I got two more

Eared Grebe

At this time of year, if you are a serious lister, there aren't too many birds left to chase. Chances are pretty good that the birds you missed are far south in Central America or the Amazon. You can hope fore a freak bird to show up or you can hope for a rare winter specialty to show up. I got two winter birds recently

There has been a couple of Lapland Longspurs in Westerly the last couple of days. On top of the Longspurs an Eared Grebe was found by Matt Schenck. That gave me two birds to chase. I had only ever seen one Lapland Longspur and I had never seen an Eared Grebe.

 I got them both. The Eared Grebe was by Quonny and the Lapland Longspurs were at Misquamicut State Beach Parking Lot.

The photos are heavily cropped. I can't believe the Longspur pics are as clear as it is with as much I cropped them

Lapaland Longpur

Key West Food and Drink

 

This post will conclude my writing about my twelve days in Florida. It is far more bitter than sweet that I am done. We didn't just go to Florida to be warm. I have a bucket list written down in a notebook. I had about fifteen things written down I wanted to do in Florida. I had a list of twenty two things to door or places to see. This trip alone I had a shot at fifteen of them (most of the others were birding locations in north Florida). I ended up being able to check off fourteen of the fifteen. The one I did not do was catch a tarpon.

Key West alone, had eight different things I could check off of my bucket list. I've already written about snorkeling a coral reef which was a big one for me. If you look at my last post, you'll see a sunset photo. Seeing a sunset over the Gulf of Mexico was another.

Some of the others may surprise you. It's no secret that I don't drink very often. As I've put it in the past "I'll go months at a time without a drink before I've even realized I've gone months without one". Drinking has never been my thing. So you'd probably never guess I had three bucket list ideas that involved alcohol. I wanted to go to Sloppy Joe's and Captain Tony's. Both were bars that Hemingway frequented. Sloppy Joe's also has some of the best food in the city. Captain Tony's is famous for being a spot Buffett played at and hung out. My third item was to get drunk in Key West. I guess to honor Hemingway. In my entire bucket list notebook, there is no other mention of alcohol, just Key West.

I had food I specifically wanted to try while in the Conch Republic. Of course, I wanted an authentic slice of Key Lime Pie. I wanted to get a Fish Taco. Lastly, I wanted to try Conch Fritters which are basically clam cakes but with conch instead of quahog.

   Luckily, Key West has great food and plenty of drinks.

Key Lime Pie- Laurie and I went on a Key Lime Pie Taste Testing Spree! Starting in Key Largo at the Blonde Giraffe and ending at Kermits on Key West, we tried KLP from seven different places. I had gone on line and found a top ten list for Key Lime Pie and we tried as many as we could (one had gone out of business). My favorite was Kermit's near Mallory Square.

Conch Fritters- There is a little outdoor eating place called the Conch Shack on Duval Street. It is open air including the cooking area. I got conch fritters there twice. They were very good. There was another place near the Shipwreck Museum that also had Conch Fritters, but seemed closed when we would walk by. In case you want cheap beer. The Conch Shack has the cheapest beer in Key West. Four dollars a bottle.

Fish Taco's- I wanted to try fish taco's in a part of the country that makes authentic fish tacos. That really means Florida and California. I didn't want some previously frozen Applebee's special.  I got fish tacos at two places. The first was called B.O.'s Fish Shack. I'm pretty sure they used mahi-mahi. It was pretty good. The other place was a Mexican place called Amigo's on Greene Street. It was delicious. More on Amigo's below.

Food in General-

Plain and simple, the food is awesome. It is obviously more expensive being a tourist town a hundred miles from mainland Florida. Besides the food above, we tried other stuff. I did not have a bad bite to eat anywhere-

Amigo's Tortilla Bar- is across the street from Captain Tony's. Laurie got the quesadilla and I got tacos the first night. The quesadilla was very good, but the tacos were the best I have ever had. You can choose multiple types of tacos. I got chicken, beef, and veggie (plus the fish taco a different night). All are prepared differently so I got three different flavors. They were amazing. Six dollar frozen strawberry margaritas

Margaritaville- this is the original Margaritaville owned by Jimmy Buffett. We only bought a slice of KLP and a frozen drink, but next time I'm getting the buffalo wings.

Sloppy Joe's- I could go on about how good the food was at Amigo's, but I could say the same thing about Sloppy Joe's. The food was terrific. They do have a Sloppy Joe sandwich and it is delicious. Laurie ordered a BBQ pork sandwich that might even be better. I'm confident that you can't be disappointed with anything you order. My advice is to go for lunch. It is very crowded after dark. It is still the busiest bar in Key West for eighty years.

Drink- Because  our Key West Pass had coupons for buy one drink get another free at five places, I went into more bars in three days than I have in the last twenty five years combined. We got frozen drinks with our meals at Sloppy Joe's, Amigo's Tortilla Bar, and Mararitaville. None of those places were buy one/get one. We also crossed off of my bucket list having a drink at Captain Tony's possibly sitting in a seat that Jimmy Buffett sat in. There are bras pinned to the walls in Captain Tony's, reminding people that years back Key West was a pirate town that had a lot more debauchery than now.

