The trip is two fold: Part 1 consisted of A, B and me heading to the Dry Tortugas for some serious deep sea fishing. Part 2 consisted of C joining us for a weekend of fun in the sun and some good times in Key West.
And now for Part 2...
We took the scenic route to the Key West airport passing by several places of interest that we would visit during our trip (Hemingway's House, Southernmost Point). As we rounded the island by the beach we saw a Italian Ice Cart. While it's just a fancy (and not to mention expensive) snow cone, it was a SUPER tasty treat after our days at sea. Plus it killed a
little time before picking up C from the airport. The Key West airport as you can imagine is small, but it's really charming. We parked and the three of us all but skipped to the airport terminal to meet C. One of us likened it to picking up Grandma or a favorite relative from the airport...SO giddy to have all the Bitches together! Once we entered the terminal, guess what we saw??? A BAR!!! In order to kick off the weekend right, we each grabbed a beer and one for C too and waited. The people one by one strolled off the airplane and we looked and looked for C. Where is she? How far back on the plane did she have to sit? Come on!!! Hurry up!!! Get off the plane!!!! FINALLY, C hits the tarmac (not literally) and strolls into the terminal to be greeted by her three besties! Now I'm sure we didn't smell great, we did just get off the boat, but we didn't care, we hugged her anyway! We toasted to the fun weekend and headed off to the hotel to check in, clean up and start the weekend festivities. Bags loaded and fishing stories rolling, we headed to Sunset Key Guest Cottages to check out our weekend digs. Sunset Key is a little island located a short ferry ride away from Key West and offers a wonderful experience in the island guest cottages. If you're interested in real estate, the island also offers residences for sale. I absolutely love Sunset Key and have been fortunate to stay here twice now. It's definitely on the pricey side, but it's worth every penny. After checking out the pool, beach and our cottage, we got prettified and headed back to Key West for dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. Yes, I realize this is a chain restaurant, but we were in paradise and definitely in need of a cheeseburger!!! A few drinks and a tasty dinner later, we strolled down Duval checking out bars for the next night's adventure. Our final stop for the night was at the Key Lime Pie Factory for the purchase of frozen chocolate dipped Key Lime pie slice for A's birthday. A & B love them some Key Lime pie and after this tasty treat, they were as happy as can be!
Saturday morning, we were up relatively early (in vacation terms that is) and decided to make this day our sightseeing & shopping day in Key West. After our quick breakfast of muff
ins and fruit (delivered to our cottage each morning), we headed back across to Key West and grabbed a cab to Hemingway's House. Now, admittedly, none of us really know a whole lot about Hemingway and hadn't read any of his works, but we felt this would be a nice cultural experience. It's a beautiful house, but it was HOT and humid as we walked through the house looking at Hemingway's stuff. We saw an original Guy Harvey painting, lots of 6 toed Cats, and really enjoyed looking through the old place. While I think it's kind of odd to walk through famous people's houses, it is still
interesting to see old stuff. Yes, I said it...old stuff. That's what it is. So after a lovely self guided tour, a couple pictures, and a look in the gift shop, we headed over to the Six Toed Cat Cafe for a lovely lunch. I highly recommend the Lobster BLT and the Fried Shrimp Sandwich. Both are delicious but pretty big, so if you're not SUPER hungry, I'd suggest splitting the sandwiches.After our cultural stop, we headed to Duval Street for some shopping and occasional bar investigation. Duval Street is the most famous street in Key West and runs North and South fr
om the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. It is home to many famous restaurants and bars and is named for William Pope Duval, the first territorial governor of Florida. I liken it to a mix of Bourbon Street in New Orleans and 6th Street in Austin...little shopping, lots of eats and plenty of drinks. We hit up Key West Aloe for some body lotion and shower gel. They have delicious smells like Coconut, Lemon Eucalyptus, and Mango. We also stopped in Cocktails which had some seriously fun stuff, including the towel picture I've 
