Ok, so that was borrowed from Jimmy Buffett, but I couldn’t help myself! Key West is such a laid back place, you can’t help but relax. And if you stay away from Duval Street, which is super touristy, you will really get a feel for the place. You have to go to Duval street too, but there is definitely more to Key West than that. We spent three nights here.

Something we noticed on the drive down Highway 1-the Keys get better as you drive west. Highway 1 is a 126 mile road that has 42 bridges, including the spectacular 7-mile bridge. When you first hit Key Largo, it is a bit of a shock. Kind of tacky, maybe even a little trashy looking and  having heard about the Keys, let me say this right here, no one ever mentions how incredibly bad it smells in some areas. Not all the Keys, not everywhere, and some places are worse than others-but, yikes. It seriously was so bad in places, that we were concerned that we might not be able to tolerate it. Thankfully, Key West isn’t one of the odiferous areas. Marathon Key has the best beaches, but the, um, air isn’t quite as pleasing there….As you drive toward Key West, you can feel the difference.

And, while it should be no great surprise, considering how far south and west we are, it is pretty darned hot here. We found a great place on Hotels Tonight again, and it is absolutely charming. It is called Eden House, in the Old Town area, which I would definitely recommend (and the a/c is fantastic). Eden House is the longest continuously run hotel in Key West. The main building was built in 1924. The people who work here are a friendly and helpful group of like-minded souls. A big shout out to Kayla, who was a wealth of information, and a delight to talk to! One of the many things she told us is there are still modern day pirates in these parts…something I had no idea of. On our first afternoon we wandered around for a while to get a feel for the area, and while we probably lost a few lbs. in water weight, I was able to have a few conch fritters as a snack, to insure that the weight didn’t disappear completely. Key lime pie is from this area (duh!) and they make a frozen key lime pie slice, dip it in dark chocolate and put a stick in it, and it is absolutely wonderful.

We took a tour of Ernest Hemingway’s house, which is now a museum. As we were buying our tickets, the lady at the stand told Rick that locals get in free. He apparently has that Key West, old hippie look about him….(he paid for the ticket, though) The house is beautiful, and the grounds are lush. To see where Hemingway wrote is pretty powerful. His old Royal typewriter is sitting on the table in his office which is in a guest house. There are still 48 cats living here, some of which are descendants of Hemingway’s cats. They are called 6-toed (polydactyl) cats and it basically looks like they have an opposing thumb. Kind of creepy-I had to get a close-up photo of the paws of one of them. Check it out below.

We spent our last afternoon by the pool talking to some of our fellow guests and enjoying the happy hour the hotel has by the pool every day. Had a nice dinner at Azur where we met two delightful couples, both of whom had a child who is a dentist. Small world! After dinner we went to Aqua for a drag show….all in all a good end to a great few days in Key West. Now here are the way too many photos I took here (you should see how many I deleted).

Our last day in Key West was also Jenna’s last day anchoring the news. Jenna accepted a position doing public relations for Goodwill of West Texas, and could not be more pleased with the move. Way to go, Jenna!

I can’t believe how far we have come already! After the St Petersberg area, we stopped at Naples, and realized we were so exhausted, we basically had a room day-it was such a great room, we really didn’t want to leave. Movies and sleep. It was much needed.

We stopped in the Everglades, for a quick airboat tour. It was a blast! Captain Fred, drove that airboat like a crazy person-doing donuts….

We moved on to South Beach, in Miami. We used Priceline, for another smoking deal right on Ocean Drive. Excellent location, excellent price. You just choose where, the number of stars and bam, you save a ton! We stayed here for three nights. Great Cuban food, great seafood, wonderful Mojitos…… And the beach-wow! It really puts Waikiki to shame-I am bound to get some nasty remarks from my Hawaiian friends for that-but oh well. The beach goes on forever…. and there is great shopping and people watching.

It was suggested by someone-I will not name names, that periodically I photograph Rick holding a current newspaper to prove that I have not killed him during the roadtrip-lol! Seriously, we are having a terrific time! He is alive and well.

Some well meaning person (probably) commented on this blog about how I could do things differently to make this blog look more professional. FYI-I am doing this for fun. It is not supposed to be professional. I am old. I did not understand 98% of what you said. But thanks for the advice…..I did not approve it for posting, because very few people that would read this blog would understand what you said either. Sooooo……….

On to the Florida Keys!

We arrived at our condo at Belleair Beach, which is the Clearwater area, near St Petersberg and Tampa. This is the most beautiful part of Florida I have seen. Seriously, the beach is fantastic and goes on and on forever. It is un-crowded and the vegetation is very much like Hawaii, only, the beaches here are prettier and bigger. I was never very interested in Florida, but, wow! I get it now. We would  have loved to have stayed here another week, however, our condo was booked for tonight. Rick met the owner of our condo, who gave us his card so we could call him directly if we want to come back after we go to the Keys….really considering it.

We went to our second Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives place here called Keegan’s Seafood Grille. And, oh my gosh, it was incredible! We started off with baked octopus with feta and then each of us had a fish entrée.

We decided to head to Naples, which will put us in striking distance of the Everglades and Miami. Breaking our 2 night minimum rule, we booked just one night at the Inn on Pelican Bay (note to self-got it on Hotels Tonight). After hearing so much about the Naples area, I was frankly underwhelmed. It is pretty enough, but also crowded and not nearly as nice as where we just left.

Ps-I totally blew the caption under one of the sunset pictures, but being old and all, I have no idea how to fix it, I promise I will do a better job editing before I hit Publish next time….and the last photo is of the baked octopus dish I mentioned above.

We left New Orleans and crossed the 24 mile Causeway (which is way strange-just a road across a lake for 24 MILES!!! like a bridge on steroids) across Lake Ponchartrain, to try our first Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant of the trip. Louie and the Redhead Lady. It was delicious, and the fact that I was able to eat anything was short of a miracle. Got a bad Boudin late the night before. Let it suffice it to say, nothing good came of that evil little sausage….

We made it to Panama City Beach, FL, just in time for a cloudburst. Had a nice couple of days there. We finally got to hang out on the beach and swim in the gulf (definitely nothing you want to do in Corpus!). The water was beautiful, clear, turquoise and warm. We finished up our stay with an oyster feast at a great little dive called Hunt’s Oyster Bar. At the risk of sounding like Bubba, we had raw oysters, baked oysters and fried oysters. Cajun baked being the best! We are headed to the St. Petersburg area tomorrow afternoon, where we did something crazy. We actually booked a condo on the beach before we even got in the car to drive there. Unheard of!

Another random thought…. Just because the hotel has the word Suite in the name, does not really mean it has anything to do with a suite…..sadly.