When we went bar hopping we also stopped at Hard Rock Cafe and had a drink at the outside bar. We went into the Smokin' Tuna which had a cool rustic vibe. We went to Rick's Key West where we got a draft bear in a cup that we took home. And we got drinks at a place called Pepe's where at this point I'd been bar hopping for a couple hours and wasn't feeling any effects so I switched over to tequila shooters.

   Long story short, I got drunk in Key West. I didn't get shitfaced despite switching to tequila shots. I was just passed buzzed in the slightly drunk category. At least drunk enough where I can cross it off of my bucket list and I don't have to do it again.

Key West is awesome

p.s.- In case your wondering. The night we went bar hopping and consequently got a little tipsy was our last night there. The next day we had a five hour drive through the Everglades. I wanted to make it an all day road trip and stop to see sights and gators. I woke up at 4:35 am without any hangover at all. we were packed and in the car at 5 am.

Key West Superlatives

Key West is famous for its sunsets.
It did not disappoint

   I've been to a bunch of tourist towns. There is usually a tourist town near most of the national parks. I've been to Moab, West Yellowstone, Estes Park, and Bar Harbor among others. Of course there are tourist towns up and down both coasts from Newport to Miami Beach with Myrtle Beach and the Outer Banks mixed in, there is no shortage of places that can only survive because tourists come and drop a boatload of money.

   By far, my favorite of these places is the little island that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico at the end of Route 1.  Laurie and I spent three days in Key West and we loved it. I may as well start by saying Key West is not cheap. Furthermore, unless you are swimming or snorkeling at Fort Zachary Taylor, you probably won't have much fun if you don't spend some money.

You can break down things to do in Key West in four  categories.

Transportation
Attractions/ Tourist Traps
Water  related activities
Food/Drink (in a separate post)
I am also going to cover the Key West Pass in this post

We did our share of all of these things. Yet, as Captain Tony says to Buffet "Jimmy, there's still so much to be done". I want to go back so badly. I want to do some of the things we did, again, and I want to try other things. I can't give you a review about things we didn't do obviously, but I think the easiest way to write this post is to review the things we did and let you decide if you would be interested in them.

Transportation-

 I'd like to cover transportation first, because you can't do an attraction unless you can get there.. You will do a lot of walking up and down Duval Street, you have to accept that in advance.. There is a free bus called the Duval Loop that you can take. The catch is it doesn't go down Duval Street. It circumvents it. The bus will get you close to many of the attractions but doesn't actually stop at them so you will have to pay attention to your map.

You could use the Old Town Trolley (I cover the Old Town Trolley below under Attractions) and/or the Conch Train but you will drop some money on those

You could drive, but good luck finding a parking spot near the main drag. And the cost of parking is ridiculous. If you do drive into the tourist area my advice is to get there fairly early not only is parking tough but avoiding pedestrians is not a fun game you want to play.

The best way to take a load off of your feet is to rent a bike. A bike will cost you between $10-15/day. There are many places to rent a bike on Key West. Also, many of the motels on Key West have complimentary bikes for their guests. We stayed at the Harborside Motel and Marina which did not offer bikes. There was a bike rental place about a ten minute walk from our motel named Sunshine Scooters. They specialize in Moped rentals, but also rent bikes. It is important to remember there are many bike rental places in Key West, but we only rented from this place, therefore I can only give one fair review. The other places may be better or worse, I do not know.

   We rented bikes our last day on Key West. We were tired of walking and taking the Duval Loop Bus. Also we wanted to go to Fort Zachary Taylor Beach and that would have been a very long walk. We walked over to Sunshine Scooters about 8:10 in the morning. Right away we were greeted by a friendly guy and he set us up with bikes. We had to sign a waiver that we declined a helmet and that we wouldn't drink and ride. After we paid ( I believe it was $32 for both bikes another guy brought us to the bikes. They come with a basket, a bell, and a lock. We found out then, that they weren't even oen yet. They open at 8:30, but they helped us anyway.

We also realized they closed a 5 pm. We certainly planned on riding the bikes well past then to get food on Duval Street. Not to worry. They allowed us to bring the bikes back anytime. We just locked them up and dropped the key in a safe. We ended up dropping the bikes off about 11 pm. There are cheaper bike rental places, I think there is one nine dollars a day, but considering the proximity to our motel and the after hours drop off, we will use them again.

2.  Attractions/ Tourist Traps

There are a lot of family friendly places to go in Key West. Quite honestly, we didn't have the time for most of them. Harry Truman spent a lot of time in Key West so you can visit the "Truman Little White House". You can visit a Butterfly Garden, Audubon's House, and museums.  You can easily get a list of attractions online. The things we did are below.

Old Town Trolley-
   The Old Town Trolley costs about $40/person. They tell you the history of Key West along with other useful tips. Personally, I thought it was a waste of forty dollars that would have been better used on a snorkel tour.

