Our first full day in Key West. The morning began cool, but by 10, it was hot enough for shorts. As I expected, Dan was the first up, but he was so quiet that I was unaware that he’d already been downstairs for a cup of coffee and returned to his room. I got up a little after 7, the second to rise. I expected Foxy (Matt) to be up before me since his job requires him to rise at 3 or 4 every day, but he didn’t join the growing throng until a half hour after I. Each of the three of us made individual trips to the CVS across the street this morning. None knew the others needed anything, or one trip would have been sufficient.
Mark got up about 20 minutes after Foxy, and by about 9:45, the four Musketeers had “showered, shit, and shaved” as the saying goes, and were off to breakfast. Alex and Rob—the night owls—stayed behind in a perhaps futile attempt to reset their circadian rhythms. Monday’s breakfast was at Camille’s, the Key West version of a greasy spoon, I guess. Pancakes, eggs Bene, waffles, hash, and all the wonderful breakfast foods that I love.
After breakfast, we came back to the condo and waited for Rob and Alex to wipe the sleep from their eyes. Alex, who couldn’t sleep, made brownies during the night. Yum! I had two.
When the boys were ready, we broke into pairs. Alex and Dan went to get coffee for Alex and do some strolling; Rob and Matt rented bikes—Foxy wanted to polish up his now rusty memory of his favorite haunts on the island and give Rob an overview of the island; and Mark and I just wandered, first to the beach, then through the quasi residential district on Whitehead Street. These guys were hanging out at the beach.
We re-located one of our favorite restaurants in Key West, Blue Heaven, and stumbled across a street artist named Scott Gruppe. I loved his work and bought a small painting for twenty-two bucks! You can see his style on his Facebook page. I about half expected to buy art here in Key West—it’s something Mark and I really like to do on vacations—but the budget is a bit tight, so it was a real treat for me to find something I more than like for such a good price.
Alex so liked the painting that he wants to go on a quest today to find Scott again and perhaps buy one himself. Scott was set up outside the Hemingway House, which all six of us visited later in the day, but not before Mark and I had some key lime pie!
Tom Glass will cover his eyes if he were to read this, but I found Hemingway House, though lovely with spacious rooms and a breezy demeanor, less interesting than the grounds. I took photos of a lot of the flowers and the cats. (And I must say that I’m really pleased with my new camera!)
We wandered down to Mallory Square to have a snack and just see a bit of the chaos that happens there around sunset. A German cruise ship was just departing, a juggler was balancing on some pipes throwing scimitars and playing the harmonica, a preacher was busily enticing souls to salvation, and a guy from the state fish and wildlife agency was trying to capture this fellow to remove a fish hook from his beak.
Walking home, we stopped at a sculpture garden that Mark remembered but that I had forgotten about. The busts memorialize important people in Key West’s history, and I couldn’t resist taking some pictures.
We ate dinner at the Old Town Mexican Restaurant, which is a nice, unfussy (read “plastic tables”) joint with decent food that has been on Duval for as long as I’ve been coming to Key West. Five of us went to a local watering hole after dinner—Dan peeled off—and killed the rest of the evening just drinking and chatting and having nice time.
Awesome pictures!