while snorkeling and all sorts of other fish swimming in among the coral. Once out of the water, I also saw a huge barracuda. No photos of the sharks or the barracuda, alas. Or the many, many sea turtles we saw swimming. That catamaran trip was amazing and perfect and I’m so glad we took it.

Random photos from the catamaran:

We had a nice dinner at our hotel using credits they proactively gave us for our room not being ready on time (snotty note to the super rude people, if you’re nice then folks will be nice back).

Sunset before dinner:

Birthday dessert:

Monday, we went to the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. We didn’t know what to expect but even if we had, the idea of it just couldn’t be pictured. I’ve never seen so many and such variety of butterflies, and the birds were incredible too. I know we didn’t see everything, even though it’s not huge, and if we lived there we’d go there often.

We’d talked about going to Fort Zachary Taylor but knew the walk there was in full sun, and these days we are vampires. But Monday morning was really cloudy so we took a chance and headed over. We got there in time for the tour, which was quite good. If you are ever in Key West, include this in your list of things to do.

On our walk back from Fort Zachary Taylor, we stopped by the Truman Little White House but decided $20 a ticket for the tour was a bit rich. We kept walking and swung by mile marker 0, then had lunch with more roosters for company. Also my beer was quite good.

Then we dropped by the Shipwreck Museum which was interesting but I won't link to their website because they've got truly annoying pop ups.

Monday evening, we took a sunset cruise but alas, the clouds rolled back in so we didn’t get the iconic sunset at sea. But who cares, I was on the ocean with my favorite person in the world which made me a very happy woman. No pictures because the sea and the sky were close to the same color.

Tuesday was our last day so we walked down to the same area where we’d picked up our catamaran on Sunday and grabbed lunch at Conch Republic (really liked the food). We had to wait a bit until the restaurant opened, and while waiting we saw a manatee by one of the piers—they are sure strange looking.

Then we took a tour of a rum distillery, the Key West First Legal Rum Distillery. OK, tour is a bit grand, we were in one (very large) room and didn’t actually tour anything. But the guide shared a lot about how rum is distilled and we both found it very interesting. Kent bought a small 5 pack of bottles with different kinds of rum, and was able to bring that in our carry-on luggage that night.

On the walk back to our hotel, we popped into St. Paul's Episcopal Church which was absolutely stunning.

We got on a plane around 5 that evening, and landed in Kansas City to 21F and a winter storm on the way.