We traveled over 42 bridges on the way there and again on the way back. All I could think of was the scene in True Lies where the bridge to a lesser-known key is out, and Arnold Schwarzenegger pulls Jamie Lee Curtis from a sunroof. Yeah, our bus wasn’t quite that thrilling.
But Key West was very cool. We booked one little excursion and one circulating tour thing while in town, and the first thing we had pre booked was a glass bottom boat out to a section of the local coral reef. That was really cool. Cas and I were recounting how many glass bottomed boats we’d been on, and apparently, we’re nearing an expert level for traveling via boats with transparent bottoms. Still, this one was pretty cool. For extra points, on the way out to the coral (which is about six miles from the key), we were standing at the top side of the two-tiered boat. We were looking out at the water, and we both managed to see a pod of dolphins. There were several fins that surfaced at the same time, arching out of the water together as we looked on. It was so darn cool. We heard the tour guide on the intercom tell folks to look where we had just seen the whole bunch of these guys, but we saw them before that happened, and like any naturally occurring bit of amazing wonder, they vanished from view about two seconds after being acknowledged by a tour guide.
That trip was very cool but when it ended, we were pretty hungry. We wandered a little bit and landed at a pretty fancy place with a nice patio for shade and people watching. We had mango mojitos, a plump crab cake, some fish tacos, and something for dessert. What was that dessert? Gosh, so forgettable. Except how it was the most amazing key lime pie ever. The slice was enormous, but I still felt like Cas and I were both very careful to get our allotted half of the slice. I am quite fond of him, but he wasn’t gonna get a bite from my half- not on my watch. I think that feeling went both ways.
Regardless, when we finished our pie- not a crumb remained- we walked over to “The Little White House,” which was, at one point, the vacation home of Harry S Truman. Fun fact- there is a great deal of debate about whether or not to put a period after the S in Harry S Truman. Given his actual given name, I say no. The S doesn’t stand for anything. It’s just an S. His two grandfathers both had S-based names in some manner or another, and apparently, the single S was a compromise that was probably meant to honor both of them, but in reality, it probably didn’t please either one. Still, no punctuation for you, Mr. President.
The official tour of the Little White House would have cost more time and more money than we were willing to spend, so we wandered the grounds for a bit, then moved on. We had pre booked a “train” trip. By train, the good folks in Key West mean a regular motor vehicle decorated to look like a train that pulls a bunch of trailers with seats. It was cute- they took us around to the Hemingway house, the southernmost point in the continental US, a Naval base, a series of museums and a bunch of other really cool stuff on the island. We were made aware when we were at the highest point on the island, which is 15 feet above sea level. We learned that the southernmost point in the continental US is preceded by the southernmost stop sign in the continental US. The tour guide was very good, but we had to cut it a little short. We had five hours in town to spend, and two of them were glass-bottomed-boat related. We may have spent more time on lunch and pie than was necessary, as well, but look at all the regrets… Wait- there aren’t any. We’ve heard from lots of folks where we should go, but we did some cool stuff that wasn’t on the radar of our friends or family. Also, we had pie, so there’s that.
We hopped back on our bus to Miami with two minutes to spare. We had a 5:30 deadline. The last three people stepped on at 5:40, and I hope they could all feel us glaring at them for the fact that we all hustled and they decided they could have an extra ten minutes. Jerks. I am nearly certain that a man from that group was the one who applied cologne while on the bus. Double rude.
Two things I hadn’t fully expected in Key West- the sheer number of pink people and the sheer number of roosters. The pink people- I mean, wow. I know that not everyone is as fanatical about sunscreen as I am. It’s a good thing to be fanatical about. But the number of people who were busy getting a sunburn in front of my very eyes made me want to chase them all around with my spray can of Coppertone SPF 70. Lots of fuchsia. As for the roosters- these dudes were everywhere. They were under parked cars, in open-air shops. They were on the restaurant patio, watching Cas and I eat pie. They were overly friendly and very bold. So many roosters. Souviner shops had rooster-themed displays, so apparently, they’ve been a part of the island culture for a while.
But we’re back in our hotel, now. We came back- it was so cool because we were the second-to-last folks to get on the bus and the first stop to get off. Everyone else had to keep riding into the city. South Beach perk! We got here, dropped off our stuff and headed to a Cuban restaurant for some Ropa Vieja and mojitos. Wow.
For tomorrow, we start with an Everglades fan boat ride, spend a little beach time and wrap the day with a sunset cruise. Sounds about right. Then we head back to flat, landlocked Dallas to attend a friend’s wedding before it’s back to work with us.
Tonight, we decompress, though. It was a fifteen hour day that started with the buzzing of an alarm. Maybe after vacation ends, we’ll sleep in. Just once.
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