There is a"Conch Train"that follows roughly the same route and does the same thing. We didn't do it.

Shipwreck Museum-
Despite looking forward to this, again my interest and mind were elsewhere. There was Spanish gold and silver, Pieces of Eight and canons. The cost was about $14 but I was happy to get out.

Southernmost Point
 You can get off of the trolley at Southernmost Point. There is a marker. It is free but you will have to wait your turn to get a photo. Hey, if your in Key West, you need to do it.

Hemingway House

Hemingay House

six toed ct

Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West from 1931-1939. He bought a house on Whitehead Street. This was my favorite tourist attraction. You can take a tour of the house with a guide. There are photos in all of the rooms of Hemingway. The main attraction are the cats. There are 59 cats on the property. Most of them have six toes. They are friendly, which is a good thing because they are everywhere. I think we paid $15/person. The tour lasts about 30 minutes but you can stay on the grounds as long as you want, walk freely around the house, or take pictures of cats for as long as your heart desires.

Fort Zachary Taylor

Besides snorkeling off of the Fury Cat, my favorite "attraction" was basically free. On our last day, we rode our rented bike to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. I think the cost for a pedestrian/ bike rider is $2-3/person. There is a large fort that very much reminded me of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. There are also nature trails that I think would be very birdy that I will make time for next trip. However, the real star of the park is the beach. The beach has to be the most beautiful I have ever seen. The tree line goes almost to the water. The sand isn't smooth because it is made of broken coral, but it is white and very pleasing to look at. There were a lot of people on the beach, but there was still plenty of room to put down our towels.

The swimming is fantastic. About 40 yards off shore are some rock piles. The piles extend underwater drawing many of the fish I saw at the coral reef. I saw multiple parrotfish and Sargent Majors. There were other fish I couldn't identify. We snorkeled around the rocks for well over an hour.

Mallory Square

Each evening there is a "Sunset Celebration" at Mallory Square (which is north of Duval Street on the ocean. There are vendors and street performers. Laurie was really looking forward to going to this celebration. We assumed it would be a carnival atmosphere. We think it s possible it was the time of year, but Mallory Square did not live up to expectations. The only vendor was a guy selling popcorn. There were three or four street performers a night. However, they were disappointing also. They spent half of their performance telling you how much money you should give them. One guy seriously said "If you are wondering how much you should give me, let me help you out with that. Between $5-10 is fair. Street Performance is an art" Needless to say we walked away from him.

The lunatic crazy ass street performer and his cat jumping
through a hoop that is on fire.

The most famous street performer is a guy that has trained cats that do tricks. Here's the thing, the cats are cool and did tricks. But the guy was a complete lunatic, as in like a crazy person. His performance of weird laughs and looking like he was on acid took away from the cats performance.

We do think that after Thanksgiving when tourist season really hits, there will be more performers and vendors, but for us it was underwhelming. On the bright side, one of the nights we were there did have an amazing sunset.


3. Watersports
 
Being an island at the end of a chain that begins a hundred miles away, there is a lot of water activities to do. There are boats that will take you out snorkeling, scuba diving, cruising, drinking, fishing, sunset watching, jet skiing, parasailing, and probably other things. We went snorkeling.

We used the company called Fury. They were excellent. We went seven miles out to the coral reef and snorkeled for about an hour. The sea conditions were rough for both boat and snorkeling. Before we went on board, the captain explained that it was rough. Anyone that didn't want to go could get a full refund or switch to another day. The conditions were going to be worse the following day, so we chose to go, but I respected them for the refund policy. We took a really comfy catamaran out to the reef. You have the choice to walk down a ramp to the water or jump right in. I didn't see too much snorkeling, but that was mostly because of the conditions.

Back on the boat, you could rinse off in  a freshwater shower. On the way home there was unlimited, beer, soda or margaritas. Since I swallowed a gulp of seawater and my stomach knew it, I drank soda. Still, I rate these guys first class. The mates were cool as was the captain. I think the cost for the three hour trip was $44.

As for any other snorkel company or water related companies, you will have to research them yourself.


4. Key West Pass

You can go online and buy a coupon booklet called Key West Pass. The booklet has about fifty deals of buy one/get one free (BOGO). The cost of the booklet is roughly $50. The catch is you can only buy it online and it is mailed to you. YOU CAN NOT BUY IT IN KEY WEST.

The book was well worth the money. Many of the attractions in Key West are covered. There are three different snorkeling companies where you can get a buy one/get one snorkel tour. Using just one pays for the book. Also included are the Shipwreck Museum, Butterfly Gardens, Aquarium, Old Town Trolley, and Ghost Tour among others. There are also five coupons for bars where you can get a buy one/get one drink of equal or lesser value. The book was well worth it for us. We used it for a snorkel tour on the Fury Cat, the Old Town Trolley (which costs a ridiculous $40, so that alone was a huge savings), the Shipwreck Museum and the free drink at the bars. All of the places honored the pass no questions asked.

In my next post, and my last on Florida, I will review the places we ate and drank.