On February 21, Robin, Stacy and I set out for our annual adventure that my husband lovingly calls 'Grandmas Gone Wild'. This year's destination: Key West, Florida.
After flying to Boston a few years back and barely making our plane due to an extra long security line at Bush Intercontinental Airport, we make sure that we arrive EARLY. With a 7:14 departure time, that meant 5:30 AM early! Of course, there was no one in line at 5:30...so we had a nice relaxing wait in the United lounge before taking off for beautiful Miami.
Every travel guide that we read advised that on your first visit to the Key West you MUST fly into Miami, rent a car and take a leisurely drive through the Florida Keys. So that is what we did. And since I was the driver du jour, I have very few pictures to share. (But Robin will have more, I am sure!)
We stopped at nearly every little tourist trap along the way. I took pictures at two:
This is Betsey...a very large lobster that now sits outside of The Rain Barrel: A Village of Artists. Great little shops and lots of unique stuff if you walk through to the back.
This is the Tiki Bar at Postcard Inn Beach Resort. They were hosting a powerboat club at the marina, which were cool to see.
Both of these pictures were taken in Islamorada. Then it was back to driving. We didn't reach Key West until around sunset. We stopped at Publix to pick up some snacks and drinks for the hotel. Little did I know that there are few street lights in the historic Old Town section where our hotel was located. We made our way in the dark...running mostly on luck because our GPS went out before we got out of Miami good!
We stayed at
Southernmost on the Beach. It is a beautiful resort that offers everything you could want. That night we decided to go down to the hotel's restaurant for dinner.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal of seafood in the open air cafe overlooking the water, then hit the sack. It had been a very long day.
When we woke on Friday morning, we had plans to hit the ground running. Knowing that our first stop would just get busier as the weekend progressed, we decided to head out to the Southernmost Point in order to get our pictures made with the big concrete buoy.
To our surprise, it was only a block from our hotel. Still there was a twenty minute or so wait for the line to snake it's way around. It would have moved quicker, but some people do not want to move out other folks pictures!
Since Duval Street is only a little over a mile long, we decided to skip the trolley and walk until we found a place for brunch. We eventually stopped at a wonderful little place called
Caroline's Cafe. It is also open air and the food was delicious. Robin and I had the Dolphin Fingers (fried Mahi-Mahi) and Stacy had a Cuban sandwich which she talked about all the way home!
Just down from Caroline's, we decied to grab a drink at the Hog's Breath Saloon. Hog's Breath often has famous artists drop by to play...and the week after we were there, Kenny Chesney did a show. (Yes, we were bummed!)
While we were there, the Ohio State Buckeyes 'Crusie for the Cure' had a band playing who were wonderful. We had a great time and ended up spending most of the day sitting outside and listening to the band. Since Robin has a Buckeye in the family through her son-in-law -- she joined right in with the fun!
After a long day in the sun, we caught a bike rickshaw back to the hotel, caught a little nap and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Sands Bar by the hotel pool. Day two had plenty of excitement...but let's just say "What happens on Grandmas, stays with the Grandmas'!
