Can’t Get Enough of Key West

January 20, 2022 / marniesteve / 2 Comments

Last year we spent two weeks in the Florida Keys. This year it’s been six weeks, and we still have so much to see and do. For two weeks we based ourselves at the luxurious Blue Water Key RV Resort. We stayed here last year and it’s a real treat. We had our own tiki, complete with a kitchen and living area, which allowed us to spread out and breathe.

The highlight of our time here was a visit from our dear friends Tom and Nancy. We share a wall with these two in Prescott and have been friends for many years. To be able to share Key West with them was a treat!

Together with Mia and Bob we took a fabulous sunset sail on the Argo Navis. Besides the incredible views, this ship, which we also took on Christmas Day, offers premium cocktails and appetizers. If you’re ever in Key West, we highly recommend this excursion!

And, you can’t miss the cuban dinner at El Meson de Pepe on Mallory Square. What a fun evening!

Blue Heaven is one of Key West’s most popular restaurants and, in the past, the site of cockfights and Hemingway’s notorious boxing matches. We enjoyed brunch one afternoon, and yes, the Key Lime Pie is that big!!

“One of the best Key Lime Pies I’ve had.”

Sunset at Mallory Square is a must when you’re in Key West and we all enjoyed a lovely evening watching the day come to an end. Having Tom and Nancy join us was very special, and we were happy to share a little of this paradise with them.

Also in our final week in the Keys we cashed in on a tour we won a few weeks ago and went parasailing. This was the first time in all of our travels that we’d strapped ourselves into a parachute to get pulled by a boat, and it was incredible! Check out the videos!

Watch us take off!!!

Believe it or not, up there above the water, it’s very peaceful and relaxing—until they splashed us down into the water. What an experience!

Taking a dip

We also paid a visit to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, another gem in Key West. The park, which contains a large civil war-era fort and expansive beach, is popular with tourists and locals alike. We toured the fort and enjoyed learning about the history of the military presence in Key West, which dates back before the War of 1812. Next time we’ll spend more time at the beach.

It’s now time for us to move along from this paradise but we’re leaving with gratitude for the opportunity to spend time here and looking forward to our next visit. But there’s more fun ahead!

Kayaks, Hemingway, and Dry Tortugas NP

January 6, 2021 / marniesteve / 2 Comments

For the first time in our short RV career we welcomed overnight guests into our rig and it was so much fun! After our first week in the Florida Keys my cousin Mitch and his daughter Lauren joined us to celebrate Lauren’s 21st birthday and New Years. Our time together was filled with laughter, toasts, and new adventures in some of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

As soon as they arrived we headed into Key West to explore a bit, hit a few happy hours, and watch another spectacular sunset. We then headed to the nearby El Meson de Pepe for dinner (our second of three total visits to this great Cuban restaurant).

The next day we headed back into town for more exploration. In particular we took the tour of the Hemingway Home and met the famed six-toed cats. Many of the 40-50 cats on the property can be traced back to Hemingway’s cat Snowball. They were very friendly!

We also saw the penny that is embedded in the cement next to the swimming pool his wife Pauline built when he was away. In 1938 it was the first pool to be built in Key West at a cost of $20,000. Exasperated at the expense, Papa Hemingway reportedly flung a penny towards Pauline and said, “You’ve spent all but my last penny, so you might as well have that too.”

One evening we took a night kayak trip with clear-bottomed LED-lit kayaks. Paddling through the mangroves we could see fish and coral right below us! We saw some cool sea creatures and got a great sunset as well.

On Wednesday we had hoped to make it a beach day but the weather didn’t really cooperate. In fact it rained off and on all day. So, we made the best of it with a few more cocktails at some of Key West’s finest establishments and brunch at the legendary Blue Heaven. Bloody Marys and Eggs Benedict with lobster made the rainy day seem not so bad!

On New Year’s Eve we spent the day on the water with a fun kayak through the mangroves, including a portion where you had to use your hands to guide and propel the kayak. It was fun until Mitch and Lauren saw a snake! We also saw lots of Cassiopeia, or upside-down jellyfish, and crabs.

That evening we watched the sunset once more and then had a wonderful tapas dinner at Santiago’s Bodega. Due to the pandemic Key West instituted a 10:00pm curfew over the New Year’s weekend so the crowds were very small. Masks are mandatory inside and outside. Still, we headed home very early before the police began their sweep of the area.

