I'm typing this while sipping on a key lime martini. It feels about 1,000 degrees but I'm told it's only 95! We're now in Key West, which is one of the small islands just off Florida - it took us about 3 hours to drive here from Miami today. The Keys are made up of loads of different islands joined by a freeway. The drive today was really fun as we went through all the islands to get to the last one, which is called Key West.
Ooh, before we arrived here though, we stopped off for lunch at Key Largo (the longest island) in a fab little place called Mrs Mac’s Kitchen!
Tiny in size but massive in personality, this old school diner screamed Americana with it's friendly staff, pickles on the side with every order and lampshades made from car license plates! We opted for turkey pittas full to the brim with salad, Oli a key lime freeze drink and me the best root beer float I've had so far! :)So here we are in Key West. We arrived around 5pm, again with nowhere booked to stay. Our trusty guidebook had quite a few suggestions - after going to two of them with no availability, I felt a little tear well up in my eye. These places were cutesy with a capital C, but Mary and Joseph were yet again struggling to find an inn for the night.
Luckily someone pointed us in the direction of the visitor's centre where they had a list of all the hotels with availability left. They pointed us in the direction of a little guest house called the Wicker House. Wicker House was in a great area as it was situated in the middle of Duval Street which is a prime location, being the most popular street for tourism and nightlife.
On entering the tiny reception I got a good vibe immediately and crossed my fingers behind my back that the room they had would be suitable for us. The lady showing us around was called Paris - I liked her immediately. The main building looks like a small manor house with columns on the porch and foliage all around She led us through the courtyard passing the small freeform pool and led us to our room.
This was possibly the most unusual room I'd seen for several reasons - one being the front door opened into the massive bathroom complete with jacuzzi bath, and another that the room was unexpectedly jungle-themed, furnished with bamboo walls, pineapple lamp, leopard-print accessories and finally palm tree and monkey stencils on the walls - how could we possibly resist? With Gerry my stuffed giraffe feeling quite at home in the jungle room, we paid to stay for three nightsJ
With our suitcases unpacked and a jacuzzi later, we headed out onto Duval Street at 7pm to get a feel for our home for the next three days.
Small golf-cart type vehicles line the streets and are for hire - I spotted a pink one but Oli just shook his head. The streets remind me, for some reason, of being in the Caribbean - most of the shops are wooden-fronted in pastel colours and the whole place has an easy-breezy relaxed vibe - no-one seems to be in any rush for anything! As the ginger curly-haired actress in the musical film Annie says "I think I'm gonna like it here!"
We mooched about the shops and bars and got a restaurant recommendation from a lady in a shop, she suggested Blue Heaven a place she’s been going to for 16 years. It was just off the main strip and was nothing like I expected it. For starters it was an outdoor only restaurant but the giant fans took care of the heat, it was set in a courtyard and had a giant tree separating the bar area and the dining tables, the tree had a rope swing where guests were encouraged to have a go, after a couple of cocktails I didn’t think we should give it a try this time! The place was great and not somewhere we would have found by chance. I ordered the seared scallops with wild rice and Oli the pork tenderloin, both as scrumptious as each other. We decided to have dessert (after all it’s nearly the weekend!), we shared a banana heaven (banana bread, bananas, hot caramel and ice cream – it was literally heaven in a bowl) :)
We decided to take a stroll after dinner to try and walk off some of the heaven, we now have our bearings a bit more, the strip is full of fab restaurants, bars and clubs – one of which was a drag bar which looked amazing and I’m definitely going to drag (hee hee) Oli in there tomorrow! We also spotted a retro vintage looking cinema, we went in to have a look around, going to the cinema wasn’t on my list of things to do in the US but as the interior was just as charming as the outside we may go on a “date” there one night.
There is loads to do here, the Keys are known for their watersports but we’re in no hurry to be active after all our recent adventures. We are planning on chilling by the pool tomorrow and then going out in the evening. I have no tan as we’re mostly in a car or walking around sightseeing (I guess catching some rays) so I’ll be hoping to wake up to sunny skies tomorrow, and having a dip in the pool will be the only water sport activity on our agenda!
J&O
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