included. The towel pretty much sums up the attitude in Key West. This serious shopping called for a break, so we stopped in at Willie T's for a refreshing vodka soda and listened to some random dude play great hits from the 80's on his guitar. It's a great outdoor restaurant and bar, but I cannot attest to the food as we only had drinks. With a little more shopping, a stop in the Wyland Gallery to check out the art work, and a quick snack, we headed back to the hotel for a little break and get ready to celebrate A's Dirty Thirty on Duval.Saturday night did not disappoint for A's birthday celebration! We started out later than we typically go out these days with us hitting Duval Street a little after 10 pm. Duval was buzzing with restaurant patrons and bar goers. We started out with a drink at Captain Tony's Saloon, the oldest bar in Key West. The bar is all that you'd want in a bar, dark, well used, smells like cigarettes and booze and a fun way to start off the night. After a drink there, we headed to The Bull Bar for some live music and a drink before heading upstairs to The Whistle Bar. This bar has a great balcony for people watching and we enjoyed a couple drinks watching the people pass. While waiting for B & C to use the Ladies room, A & I chatted with a few guys from a bachelor party and a few of them had just been upstairs to The Garden of Eden, a clothing optional bar on the top floor. A friend of mine told me about the bar a few years ago, and while we laughed about going upstairs earlier in the night, we decided it wasn't on the list of bars for the night. Until...the guys told us to just go, that it wasn't a big deal, so we went. (How easily we are persuaded!) Well, we were disappointed or not really. There were a bunch of clothed people doing what we were doing...checking it out. There was one very uncomfortable looking naked dude in the corner sitting on a chair and then in the far corner it looked like 2 people without tops on, but that was it. Oh well. We headed back downstairs and checked that one off the list. Next up was Angelina's Pizzeria for some sustenance. The pizza was good for 11:30 pm on Saturday night and the courtyard where we sat to eat had some amazing people watching. Our last spot for the evening was Sloppy Joe's Bar. The bar is one of the oldest in Key West and offers a fun atmosphere for all ages (well above the drinking age). We had a great time chatting with some nice Southern fellas, dancing (just don't stand on the chairs), and trying out the adult beverages. In case you didn't know, the bars in Key West stay open until 4 am...which I usually don't see unless I'm getting up at that hour...but that night, we closed down the bar.
Sunday proved to be much more low key and relaxing. We enjoyed Sunset Keys lovely beach for the afternoon. Now for those of you who haven't been to the Keys, let me tell you a little about the beaches. While the views are amazing, the water clear, the beaches are not sandy.
They are made of coral and tend to be rocky. If you want to go in the water, you'll need really tough feet or a pair of water shoes. Sunset Key's beach is made of sand brought in from the Bahamas and makes for an enjoyable experience. Should you find yourself at Sunset Key beach, head to the far right large palapa structure for a semi-private, very quiet, relaxing spot. After several hours on the beach, we headed to the pool for a little swimming. The salt water lagoon style pool is perfect and large enough to share with other people.Sunday evening, we walked over to Latitudes, Sunset Key's restaurant, for our final dinner and an amazing sunset viewing. (Mallory Square is also a great option to view the amazing Key West sunsets.) The restaurant is accessible to the non-cottage guests and reservations are needed to take the ferry to Sunset Key. While the menu is great and offers a variety, we took our Mahi (Friday's catch) with us to take advantage of the restaurant's
Cook Your Catch option. The chef prepared our fish 3 ways: grilled, fried and blackened and served it with mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was AMAZING! I'm pretty sure the awesomeness of the meal had to do a little with where we were eating it and that we had caught it, but it was truly a delicious meal. During our dining experience, the sun slowly set. Now I've seen more than my fair share of sunsets, but the sunsets in Key West are breathtaking. It was amazing how the light changed, the clouds moved and my mind raced trying to remember it all. Our dinner was the perfect wrap up of a
wonderful trip. The next day we would head back home, back to reality, back to our jobs, back to our regular routine, but for tonight, we watched the sun set, enjoyed our friendship and started dreaming of our next adventure.Until then...Happy travels and many laughs!