Our last big adventure in Key West was a trip to Dry Tortugas National Park, the most remote national park in the country–almost 70 miles west of Key West. We boarded our ferry, the Yankee Freedom III, early in the morning. It was so early Cuban coffee was required!

After a two plus hour voyage we docked at Garden Key and Fort Jefferson, the largest man-made masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere. The fort was built during the Civil War to safeguard U.S. shipping and to defend the Gulf of Mexico from potential enemies. Though never completed it served as a military prison and active military outpost, housing hundreds of Union soldiers.

We explored the fort from top to bottom and enjoyed the spectacular views from the top level amid cannons and powder magazines.

Dry Tortugas is also known as a primo snorkeling destination. The boys explored the waters while Lauren and I stayed on the beach and soaked up the sun. It was the perfect place for a little photo shoot too!

The water was chilly 75 degrees and the guys said it was “perfect.” It was truly an experience of a lifetime, and we are so grateful to have shared it with Mitch and Lauren.

Too soon our time in the Keys came to an end, Mitch and Lauren headed home to Arizona, and we are headed north. But our adventures are continuing so stay tuned for more soon!

One Week in the Keys

January 2, 2021 / marniesteve / 1 Comment

We are beyond lucky to have landed in the Florida Keys with two weeks of sunshine, water, and holidays ahead of us. After two months of travel, ten states, and twenty different campsites we’ve stationed ourselves at the beautiful BlueWater Key RV Resort just outside of Key West. We booked this stay nearly a year ago, pre-COVID, and were fortunate to get a site at that time.

Our site is kind of like a condo in that it is individually owned and designed. Our particular site is not on the water, though many of them are.

We have a large, private area with a tiki hut. In our tiki we have a nice dining table, comfy chairs, a bar, TV, and full refrigerator. The tiki is a great extension to our living space, which is nice after the last two months on the road.

For our first week here, which was Christmas, we were on our own. However, during the second week my cousin Mitch and his daughter Lauren will be joining us for New Years celebrations. We are excited to have the company!

Bluewater Key is located about 15 miles north of Key West. We’ve gone into “town” almost every day for some reason or another. Twice we took the bikes in and toured Key West in the most efficient way possible. The town is compact and very congested, so bikes are a great way to see the sites. We also followed a small portion of the 90-mile Florida Overseas Heritage Trail, which is right outside of our resort and links Key West to Key Largo.

One day we rode the length of Duval Street (the main drag with all the bars and shops). Another day we used the bikes to get to Truman’s Little White House, the 1890s house President Truman used for 175 days during his administration of 1945-1953.

While in Key West you can’t miss the landmark sites we were introduced to in Jimmy Buffett songs so long ago. Captain Tony’s, Sloppy Joe’s, and the Blue Heaven are all must-see haunts that we haunted a few times!

The other must-do in Key West is sunset at Mallory Square. We spent our Christmas Eve here watching a parade of boats say farewell to the day with a beautiful sunset.

Entertainers and vendors set up around the large public area every evening. We were lucky that the crowds were not very large on Christmas Eve, which allowed us to also get into the nearby El Meson de Pepe for Cuban food immediately following the sunset.

We’ve also explored a few of the other Keys. One day we headed for Big Pine Key to search for the little Key deer and to hike the nearby trails of the National Key Deer Refuge. The trails were short and flat and nothing too strenuous but we enjoyed getting out into a habitat that is so different than what we are used to in Arizona.

We didn’t see the deer in the refuge but we did see one right outside of Walgreens! They are the smallest subspecies of white-tailed deer and stand between 24” to 28” at the shoulder. Super cute!

On another day we headed to Marathon to hit the beach for a little while and to have lunch at Keys Fisheries. Keys Fisheries is known for its lobster rueben so Steve had to partake. We also left the marina-side restaurant/fish market with a Florida spiny lobster and some incredible fish dip.

Marathon has a lot going on. We actually visited there on a second day to take a tour of the Turtle Hospital. The old motel/nightclub turned rescue takes in injured or distressed turtles from all over and rehabilitates them with the goal of returning them to the sea.

We saw five species of turtles and witnessed the incredible work they do here to treat various illnesses and injuries. Some turtles come here with boat strikes and others have a type of tumor that is caused by pollution. The on-site veterinary staff performs surgeries and rehabilitates each individual to the extent possible so they can have a full and long life. This place is doing some really great work!