Bicycles and Bars

I had set an alarm for 8:00, but was up well before that. It was probably because of all the roosters who were cock-a-doodle-dooling. The hotel had a great complimentary breakfast that consisted of breakfast sandwiches, croissants, yogurt, ham, cheese, fresh fruits, etc that we enjoyed by the pool with the chickens. The chickens made me laugh as they hung out like dogs under our feet waiting to peck at any crumbs that may fall.

We met up with the gang at 9:30 to walk to our meet up location for a bicycle tour that we had pre-booked. We found it ironic that the location was on the same block as the bars we were watching the fight last night. Our tour guide, James, was a quirky but yet humorous fellow. He shared a ton of Key West history as we made stops along the way. One of the stops included was on the sidewalk in front of our hotel, as the hotel is across the street from the Hemingway House. We didn’t actually get to go in the house on this tour, but he was merely pointing it out. We also stopped at the Southern Most Point and couldn’t believe the line of people waiting to get their picture taken with the marker. It kind of reminded me of the line of people waiting to get their picture taken with the Welcome To Las Vegas sign. We didn’t have the time to stand in the line, but I was already thinking we would come back in the morning at some point when less people would be around since it was so close to our hotel. The last stop of the tour included a piece of key lime pie from the Key West Key Lime Pie Co. It was pretty good, but they must have been kept in a freezer or really cold refrigerator since it was hard to cut through with the plastic spoon.

The bike tour was the only excursion we had booked in advance since we wanted Brandon to be able to be part of the decision making process, but the girls had discussed doing a sunset cruise. Brandon ultimately decided he would like to go snorkeling in lieu of the sunset cruise. While we were eating our pie Kristin found a snorkeling sunset cruise, the best of both worlds! After some discussion we decided to book it for Sunday and when we were done with our pie we walked straight to the vendor’s kiosk. After that was settled we went to Schooner Warf Bar for lunch. The sign outside said that Nick Bronwell was performing. I recognized that name right away as a musician that someone had recommended us to go see while we were here. We found an open picnic table but it was up near the stage. Although we really enjoyed Nick’s singing, it was quite loud and hard to hold a conversation. Tom and I shared a very tasty bean dip appetizer.

After lunch the couples each went their separate ways. Tom and I went to do some geocaches (correction I dragged Tom to follow me to some geocaches). The first one was in a parking lot that we had biked through on the tour. My GPS was bouncing all over but I was eventually able to zero in on the cache. The second was on the way back to Duval St and here I was easily able to make the find as well. Tom and I walked back up Duval towards our hotel. Tom stopped to get another frozen Rum Runner from the street vendor as we had the day before. It was just then that Kristin had sent a text asking where everybody was. Leah and Ross were relaxing in their room and Brandon and Kristin were at a bar called The Whistle. Tom and I headed back to the Whistle and laughed when we realized it was practically across the street from the last geocache we had found. We had a couple of drinks at The Whistle before we continued to bar hop our way back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we met up with Leah on her balcony where we enjoyed our snacks and planned where to go for dinner. Leah had found a place call Kaya Island Eats (https://www.empouriumkeywest.com/_files/ugd/7eb20e_977eb11d9b154029a1195ef3475d280c.pdf). We were surprised at how big the restaurant was and found a table in the back patio area. I really, really liked the Cuban Style Roast Pork dish. I would definitely order that again. Tom had the fish tacos which he also liked.

After dinner we were interested in seeing a drag show, but when we found that the cover charge was $20 we decided to pass and just get a drink instead. Upon leaving that bar we began the hunt for a bar that was playing the Badger game. We found one called The Tavern where the bartender gladly put the game on a couple of the TV’s. Too bad they ended up losing the game. With the game over we all started to head back to the hotel. The boys mentioned wanting to go for one more drink, but Kristin and I were done so we told the boys to go, and we went back to the hotel. I woke up from a dead sleep at 1:00 and realized that Tom wasn’t back yet, so I think one more drink really meant more than one. I was still awake when Tom got back at 1:30. It was a super fun first full day in Key West.

Stats of the Day

Steps: 13,923
Geocaches: 2
Drinks: Too many to count