I have wanted to visit the Florida Keys since hearing my favorite Beach Boys song, so long ago. Ever since, visiting Key West has been added to my ever-growing bucket list. I'm creative though have
little imagination, so I usually have a hard time getting excited for a place I
can’t picture in my mind. I had no idea what was up ahead in driving from Miami
to Key West, but somehow I knew we were in for something special.
The drive from Miami to Key West is long but is also, hands down,
the best way to experience Key West. I was mesmerized by the miles of
Everglades that blanket the tip of Florida. I had never seen such vast space of dense greenery,
and in previous experiences, had never seen palm trees growing wild in such a
swamp-like setting. The recently painted cement guard-rails were a heavenly
shade of blue that seemed to mythically guide us, 35 mph, through a series of
magical islands, off the coast of Florida.
I had, as usual, made myself carsick from reading every real
estate and ‘restaurant available’ sign as we drove through all of the islands that make up the
Florida Keys. I was overwhelmed by the serene surroundings as we drove over
countless bridges surrounded by gorgeous blue water. By the time we pulled up
to our hotel in Key West, in the middle of Mallory Square, I was carsick and I was nervous. Our hotel had an advertised weight limit for dogs, and we had
previously “negotiated” with the reservation staff to allow our “55 lb” Golden Retriever (already
10-pounds more than their pet policy allowed). I was nervous because Bob had not
miraculously lost the 35-pounds of extra weight on the drive from Miami and I wasn’t positive
that no one would notice. Travis checked us in while I waited in the car with
Bob and was relieved when he came back with the keys for a room in another building. We parked in a nearby parking garage and
walked along the water-line of Mallory Square, just as a nearby Cruise ship was unloading.
Through the crowd of people, we navigated our way unnoticed and breathed a sigh of relief as we unloaded our stuff in our large room. It was definitely a nice change from
our hotel in Miami.
We got Bob settled with his own queen-size bed (much more
plush than Miami) and turned up the volume on Animal
Planet, and we headed to the pool. I think we finally hit vacation mode
when we took the first sip of our beers that were delivered pool-side. We were here
to do “salt life recon” but we were
also here to relax and enjoy a well-deserved vacation. Around 6p we headed
upstairs to get ready for the sunset celebration.
Having grown up in San Diego, I’m not a stranger to sunsets.
However, since moving to the East Coast, I no longer take them for granted. I’ve
come to miss sunsets so much that I’m hoping they become a constant in our
evening view, in our future salt life.
I had heard plenty about the festivities that take place at Mallory Square so I
was excited to experience what had been explained as a “must see”. I immediately
observed, and then applauded, the lack of an open container law as we bought a
couple of beers from a cart conveniently parked in front of the hotel, and we headed
straight into the crowd of people, all gathered to see the sun set. Lucky for us, our hotel doors opened right
into the madness of the square and within my first couple of sips of Stellla, I was once again overwhelmed by
all of the new and never-before-seen sights. There were vendors of art and
jewelry lined up on the far side of the square, already making a killing off of
the many gathering tourists. There were also food vendors serving conch
fritters and chips with guacamole to the families who had taken their layered places along the shore, as if a parade was about to start. Countless street
performers entertained the masses as the sun still hung high in the sky and I
felt like I was thrown back in time. The jugglers and magicians looked like
jesters, and the crowd that was gathering in the square to witness the nightly
ritual seemed like they were awaiting a religious experience. The man who
famously entertains people by training and performing with cats, was certainly from another time and place. We watched the sky turn a vibrant shade of orange as we saw the sun
set over the island of Sunset Key and something about seeing a sunset of the
south- made it one of the best I’ve ever seen.
As the sun made its departure, so did the crowd in a mass
exodus towards the bars and restaurants that lined the famous Duval Street. We
walked to Conch Republic and had a
few drinks at the bar while we waited for a table, wondering how we could open
something that capitalized on the sun-worshippers, like this place had. It was packed. We had a
great dinner, walked around the streets of downtown keeping our eyes peeled for any available restaurant space, and headed back to the
hotel for our own nightly ritual of walking Bob.
We had learned on our Honeymoon that some of the best things
a hotel has to offer are usually the least advertised and require "grunt work" to ensure your ticket to the dance. In Hawaii, it was the Serenity Pool at the Four Seasons in Maui.
