South and south and south again

Woke up to blue skies and sunshine, so we picked up breakfast from the hotel office and ate on the chairs by the water. A lovely, relaxing start to the day. We packed up the car and headed on the road spurs towards Key West. Quick stop for some groceries , and then found a beach park for a walk. The park was awesome, there was a beach and a marina with boats, but also a swimming pool, and fields/pitches/courts for baseball, soccer, american football, pickleball, tennis. All free to the local residents. I was unusually excited to find pallet loads of brand new traffic cones. V tempting to open and borrow one. 🙃

After a wander, it was basically an acceptable time for lunch so we grabbed a bench and laid out the supplies for what is always my favourite lunch on holiday - fresh bread, chunks of cheese, tomatoes and some crisps. Eating outside and enjoying rough and ready basic lunch is always a highlight for me. Even more so than fancy dinners.

We kept moving south and stopped at Long Key State Park for a walk on the nature trail. A nice walk and some good views, lots of crabs escaping into holes on the ground, but not much else on the nature front.

We also had a stop at a viewpoint for Seven Mile Bridge and walked a short way on the old bridge, now abandoned for most of its length.

We kept pushing south and eventually reached Key West. We stopped again to pick up some more drinks - it's warm, and walking is thirsty work. While in the store, I spotted the perfect man in the Valentines section. Not bad, and could be true, chocolate man may be perfect, or at leadt a close second to Heath.

We checked into the hotel, which is bang in the middle of everything in the old town of Key West. The guesthouse is an old place, but nicely renovated. Right on Duval Street (the main "famous street").

Not as relaxing as other hotels we've been in, but right in the thick of things, with restaurants everywhere. It's slightly noisy in honesty, but it's only a couple of nights, and it is definitely an experience.

We went for a walk along Duval Street all the way to the north end, explored around, and headed south again back towards the hotel. The place is a weird mix, high-end art shops, drag clubs, restaurants, $5 stores, and weed shops. Crazy mix of places and complete mix of people around. Feels like a mad but tolerant party beach town.

We played it fairly safe for dinner and stopped into the Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville cafe. It's the first one in the chain, and kinda cool. The food was good, Jambalaya for Heath and fish for me. And Key Lime pie for dessert, we were so eager to eat dessert we got part way through before managing to take a picture.

After eating, we kept wandering south, past the hotel, and down to the southernmost end of Duval Street. We then took a detour to the Southernmost point buoy marker to see it with no line (apparently, there's a huge line time take a selfie with it during the day). So we took pics in the dark. I mean, it's not like you can see Cuba in the daytime, so I'm sure everyone can imagine the sea in the background 💭🌊⛵️

We headed back up Duval to the hotel to call it a night. We chilled for a while. I sat on balcony people watching, and Heathbreated inside the aircon. Some old town museums and sights to see during the day, so some sleep is a good thing.Read more