After a full 19 hours of rest, I drove to the airport to pick up Kevin Fluharty (if you have been following along you’ll remember Flounder) – our first non-family repeater to the Busse Bus. Promptly at 10:00 we had Bloody Mary’s (hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere, right?):
Homemade and yummy. We had some time during the day to explore before picking up Kathleen (Shakes) and we ended up at the sunset pier for drinks:
Since it was the “Selfiemost Point” I took a snapshot. Looky there, only 90 miles to Havana! Kat wanted to complete a little shopping so Kevin and I walked up Duvall Street and ran into a couple of characters.
After that encounter, Kevin and I wondered into Irish Kevin’s Pub to join in on the fun with Irish Kevin himself on the guitar. Fun time interacting with the audience.
Kevin had to buy the shirt. Off we went to get Kathleen. I’m getting used to this nice small airport. Easy in, easy out. Not O’Hare.
After our great experience the first time, we headed off to the Blue Heaven for breakfast/ lunch or as some call it, brunch. Again, great time and food:
Kevin spent the two bucks!
We took in a few touristy things like visiting Hemingway’s house:
He wrote some of his most famous novels (A Farewell to Arms and Death in the Afternoon) in this studio and in this room:
I don’t think that I have ever read a Hemingway book – guess I’ll have to now. Any suggestions?
Across the street to the lighthouse for more touristy stuff.
88 steps up and 88 steps down. Kat wanted more of a workout so her and I went up and down again. On the second time up I took these photos:
That’s Kevin and Kathleen sitting on a bench and an aerial view of the Hemingway House. I was tuckered out when we got back down and sat on this bench striking up a very one-sided conversation with the other bench occupant:
She was an excellent listener!
One more tourist trap – the Southernmost Point:
That night it happened to be:
So, of course, we went. Mallory Square is the location where everyone goes to catch the sunset each and every night (only took us 1 1/2 weeks to find it). Local restaurants and vendors filled the square and we enjoyed sampling and shopping and drinking – duh!
After closing the Taste down and catching the cloudy sunset we stumbled over to The Smoking Tuna Restaurant and Lucy’s to hear some bands.
We had so much fun dancing in the street at Lucy’s, listening to the singers and meeting new people:
We closed Lucy’s and followed the crowd and the singer to his new bar. We expected more of the same, but the music stopped and we didn’t just want to drink at another bar so we headed home.
The Fluharty’s rented bikes the next day so we rode back down to Duvall Street and shopped, ate and drank some more.
Kathleen found shirts for the family from this company:
Cute, right? I found this:
Cuter, righter?
Headed back to Lucy’s for a light lunch – food good, but no band playing so not as fun as the other night.
We had a very special evening planned at the La Te Da – a female impersonation revue. We got to see Reba, Bette, Cher, Tina, Lady Gaga, and Liza:
Kat and I got our picture taken with her, I mean, him.
And Kevin’s favorite impersonation, Marilyn:
Yep, he motor boated!
The next day we went back to nature and visited the butterfly house:
As you can see, they also had gorgeous flowers!
Off to the sunset cruise on the Fury. Different band this time, more oldies, less Jimmy. Sounded great!
Met a couple who we partied with throughout the boat ride. We had actually left port and had to turn around because the singer forgot his guitar. At least we made the sunset in time!
Afterwards we headed back to Irish Kevin’s, but Kevin wasn’t playing and we listened to another guy playing the same type of routine.
Unfortunately, Kathleen had to head back up north to coach one of her field hockey teams in a tournament over the weekend. The time came and went too fast. The rest of us chilled by the pool, played Jenga and grilled out.
Kevin got to try my Traeger and we smoked two slabs of ribs. I think that they were the best ribs I have ever eaten! Kevin is such the gourmet chef! We headed back to Mallory Square to see some street performers and the sunset:
The Conch Republic celebrated their 37th year of independence whilst we were in Key West. What’s the Conch Republic you ask? I didn’t know either. Google: The Conch Republic is a micronation declared as a tongue-in-cheek secession of the city of Key West, Florida from the United States on April 23rd, 1982. It has been maintain as a tourism booster ever since, Now you know. They even have their own flag:
Ok, my photo shows it backwards but you get the idea. For ten days there are unique celebrations for this micronation. We were lucky enough to be there for the drag races:
I guess it was a good parting event before taking Kevin to the airport?
Kat and I found a quiet food truck called B.O.’s Fish Wagon for dinner.
I even found another excellent listener who apparently was a little preoccupied with driving to respond to my inquiries. We had a nice evening watching the sunset and taking this snapshot of US 1.
Adios, Cayo Hueso!
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