Another Day in Key West Paradise

 The weather app said we should expect rain this afternoon so we got up quickly and headed down to the airport shuttle by 8:30.  When we got to downtown Key West we got tickets for the Old Town Trolley so we could see the places we wanted to experience without worrying about parking.  Then we walked over to Truman's Little White House.  We really knew nothing about it except someone highly recommended it.  We had an excellent guide and I learned so much.  Truman spent eleven working vacations on Key West. The home has been restored to the Truman years.

We got on the trolley and headed to the Hemingway House, but first we went by the Kermit Key Lime Pie Shop.

My mother got me to read "A Farewell to Arms" when I was a teenager. She loved Hemingway. She signed all her letters to family with P.O.M.  She got that from a character in a Hemingway novel who signed her letters that way and it stood for Poor Old Mom.

Hemingway lived on Key West with his second of four wives.  He wrote 70% of his body of work while on Key West. He loved cats, especially those with extra toes. There are now 50 cats living there, descendants of Hemingway's cats. About half of them have extra toes.  Here are two cats sleeping on Hemingway's bed.

When we finished at Hemingway's house it was lunchtime.  We went to Santiago's Bodega, a tapas restaurant and another recommendation.  It was amazing.  I had food there that I will dream about.

Back on the trolley we headed to the southernmost point.  There was a very long line of people waiting to get their picture taken at the point. I took a picture of the line.

We really got off at this stop to visit the butterfly conservatory.  By this time we were so hot and sticky we almost quit our tour but it would have been a mistake.  For $10 a piece we walked through a tropical wonderland with beautiful birds...

flamingos...

And hundreds and hundreds of butterflies!

Back on the trolley, we returned to where we began. We hiked back to meet our hotel shuttle and thankfully returned to air conditioning.

Key West -- On the Water

We got up slow on our first full day in Key West and ate in our room. We headed down at 9:30 to talk to the concierge and decided on a guided jet ski tour around the island. We each got our own jet ski for maximum fun. 

 

Just getting on this watercraft with my bad knees was a feat.  We weren't able to go completely around the island due to wind on the ocean side.  But I had to navigate enough waves to know that I didn't want to go where they were any higher. It was a blast. I went full throttle on the Gulf side and got up to 43 miles per hour....and still I was the old lady bringing up the rear.  Bryan had the time of his life.

We spent a good part of the afternoon doing our laundry at the local coin laundromat.  I find laundromats hot enough but in a place where the humidity is 75% it is pure hell!

At dinner time we took the hotel shuttle to downtown Key West.  We walked along the pier until we found a bench to rest on while we waited for the sunset.  It was worth the wait but it is hot here.  Had I mentioned that?

After dinner we looked for a place to eat dinner that would have good food and wasn't too loud for us to talk. We settled for a Mexican restaurant called Amigo that makes its own flour tortillas.  I had the fried shrimp taco....which was the best taco of my life....really.  Bryan had 3 tacos -- pork, chicken and beef.  They weren't shabby.  For dessert we tried a half slice of the two key lime pie stores on the island -- Kermit's Key Lime Pie and the Key Lime Pie store.  Bryan liked them best when they were mixed.  I am a Kermit fan.

Back to the shuttle with 40 other people trying to return to the hotel. We made it home on the second shuttle with plans for the third shower of the day.  Did I mention it is humid here?

Florida Vacation -- Tampa to Key West

Since Bryan and I heard that Annual Conference would be in Tampa in 2015 we have been planning a vacation to Florida so we could visit his niece, Margie.  We arrived in Tampa on Saturday, rented a Toyota Rav 4 and headed for Fort Myers, where Margie lives with her husband, Mark, and two dogs -- Ryan and Sailor. Margie was 9 months old when Bryan was born and so they grew up more like siblings.  

On Sunday Margie and Mark showed us the wonders of the Fort Myers area. After a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes we headed to Sanibel Island for time swimming and kayaking in the Gulf.  It was magical. Then back home for a swim in the pool -- dogs included -- followed by a delicious dinner of grouper sandwiches.

It was difficult to leave on Monday after such amazing hospitality.  We drove to Everglade City to take the Ten Thousand Islands boat tour. I knew we would see dolphins...

but I really wanted to see manatees. Which we did!

Then we backtracked to Marco Island to spend the night. I was expecting another experience like Sanibel Island. I was disappointed. After a quick walk on the beach, I fell fast asleep.

Tuesday morning we headed back to the Everglades. We stopped in the photo gallery of Clyde Butcher -- a black and white photographer.  His work was amazing.  Then we stopped at Shark Valley in the Everglades.  Our plan was to take the tram tour but we would have to wait too long so we walked some of the way.  We heard pig frogs, saw our first orange grasshopper...

And a bird camouflaged in the brush...

But I really wanted to see an alligator.  I did see one alligator tail...

Then we headed for Miami Beach.  Our room was an oceanfront room.

We headed right down to the beach to swim in the Atlantic and relax in the sun.

We enjoyed a walk down the boardwalk until we realized we had been identified as easy marks. We hurried to our hotel room.

Wednesday morning we got up early to head to Key West. We stopped at Robert Is Here for fresh mangoes and the most amazing fresh fruit shakes.  I had the strawberry key lime. We stopped in Key Largo to go snorkeling at a coral reef.  I saw lavender colored fish!  I guess the sea sickness and gallon of salt water I swallowed was worth it.

Our next stop was at Robbie's Marina to feed the tarpon.  One man, who was leaving as we arrived, had been bitten by a tarpon.

We stopped in Marathon Key for a lobster Reuben sandwich at a quiet outdoor marina.

We made it to Key West and ended the day sitting on the beach watching the moonrise.

More adventures begin tomorrow.