Though the resort has more than one pool, this was the "adult-only, music
under-the-water, best view in the joint" pool that cleverly upped its
desirability by limiting the amount of cushy pool chairs that it offered. We found out the hard way that in order to get a chair at the pool (which had to be occupied at all
times or would be given away to the wait list), you had to be standing in-line at the pool desk at 6:30a; and even at that time, you were lucky to make top 20. When the gates to the pool opened at 8am, it was every man for himself as people seriously ran and threw elbows to guarantee their forfeiture of breakfast and coffee had not been in vain. Though I feel more
travel-savvy due to the experience, it definitely left its share of vacation scars. When
I heard the only beach at our Key West resort was accessed by boat, and
only 20 tickets were available for sale each day at 8am, I considered setting up camp at the
concierge desk the night before. Instead, we woke up at 7:15a and by 7:30a, were on
a mission to secure boat tickets to the private beach. I got in-line as the third person and Trav grabbed us coffee. While waiting & reading my book, I began to feel a bit foolish that we had come so early. At
8:02, when the remaining tickets were bought by the
girl directly behind me, I no longer felt foolish. I felt victorious. And now I felt rushed. We only had 30 minutes to catch
the first boat of the day over to Sunset Key.
Go Pro Video of Key West: https://vimeo.com/102043097
"I have been waiting for this" is all I could think to myself as five of us boarded a small boat headed for
Sunset Key. After a 10-minute boat ride through crystal blue waters I heard the
guide say “and this is your beach for
the day”. I looked up. My heart could have jumped out of my chest that very
moment. Hallelujah. The pristine beach had gorgeous sand and see-through water
gently lapping the shore. We were the first to arrive on the sleepy island and
had our pick of chairs tucked under thatched roofs. We got settled at the
water’s edge and took in our surroundings. It was a wonderful moment. One that you want to freeze and hold onto forever. We now had a newborn
happy place. It was a day I never wanted to end as we alternated from sun to
calm surf, while the beach stayed quiet as if it were our own. As we took the
boat back to the mainland late that afternoon, I wondered when I’d ever feel
that type of peace again, if not in my memories of Sunset Key.
We returned to the hotel to find Bob enjoying his own vacation. He had barely left the heavenly bed and air conditioning. We
got ready for the night as he escaped into his next round of dreams, and we headed
for our impromptu pub crawl down Duval Street.
Duval Street is a famous street in Key West that runs from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, just over a mile long. So when the
sun goes down, tourists descend on Duval for Key West nightlife. We had
done just that when we found ourselves at Sloppy
Joes, a Key West landmark. Apparently in 1931 Ernest Hemingway lived in Key
West and lucky for us, Sloppy Joes
was holding a Hemingway look-alike contest that very weekend in tribute. The
place was packed with white beards and when it isn’t Christmas, it can be a
little unnerving. We had two beers and some arepas and moved on, ready to try a new bar.
We were looking for something out-of-the-ordinary for the next location of our pub crawl. When I spotted a bar promising a rooftop garden, I thought we had found the perfect spot to watch the crowds move their way down Duval Street. We walked up our first flight of stairs and came to a bar with a balcony and many open seats. The only sounds were coming from
oscillating fans pushing around the hot air so we decided to push on and continued up the next flight of stairs that we assumed led to the rooftop. That’s when things get fuzzy
from the previous beers and if I could rewind to that moment to hone in on my
surroundings, I certainly would. I noticed the strong advisement against
photography first and thought that was odd but coming from New York, my scale of odd is slightly skewed so we didn't hesitate. I continued to climb the stairs and the next
interesting thing I noticed, and again chose to pay it no mind, was the
strong advisement against sex on the premises. Maybe rooftop sex is an
epidemic in Key West, who knows? I wasn’t caught up on my current events. When I reached a door, I pushed it open and took a step onto the roof, with Travis close behind. In my mind’s attempt to piece
together events later, I remember focusing on a normal-looking couple, enjoying
a beer at the bar. It gave me enough (false) security to keep going. I proceeded with the start of my initial "lap"
and instantly felt out of place. We seemed to scream “newbies” as we tried to
play it cool but were the only ones currently casing the joint. The rooftop was dark
except for the strobe lights that were also circling and I had a hard time
making out the shape of what appeared to be a shirt-less man playing in a fountain.
