Key West, Florida

February 1 - 8, 2010

Bluewater RV Resort

Key West, Florida

Holy cats and dogs. In all of our traveling, we have only had to "take down" and "set up" in the rain a couple of times. Even when we were traveling in those mega-storms back in June of 2009 that caused so much flooding in the midwest, we didn't get as wet as our arrival here at Bluewater Key. But it was well worth it...what a beautiful park and site.

We spent our first full day here catching up with the laundry that we couldn't do while in the state parks, getting ready for Sarah's arrival, and visiting with Susan and Bob and Greg and Marilyn who are here with us.

Our site has two large palapas (tiki huts) that has become a great gathering place as it stays fairly dry if it's raining and also protects us from most of the wind. We've decided to make it our party-place on Super Bowl Sunday.

Yay, Sarah's here!!! She left Cape Cod in the snow, temperatures in the 20's and arrived in Key West to sunshine and the 70's.

We spent some time soaking up the rays at Smathers Beach and Higgs Beach.

You never know what you might find on Key West, colorful macaws at the beach or pythons on Duval Street. Everyone and everything is very laid back and you can see a homeless citizen standing next to a multi-millionaire, street entertainers on every corner and roosters and chickens roaming the streets.

We ate at local establishments like Pepe's Cafe (which hasn't missed a meal in 20 years!) as well as those that attract the tourists like Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville; we barhopped a few times visiting tourist-draws like the Mallory Square Dock Bar, Sloppy Joes Bar and Willie T's (where people leave messages on dollar bills which are then attached to every available place on ceilings and walls), and the Conch Republic on the Boardwalk (where I highly recommend the Conch Fritters!!) (We even got Susan into the swing of barhopping!)

We hit the other tourist attractions: of course took the Conch Train (affiliated with those Trolley Tours offered both here and in other cities for the benefit of all us tourists); stood in line to take pictures at the southernmost corner of the continential U.S., stopped by Truman's Little White House and Ernest Hemingway's Home.

We took a walk on the new Boardwalk along the harbor and saw how some of the other half live.

We spent an evening at Mallory Square with craftspeople, entertainers (escape artists, fortune tellers, musicians...anything that may entertain -- or not) and many, many tourists to watch a dramatic sunset.

Our last day here at Bluewater is Super Bowl Sunday. We're all gathering under our palapa with Bob's 32-inch TV. Should be interesting as I'm so rooting for the Saints and Greg has the Colts as the victor. I'll finish this tomorrow to let you know if any blows were taken during the game.

Greg arrived with some coconuts and a huge machete to cut them. Believe me, I was a bit nervous knowing we were rooting for different teams. When the coconuts were ready I made sure the machete was stored far away from him in case the game got too out-of-control!

We had quite a feast as Greg and Bob brought some smoked turkey legs and wings (yes, Greg has found space in his storage bays to take a smoker around the country with him).

By the way, as a Patriots fan I slept good last night with the Saints' win!!

Found out this week that cousins Sue and Wayne are going to be spending a week at Long Key with another two couples...we should be able to get together once or twice as we'll be close by. I'm sooooo excited.

We're off to Big Pine Key with Sarah in tow! See you there.