In which I post a few pictures and talk about a few of the memorable moments of my trip last month to the Keys. Note that these are all *my* pictures, and none of them have me in them. I may do another post with other people’s pics later, and I’ll edit and link it in here.
Let’s start up at the top of the Keys:
I saw a manatee!
Florida is home to the endangered manatees. After nine years, I finally saw my first manatee while in Key Largo. 🙂 I’d been sitting at the bar when I saw folks gathered around the boat dock and heard some commotion. I figured I should check that out, and sure enough, we had a manatee stopping by to listen to the music! 🙂
(Note: You’re not supposed to feed manatees *or* give them water, like was happening here. I wasn’t doing any of the above; I was just taking pictures. 🙂 )
The folks throwing the Pit Stop Party in Key Largo have a nice flat boat that they took folks out on. I got to go on the Tuesday night sunset cruise:
Sunset in Key Largo
And I got to stay in a beautiful house on the Atlantic side, with this view in the mornings:
Key Largo morning
From here, I went down to Key West, and saw more cool scenery at Southernmost on the Beach:
Southernmost - beautiful beach!
One of the big events of the weekend was the Street Fest on Friday. Buffett showed up, after I’d retreated from street level to friends’ rooms at the La Concha. Here’s a pic showing some of the crowd near the stage, which doesn’t do it justice:
Ground-level view at the Street Fest, pre-Buffett
If you look at the hotel behind the stage, I ended up on a balcony above the tile you see, on the second floor.
I sing about sunsets at Mallory Square. Well, Saturday night I couldn’t see the sun set, but I went down there anyway, and had a drink by the water next door at the Westin:
Sitting at water's edge near Mallory Square
It was windy, with a front coming in. And getting chilly. The sunset boats were seriously reefed:
Reef them sails before we capsize!
The sunset cruises are fun. You get live music and free drinks included in the price. The only thing not guaranteed is a view of the sun setting.
One of the most wonderful views I found of the water was…wait for it…at the Key West McDonald’s on Roosevelt Blvd. I’m not making this up:
Because I deserved a break.
I believe this qualifies as the cheapest Gulf view dining in the Keys.
I’ve felt very much connected with my ocean- and Gulf-view pictures today. There are other pics of various music-related stuff; I’ll try to put those in another post sometime. I wanted to share the sheer beauty down there, the stuff that gets right into my gut and unknots it and puts a shit-eating grin on my face.
Yeah. That stuff. I love me some Florida Keys.
