dcfromva
January 28th, 2004, 17:16
We just returned from Key West last night (late). Last September when Southwest published their schedule for January, I noticed two things: DS had two days scheduled off from school on 26 and 27 Jan and SWA had a sale on flights going to FL ($131.50 RT), so I bought tickets. My only thought at the time was to "go some place where it is warm in the winter".
A couple of weeks ago as the departure date was approaching, I thought maybe Key West would be ideal being the southern most spot in the US and all--so that is where we ended up for our extended weekend.
We had a wonderful time in Key West. We left Saturday afternoon on Southwest airlines. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and then rented a car for our drive to Key West. (It took us about 4.5hours).
I had been nervous about the idea of driving a 100+ miles into the middle of an ocean via a causeway, but it turned out that at night, there wasn't a whole lot of ocean to see. And the night was clear, and even though it was just a sliver of a moon, it reflected off the water. Venus was out and it was very bright just below and to the right of the moon. All the stars were much more vivid than at home. We opened the sunroof on the car since it was a pretty night.
We arrived at our condo rental at 9:00pm. (Before we left home, I thought we would be located close to the airport. The next morning, I looked out though the fence and could see airplanes!) I thought our accomodations were pretty nice. We had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen and a living room. We were definately off the beaten path, but it was quiet (except for the ocassional airplane--but, I like airplanes :) ) (Link to Sunrise Suites) (http://www.sunrisekeywest.com/)
Our first adventure the next day was to get to the boat that takes you to the Dry Tortugas National Park (http://www.nps.gov/drto/) (a 2.5 hour ride each way). This was an all day affair. The boat left the dock at 8:00am and returned at 5:30pm with about 4.5 hours at the park itself. Activities at the park included bird watching, snorkeling and tours of the fort itself. (They also have a junior ranger program :) )
There were some strong SW winds on the return ride home and Rebecca Channel had some pretty fierce currents. :sick: (It was very interesting tour, but the boat ride was too long for my liking. Next time, it will have to be via float plane! :) ) We made it back to Key West in time to go to Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square (http://www.sunsetcelebration.org/) Sunset is celebrated 365days a year, rain or shine.
On our way to/from Mallory Square we passed by the Duvall Street Web Cam (http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/ )
twice (did you see us waving?)
Duvall street was amazing. Most every eating establishment had an open air option. There were bars set up all over the joint. The atmosphere was one of a large party! I can't say that I recall any place like it. But it was fun just walking up and down the street. We looked at menus along the way, but I held out for a restuarant along Caroline Street. We had parked our car in public parking near the harbor in the morning (at 10.00/day, a great deal) and we walked over to Mallory Square. As we were walking along Caroline Street, we picked up on some delicious smells which seemed to be eminating from a shack. I was hoping it had been some sort of an eating establishment (and not someone's private home :)), I held out for eating at this place for our evening meal: It turned out to be Pepe's (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-1241810-pepe_s_cafe_and_steak_house_key_west-i) The food was excellant!
We arrived just before the Sunday evening crowd started to filter in, so we were able to get a table right away. We got a kick out of the greeter. He would tell folks how long the wait was going to be and then told them to feel free to leave and walk around and come back and when they came back no matter how late, he'd save their place :). (And if they found another place to eat, no problem, they didn't have any "waiting list" police who would track them down :) ). If was a very enjoyable meal.
We spent the next day visiting museums. We first saw Harry Truman's
Little White House (http://www.trumanlittlewhitehouse.com/) -- The tour was excellant and the guide was very funny: He told us the motto in Key West was very relaxed, "Relax, if you can't lay down, then you should at least be able to sit down" :)
Our second stop was the Ernest Hemingway Home (http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/main_menu.html) I got a big kick out of all the cats. The guide quoted Hemmingway when asked why he had so many cats, he said, "One cat leads to another.." The guide said there is a live "catcam" which shows the Hemmingway property at a cat's eye level Hemmingway web cam (http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/livecams.htm)... This was a very good tour, too.
Another few blocks down the street from the Hemmingway Home is the Southmost point in the US. We had to stop by there to get out picture taken. At that point, Cuba (90 miles away) was closer than the mainland US!
We also stopped by Fort Zachary Taylor (http://www.floridastateparks.org/forttaylor/default.asp) to check out the old fort.
Our final stop of the day was over to Sigsbee Naval annex. DH suggested that we stop by MWR to see what kind of discounts they offered (for future visits). (This is a great resource, if you are eligible for military discounts.) I didn't really want to torture myself since we had already done all our touring, but went along with the plan. Since we came in on a Saturday night and went out early on Sunday Morning on the Yankee Freedom, we wouldn't have been able to purchase our tickets through MWR, but if we had, we would have saved about $40 between out 3 tickets on the Yankee Freedom. (Oh well). The other savings would have been at the Little White House (we could have save $5.00 from what we paid). (I figured this might be worthwhile info for someone else who might be planning a trip to Key West and is eligible to buy tickets through MWR :) ).
Our last day, we spent driving back from the keys. We briefly stopped by the Boy Scouts High Adventure Sea Base on Lower Matecumbe Key (http://www.artificialreefs.org/Articles/HighAdventure.htm)
and we also made a brief visit to the Everglades National Park at Shark Valley (http://www.nps.gov/ever/visit/trail-sv.htm) We walked the trail on which there were some very big alligators :eek: until it started to rain and then we left for the airport.
http://users.erols.com/jharts/images/aliga.jpg
Big alligator along the road!
