The Keys...good food, great drinks & Hemingway

Days 3 and 4 of our Florida trip consisted of a road trip down to the FL Keys, which is about a 4 hour drive from the Pompano Beach area where we've been staying.  This was a gorgeous drive down once we got to the Keys...and past the swamplands.  Although beautiful, it is a slow drive...kind of like the pace of the lifestyle down there...a bit slower.  The highway is 2 lanes almost all the way down and the speed limit averages around 45 mph.  This does give you a chance to take in the scenery though.  The water is a gorgeous green-blue color and so calm!

 
We stopped in Marathon, FL (a little over half-way through the Keys) at a restaurant I found on the internet...The Island Fish Co.  Boy did I make a good choice if I do say so myself!  This place has an amazing view and wonderful food.  It was hot outside but we sat under a little tiki hut and there was a small breeze the entire time.  Here's a view from our table...

Prior to the trip several of my friends/family mentioned that we HAD to try conch fritters.  My mom actually said that her and John went on a quest to find the perfect conch fritter when they were down in the Keys several years ago.  So, of course, we ordered the conch fritters.  Chad had a lobster sandwich, and I had the salad special...grouper pan-fried in coconut on a bed of lettuce with fruit slices and a coconut dressing.  Yumm-o!  

We finally arrived in Key West in the afternoon and drove straight to The Southernmost Point.  (No pics to post just yet.  We took most on the camera, so you'll have to wait until we get home and are able to download them.)  There is also a small beach and pier near here, so we checked that out too.

We stayed at La Concha Hotel, which was right on Duval Street amidst all the action.  This was probably one of the only hotel-like places to stay on Key West.  Most accommodations are at inns or B&Bs.  It was a nice hotel...a bit older...but remodeled and clean!  It was within 2-5 blocks of everything we needed.  There isn't much parking in Key West, so we were able to park and walk!  The drink of choice that afternoon was a mojito.  Here's our first one!

 We hit up a few other places on the Duval Crawl...Jack Flats, Hog's Breath, & Rum Barrel.  We had dinner at a Cuban place with tapas cuisine...El Meson de Pepe...and boy did we have a spread.  I even tried ceviche for the first time.

We did take in the sunset at Mallory Square and watched a few of the vendors/artists.  It was a great sunset, but seriously crowded with tourists!

This morning we took in a brunch at Banana Cafe, which specializes in crepes.  I had La Ratatouille...mixed veggies in a red sauce wrapped in a crepe with a fried egg on top.  Chad had a burger crepe.  Here's mine...

After breakfast, we toured Ernest Hemingway's home.  Very beautiful!  My favorite, of course, was the 6-toed (and one 7-toed) cats!  (Sorry, pics to come later.)  Our final stop in Key West was Peppers.  This was Chad's heaven.  It is a boutique store that caters to hot sauces.  They even have a "tasting bar".  Several of the sauces were made right there in the Keys.  We tasted several and bought 3 hot sauces and 1 BBQ sauce.  Luckily they have a website.  I anticipate we'll be ordering from there often.  


On the way back we realized that we had just spent a day in the Keys and hadn't stepped foot in the water, so we stopped on the side of the road in Islamorada and walked out into the water.  They have very large sandbars there, so you can walk quite a ways out and still not have the water above mid-calf.  It was amazing how HOT the water was...kind of like bathtub water.  Lastly we stopped for a quick snack and a drink at Wahoo's Bar & Grill in Islamorada.  We had our third (and least favorite) batch of conch fritters here.  (Our favorite was the fritters at Island Fish Co.)  The view at Wahoo's was amazing as well.  It's a harbor and caters to the boat crowd.

We were exhausted when we got back to the Pompano Beach area.  (We hit Miami at rush hour and wasted an extra 45 min in backed-up traffic.)  We hit a local dive for some carry out pizza...Stingers.  We did sit and have a drink while we were waiting for the pizza.  This gave us the chance to chat with a local and get some good ideas on where to eat and what to do with the remainder of our time here.

We've had a busy last couple of days, so we're planning a beach/pool day tomorrow with dinner out somewhere.  We're quite excited to lay around, get some sun and read our books tomorrow.  Ahhhh!  Relaxation!

See you soon!