Again, being recently from New York, I just excused this as it being a pretty
hot evening. As soon as I turned to the bar for that obligatory beer that we
now had to stay for, since everyone was watching us, I saw something that would
stop anyone, even those living in New York, dead in
their tracks. Standing between me and the bar was a butt. A white, hairy,
man-butt, and its owner, who was wearing nothing but shoes and socks, was actually having
a casual conversation as his manhood leaned against the bar. In the moments of sheer terror that I was stuck staring, frozen from trying to process what I was seeing, I remember that it appeared he was enjoying his beer, completely comfortable in his surroundings. Quite oppositely, all eyes, and all jokes, were now on us as we immediately threw
all social dignities out the window and almost ran back down the first flight of stairs, with
the metal door slamming hard behind us. We were now at the mid-level bar. We didn’t
speak, just grabbed a couple of beers and then two bar stools on the
balcony. Hysterical laughter ensued as we tried to piece together what had just happened in the last 10-minutes. I opened my FourSquare app to see some of the tips left by others who had also visited. One of the top "tips" was “don’t go to the roof, there are naked
dudes up there”. That is the purpose of smart phones. We enjoyed our cold beers and the best view of Duval Street. Not
because it gave the perfect view of the busy street below but because it also offered the best view of the stairway up to the roof. We entertained ourselves for many hours, and many
beers watching unsuspecting couples walk up the stairway, only to
come tearing back down. As the night grew on, we noticed some couples weren't coming back down and took this as our cue to move along. We found our third and last pub, grabbed dinner and crawled home. Our Key West pub crawl, a success.
Without the threat of missing the beach boat, we slept in and headed out in
search of a public beach, one we would frequent if we were locals- the requirement of every trip thus far. In very
unfortunate circumstances, we learned that beaches aren’t Key West’s forte.
Boasting the third largest barrier reef in the world, Key West doesn’t get the
wave action needed to create the beaches we’re used to, so as a result, there aren't many in the Keys. Confident that Key West would make up for the lack
of beaches with other salt life activity, we decided to check out the famous reef instead. We
headed out at 2p on a sailboat with 10 other guests. It took us an hour, on
green/blue waters, to get to the reef, only 7 miles away. As we arrived; turtles could be seen dodging the boat and the water
was so clear you could see the bottom. It wasn’t exciting or reassuring to me
that all of the other boats were loading up to leave when we arrived to the
snorkel spot. We would be the only ones navigating the reef this afternoon and
this may be the only time that I actually preferred to be surrounded with other people. I call them shark bait. I was uneasy as I was the third person off the boat with fins in
hand. Trav had the Go Pro and was a few people in front of me when I finally
put my face in the water. Within two minutes of putting my snorkel in my mouth
I let out a scream that the departing boats may have heard back at the marina. Coming out of the deep and straight for
me was a black-tipped reef shark and I had no time to do anything about it. Of course I wasn’t
alone in the water, we were still in a group as we had just emptied the boat,
but I wasn’t comforted by the increase of movement and extra bodies in the water. My first
thought was that “this was it”, always convinced I would die by shark. The
shark continued to swim underneath me and it is true when people say you can actually
hear the music of Jaws when in the company of a real shark. Once sure that I would survive to watch the
video- I yelled to Travis to get him with the Go Pro. Everyone had seen the shark, mere
minutes into the snorkel trip, and as a result, people stuck much closer to the boat then
they probably would have for the remainder of the excursion. Travis and I found
ourselves floating in open water alone a lot- probably another testament to our
poor decision making. Not just because of the shark sighting (and living to tell
about it) but Key West was some of the best snorkeling I've ever seen. If I had one complaint it would be that we saw the shark at the beginning of the trip. I spent the next hour watching my back, expecting him to creep out of the shadows and remove a limb. This constant terror coupled with picturing the size of the teeth on the barracuda that
was swimming beside me meant I was one of the first back to the boat. Not being able
to fight the bobbing sensation that swirled in my head; Trav and I chatted with the Captain, a
transplant from Texas with a Golden Retriever named Skiff, about everything Key West on the long voyage back to the marina. She said she had left corporate
life and moved to Key West, never looking back. What if we left corporate life
and never looked back? Key West would be worth the risk.
We quickly changed and stepped right into the Mallory Square madness again,
though this time we were veterans and had already scoped out a better way to enjoy the celebration of the sun. We grabbed a waterfront table, and had some drinks while the scene around us came alive with people and performers. We had the perfect view of the setting sun, and once all of its light had been extinguished we headed back to the boat and Sunset Key for dinner. The restaurant had a perfect view of a sky lit up so bright with lightening, it seemed the sunset Gods were still celebrating. These past few days had rivaled any
tropical vacation we had ever had and we hadn't even left Florida.
We visited Sunset Key one more time on our visit as we again
waited in-line for much desired boat tickets. It was another amazing day on the
beach, one that I would gladly live day–after-day, as if some celestial Ground Hog Day.
Key West is amazing and magical. I couldn’t help but think that everyone’s
bucket list should include the journey through the islands, Key West sunset
celebrations, private beaches for the day, and even swimming with sharks. Maybe we should bare all (though probably not in public) and make a move for a simpler kind of life.
