Key West

We all slept in and took our time getting ready for Key West. Rusty and I even tried paddle boarding in the waves. It was very windy and we didn’t last long. We were trying to avoid the worst of the heat by leaving a little later in the day. Spoiler alert—we didn’t. Our first stop was mile marker zero.

Then on to the Shipwreck museum. This place got awesome Google reviews but we thought it was super so so. It was pretty pricy and the kids were done after about 30 min. And that included a 15 min video and a trip to the top of the tower.

We were ready for a treat at Kermits. We tried Key Lime pie on a stick dipped in chocolate. I thought it was quite delicious but the kids gave it medium reviews. I think the chocolate was a bit dark for them.

We strolled Duvall street and peeked inside lots of little shops. Blake found this cool place that sold LED hats that you can program with an app. After the last round of stimulus checks (or Biden Bucks as we like to call them) we gave the kids $100 to stimulate the economy. Very surprisingly, Blake hadn’t spent very much of his. So he had the $80 to buy this hat. And he LOVES it. It’s the perfect souvenir for him.

At the end of Duvall street is the Southern Most point buoy. There was NO WAY we were standing in the long line in the sweltering heat just to snap a pic. So we improvised and got the side view. Good enough for me.

We were all hot and tired and it was a 30 min walk to Ft Zachary Taylor, which was our next stop. Rusty called us an Uber and saved the day. This driver was awesome. He was from Cuba and had only been in the US for a couple of years. He had an iPad playing music videos from the 80s and disco lights flashing on his ceiling in time to the beat.

The beach was fun! We ate our lunch at a picnic table in the shade. The wind made the waves larger than normal. There we a bunch of rocks maybe 300 yards out in the ocean. The boys picked a spot and Halle and I picked a spot and we swam out to the rocks.

We all got changed for our dinner reservation and we took an Uber there too. When we gave them our name at the restaurant they told us our reservation was for the next night! We had moved a few things around and I’d forgotten to change it. Darn it. Plan B was B.O. Fish Wagon. There were chickens perched above our table and Rusty was very suspect of their motives. He wouldn’t even sit with us.

Dinner was great! The fish tacos and rice and beans were delicious.

Our last stop in Key West was the sunset party at Mallory square. The kids kept asking when the party was starting. Me too. I think we were lead to believe it was a little more of a scene than it actually was. We watch one street performer and then gathered on the steps to watch to sun go down. It was nice, but nothing spectacular.