We stayed in Key West for way too long two weeks in the City of Key West mooring field and at Stock Island’s Sunset Marina.
While at the marina we rented some beach cruisers and then traded up to two single rider mopeds.
What fun it was to scoot around Key West on mopeds!!! (Don’t worry mom, we wore our helmets and never went faster than 30mph).
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| Those are ours with the "Moped Hospital" tags |
We got to see and do so much: bar hopping downtown (aka the Duval Crawl), sunsets at Mallory Square, and live music wherever we heard it.
The bars of Duval:
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| The Bull and Whistle Bar |
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| The Lazy Gecko |
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| Sloppy Joe's Bar |
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| The Smallest Bar in Key West |
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| Slow shutter speed shot of Duval St from the Whistle Bar |
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| Hot dog vender by the Bull and Whistle |
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| Hog's Breath Saloon |
Mallory Square was particularly interesting for us…at sunset the street performers come out and you can see magicians, escape artists, comedians, solo musicians, jugglers, etc., all for just a few bucks!
(Note: don’t go to Mallory Square, watch a show, and then not tip the performer, it’s just not cool)
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| Bush Man!!! He basically hid behind some foliage and jumped out at unsuspecting passers by. He was great to watch while waiting for other performances to start |
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| Bush Man!!! |
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| Mobile mojitos by Jimmy, a great place to score a beverage for the sunset shows |
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| The Red Trouser Show |
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| "Rocket the Wonder Dog" |
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| Rocket's show: over the teeter totter, through the short hoop, ending with a daring leap through a high hoop!!!! |
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| Rocket's handler, what's his face, doing juggling feats |
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Key West history and culture:
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| Fort Taylor |
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| Cannons! |
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| Yeeeehaw!!! |
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| For all you history buffs |
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| Key West Aqarium |
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| Lighthouse |
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| Ernest Hemingway home |
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| Southernmost point in the continental U.S.A. |
We saw some good live music in Key West! Michael McCloud at the Schooner Warf, Pete and Wayne at Sloppy Joe’s, reggae at the Green Parrot, hard rock at Durty Harry’s, and a random cover band at the Lazy Iguana.
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| Michael McCloud |
We also couldn’t resist taking in some “alternative” culture at 801 Bourbon Bar where we saw quite the drag cabaret show: hilarious pantomime lip synching and a sassy emcee that had us in stitches.
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| My favorite queen was, Boa, the silly one ^_^ |
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| Us with the queens |
Our favorite bar, hands down, in Key West was the Green Parrot on Whitehead St. (one block from Duval St, mostly locals, and FREE POPCORN).
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| The Green Parrot |
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| Inside the Parrot |
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| Afternoon snack ^_^ |
In 1975 the Green Parrot commissioned a painter to decorate the window shutters and the most notorious, The Smirk, is now the bar’s unofficial mascot.
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| The Smirk |
It wasn’t all fun and games, though. We did manage to do some boat maintenance: painting (aka: rust control), swab the decks, wash the canopy, restock supplies, and fill all tanks (gas and water).
In the marina I finally saw a manatee up close!!!
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| My first up close manatee experience!!! |
The marina's waters were full of GIANT tarpon! I swear we saw some that were at least 5 feet long.
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| Tarpon |
We set out to leave Key West on March 12th, but the water was too rough and the wind too strong for us, so we returned to the mooring yard to wait out the weather.
Glad we hung back, we encountered a group from Maryland on the beach we took the dogs for their “business,” and ended up hanging out with them that night.
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| Playing Mega Jenga with our new MD friends |
It was nice to hit Key West with a crew instead of just the two of us…I can only hang out with Ransom so much, that guy can be so boring :P (just kidding!)
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| Mamasita! |
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| Ransom is on fire! |
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