Thursday, June 11th – The day started out with a hotel breakfast ands walk along the water looking for more wildlife. Tide was in and the water a bit choppy which made it hard to see anything. So we gave up in favor of a morning swim at the pool.
After everyone was ready, we were off to Key West. I the way south, we stopped at Strike Zone charters (a business Devon has used before) to schedule a snorkeling trip. The informed us that the weather was changing for the rest of the week and our only opportunity might be at 1pm but they wouldn’t be sure until a weather update was posted.
We decided to hang around town to wait and see if we could get out on the water. We wasted some time driving around looking for the endangered Key deer and found one. About 45 minutes later we got the call that all boat trips were cancelled due to increasing wind and surf. So back on the road to Key West we went.
Our first stop on a day filled with walking was the Southernmost point in the U.S. Actually, the tourist point is just a little bit north of the actual point which lies on Naval military land.
Next we visited the lighthouse and toured the Hemmingway house. Interesting facts learned included the original name for Key West which was Bone Island, and that Hemmingway wasn’t the greatest of human beings especially when it came to marriage.
We got to visit with many of the 50+ cats on the property and learned the superstitious reasonings behind have cats with six toes.
From there we were off to visit Duval street, checking out all the galleries and tourist traps. You know what they say, shopping makes you hungry, and this holds true with window shopping.
We decided to give DJ’s Clam Shack a try partially because they were featured on our favorite Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The food was excellent. We sampled the Mahi tacos, shrimp tacos, and a Lobster Roll. From there we went back to touring Duval St. After that we shared a cookie that was as round as a volleyball.
Amy had a 5 o’ clock Somewhere cocktail at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville to cap the afternoon. It then took as a whole to find where we parked the car.
Our final stop of the day was to hit Mallory Square to catch the nightly entertainment of street performers. We were a little early so we stopped in at Red Fish Blue Fish and tried some Conch Fritters, Coconut Butterflied Shrimp, some Mahi bites, and a couple slices of Key Lime Pie. The food, once again, was excellent. We washed it down with fresh fruit Piña Coladas.
From there we walked around and caught most of the street performer acts.
Another disappointing sunset was in the mix. Turns out, Sahara dust from Africa may be the cause of the haziness we have experienced since arriving in the keys coupled with the occasional clouds.
By the time we made it back to the hotel it was time for another Key West Southernmost Wheat with an orange slice and then off to bed.