Back home, there had been a couple of days of winter storms. They had a continuing ice storm at our destination airport and we were wondering if our flight would be cancelled (and oh darn! we would have to stay in Fl another day :lol: )... sadly, the flight departure was only delayed by about 30mins. We arrived home late last night--our drive home on icy snow packed roads and school cancelled for DS today. (DS reaction, "Oh darn!" :) )
Key West was awesome. We HAVE to go back again. :)
-DC :ears:
A couple of weeks ago as the departure date was approaching, I thought maybe Key West would be ideal being the southern most spot in the US and all--so that is where we ended up for our extended weekend.
We had a wonderful time in Key West. We left Saturday afternoon on Southwest airlines. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and then rented a car for our drive to Key West. (It took us about 4.5hours).
I had been nervous about the idea of driving a 100+ miles into the middle of an ocean via a causeway, but it turned out that at night, there wasn't a whole lot of ocean to see. And the night was clear, and even though it was just a sliver of a moon, it reflected off the water. Venus was out and it was very bright just below and to the right of the moon. All the stars were much more vivid than at home. We opened the sunroof on the car since it was a pretty night.
We arrived at our condo rental at 9:00pm. (Before we left home, I thought we would be located close to the airport. The next morning, I looked out though the fence and could see airplanes!) I thought our accomodations were pretty nice. We had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen and a living room. We were definately off the beaten path, but it was quiet (except for the ocassional airplane--but, I like airplanes :) ) (Link to Sunrise Suites) (http://www.sunrisekeywest.com/)
Our first adventure the next day was to get to the boat that takes you to the Dry Tortugas National Park (http://www.nps.gov/drto/) (a 2.5 hour ride each way). This was an all day affair. The boat left the dock at 8:00am and returned at 5:30pm with about 4.5 hours at the park itself. Activities at the park included bird watching, snorkeling and tours of the fort itself. (They also have a junior ranger program :) )
There were some strong SW winds on the return ride home and Rebecca Channel had some pretty fierce currents. :sick: (It was very interesting tour, but the boat ride was too long for my liking. Next time, it will have to be via float plane! :) ) We made it back to Key West in time to go to Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square (http://www.sunsetcelebration.org/) Sunset is celebrated 365days a year, rain or shine.
On our way to/from Mallory Square we passed by the Duvall Street Web Cam (http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/ )
twice (did you see us waving?)
Duvall street was amazing. Most every eating establishment had an open air option. There were bars set up all over the joint. The atmosphere was one of a large party! I can't say that I recall any place like it. But it was fun just walking up and down the street. We looked at menus along the way, but I held out for a restuarant along Caroline Street. We had parked our car in public parking near the harbor in the morning (at 10.00/day, a great deal) and we walked over to Mallory Square. As we were walking along Caroline Street, we picked up on some delicious smells which seemed to be eminating from a shack. I was hoping it had been some sort of an eating establishment (and not someone's private home :)), I held out for eating at this place for our evening meal: It turned out to be Pepe's (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-1241810-pepe_s_cafe_and_steak_house_key_west-i) The food was excellant!
We arrived just before the Sunday evening crowd started to filter in, so we were able to get a table right away. We got a kick out of the greeter. He would tell folks how long the wait was going to be and then told them to feel free to leave and walk around and come back and when they came back no matter how late, he'd save their place :). (And if they found another place to eat, no problem, they didn't have any "waiting list" police who would track them down :) ). If was a very enjoyable meal.
We spent the next day visiting museums. We first saw Harry Truman's
Little White House (http://www.trumanlittlewhitehouse.com/) -- The tour was excellant and the guide was very funny: He told us the motto in Key West was very relaxed, "Relax, if you can't lay down, then you should at least be able to sit down" :)
Our second stop was the Ernest Hemingway Home (http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/main_menu.html) I got a big kick out of all the cats. The guide quoted Hemmingway when asked why he had so many cats, he said, "One cat leads to another.." The guide said there is a live "catcam" which shows the Hemmingway property at a cat's eye level Hemmingway web cam (http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/livecams.htm)... This was a very good tour, too.
Another few blocks down the street from the Hemmingway Home is the Southmost point in the US. We had to stop by there to get out picture taken. At that point, Cuba (90 miles away) was closer than the mainland US!
We also stopped by Fort Zachary Taylor (http://www.floridastateparks.org/forttaylor/default.asp) to check out the old fort.
Our final stop of the day was over to Sigsbee Naval annex. DH suggested that we stop by MWR to see what kind of discounts they offered (for future visits). (This is a great resource, if you are eligible for military discounts.) I didn't really want to torture myself since we had already done all our touring, but went along with the plan. Since we came in on a Saturday night and went out early on Sunday Morning on the Yankee Freedom, we wouldn't have been able to purchase our tickets through MWR, but if we had, we would have saved about $40 between out 3 tickets on the Yankee Freedom. (Oh well). The other savings would have been at the Little White House (we could have save $5.00 from what we paid). (I figured this might be worthwhile info for someone else who might be planning a trip to Key West and is eligible to buy tickets through MWR :) ).
Our last day, we spent driving back from the keys. We briefly stopped by the Boy Scouts High Adventure Sea Base on Lower Matecumbe Key (http://www.artificialreefs.org/Articles/HighAdventure.htm)
and we also made a brief visit to the Everglades National Park at Shark Valley (http://www.nps.gov/ever/visit/trail-sv.htm) We walked the trail on which there were some very big alligators :eek: until it started to rain and then we left for the airport.
http://users.erols.com/jharts/images/aliga.jpg
Big alligator along the road!
Back home, there had been a couple of days of winter storms. They had a continuing ice storm at our destination airport and we were wondering if our flight would be cancelled (and oh darn! we would have to stay in Fl another day :lol: )... sadly, the flight departure was only delayed by about 30mins. We arrived home late last night--our drive home on icy snow packed roads and school cancelled for DS today. (DS reaction, "Oh darn!" :) )
Key West was awesome. We HAVE to go back again. :)
-DC :ears: