Key West for the Week!

I just returned home from Key West, Florida and what an adventure my boyfriend and I had! I am currently hoping my slight sunburn will fade into a tan over the next few days, but who am I kidding, I’m just going to peel and be my white self again. But the burn was worth it because the sun and beaches were beautiful! I could lay out on the beach all day long and listen to the waves. But of course we did do more than just sit on the beach.

We arrived into Key West International Airport last Saturday and found a taxi to the Airbnb we booked. The place had great reviews, and definitely lived up to expectations. The Airbnb was a condo building right on the beach. The condo itself was pretty small, but had a kitchen for us to cook some of our own meals, and even a patio that we sat out on for breakfast most days. After we settled in a bit, it was already dinner time, so we put on flip flops and strolled down to nearby Duval street to look for a place to eat. The streets were crowded with people of all sorts, families, couples, and street performers. We decided to eat at “Sloppy Joe’s Bar” which was packed with people, so we figured it must be delicious. Of course, we both had to get their “Original Sloppy Joe Sandwich” and it was amazing. The perfect start to vacation, where I like to throw calories out the window. After dinner we continued to wander around Duval street as well as nearby streets and stopped in for a drink at a bar that I can’t remember the name of. But they had a patio overlooking the rest of the street so we could continue to chat and people watch, which was perfect.

Our Airbnb

The beach view from our Airbnb!

We were up early the next morning, so I quickly ran out to a little market a couple blocks from our condo that we had spotted the night before. I grabbed some groceries that would last us the next few days and threw on some eggs and toast when I got back to the condo. We enjoyed our breakfast with coffee while we sat on the back porch and listened to the waves. Then we put on our swimsuits and flip flops, grabbed our books, and headed to the beach. The only other notable event that day was that we took a taxi down to the famous “Southernmost Point” landmark to grab a picture and say we’d been there. Only 90 miles to Cuba from that point! Besides that it was a lounging beach day!

Monday we decided to take a break from the beach and do some of the more historical, tourist sights in Key West. We started with the Ernest Hemingway museum, which was located in his beautiful, old house. It was awesome to walk through the place he spent so much time writing. Afterward we went to the Key West Butterfly conservatory because I love butterflies, and why not? There weren’t many people there so it was really nice; only a few other couples and families walking around the space. We were pretty tired of walking around after that because we had been walking all day so we got a taxi to take us out on the overseas highway. Our driver told us all about the construction of the highway and about some of the other Florida Keys that it connects to. Our driver was a retired history teacher from Georgia, which we could tell by how much he knew and was able to share with us. We got pretty lucky with that! After our drive along the highway we had him drop us off right by Mallory Square. It was packed with street artists, vendors, and food trucks. We had some awesome fish and chips from a food truck and found a bench to sit on where we had an unbelievable view of the sunset. While we ate and watched the sun go down we kept our eye on some of the street performers. One in particular was very outgoing, performing magic tricks, and pulling in assistants from the crowd. I was impressed with how believable it seemed! To end the day we decided that we had to do the ghost walking tour. We had heard about all of the “haunted” tales of Key West before arriving, so we thought we’d give it a try. It was 90 minutes of walking to different, supposedly “haunted” sights and learning about some of the famous people, turned ghosts. It was definitely interesting… But I don’t buy into that kind of thing. Glad we did it though, because a trip to Key West wouldn’t be complete without it I guess!

The incredible sunset from Mallory Square

Tuesday was our last full day in Key West so we decided to do some more beach activities. We went jet skiing and snorkeling and spent the rest of the day lounging! I had an absolute blast on the jet skis. If you have never been, you have to try them! As for the snorkeling, that was much more peaceful. We took a catamaran cruise out to a secluded spot and had about an hour to snorkel and look around at the many different fish. I loved just being in my own quiet world staring peacefully at the fish. We met a few other couples on the catamaran cruise as well. They were from all over the US- Texas, Rhode Island, Missouri. We ended up having a picnic type dinner on the beach with one of the couples, the Andersons from Missouri, after the catamaran. They are both teachers so we chatted with them about that as well as where they went to school, how they met, other vacations they’ve been on, and so on. It was nice to have another couple to talk to! After we said our goodbyes to them, my boyfriend and I grabbed ice cream cones from a nearby shop and strolled along the beach. Then we went for one last swim in the ocean before calling it a night. Our flight left late afternoon so we had a nice easy morning with breakfast on the porch again. All in all, Key West was what I had imagined! Some odd and interesting people, plenty of sights, beautiful beaches and sunsets, and delicious food! Looking forward to our next trip to the Florida Keys, but maybe next time we’ll stay on a different key.