Last day for a while in Key West

We'll head north to Venice on Wednesday, then on to Asheville.  So this will be the last of this "adventure" for a couple of weeks.  But fear not, we'll be back - we're leaving the boat secure on the mooring in Key West.

Buddy relaxing  on the trampoline.

Took the dinghy over to the Mallory Square area, passing the US Coast Guard area.

Stopped at our favorite dive bar, Pepe's for a quick beer - they had another pretty centerpiece.   Really, it's by far the nicest thing in the room!

I had an Amazon order shipped to "General Delivery" - a first....so we went to the building marked "Post Office".....huge old building.....but were met by security at the entrance - it hasn't been the Post Office for many years!!!   The historical society in Key West would not let them remove the Post Office carved in the marble......they gave us directions to the "real" Post Office.

So, we walked several blocks and found the real thing.....a typical modern building.

I asked for my "General Delivery" package - and within a minute it was signed for.  How cool is that?   Karen McCraw, no know address, just Key West....

The last thing we did was go to the Smokin' Tuna to listen to Scott Kirby....we'd heard him before and I really like his simple sound.....

One of my favorites, he sang at my request - Little Blue Boat.....

This episode of Key West drawing to a close

Just more fun ashore...once it got really warm and sunny, we started seeing lots of iguanas.  I'm happy to have gotten a photo of this one up close - he was scrambling fast up the tree to get to safety!

Pretty ibis...

Bouncing along just at sunset back to the boat - hard to get a good photo going fast on a small dinghy!

Approaching the boat - home-sweet-home!

More Key West

This part of our visit in Key West is winding down - we leave temporarily on Wednesday morning for a brief visit home. 

Not much new to see - we've wandered many of the streets here.  (I still haven't been able to "drag" Duane and Buddy into one of the "drag" shows.....)

This friendly rooster was trumpeting his feelings!

And I think this is the 7th day in a row that I've had oysters!  

More Key West

Just enjoying the island....more chickies at the little store where we stopped.

On our many-miles trekked, we passed the Key West lighthouse.  Sortof buried in what appears to be a banyan tree...solid white.

Pat had told us to stop in and say hello to a friend of his from Myrtle Beach - nice fellow but he supports a blue team....

Just a panaroma of the view from the back of the boat.

On Mallory Square - full of sport fishing boats and a few sailboats.

Pretty pelicans

 A friend from Pittsboro had told us to check out this band - Bonerama. To tell you the truth...when I first read the name, I thought it was a bit "racy"...but the band focuses on 3 trombones. 

They were great!  Amazing what you can do with trombones!

More Key West

We went ashore for a bit of a walkabout....saw some lovely rosters.  They're all over the place.  The guys make fun of me for this of course.

We had to get back to the boat early because the wind was forecast to climb thru the night.  Saw a lovely sunset.

It just kept getting a darker red.  These photos don't do it justice. 

We're probably "stuck on the boat" again today....but the winds dissipate today and hopefully I can stop complaining about them!!

Off the boat for a few hours

The wind gods were good to us this afternoon....took the dinghy to shore for a nice warm shower and some more Key West touring.  Walked across the island (less than 2 miles) towards the "Southernmost Point".

And took the obligatory photos in front of the monument.

Pretty cool old hotel/museum.

And a rare photo of the happy couple!

Pity us, stuck on the boat

The winds have been howling here for the past couple of days. 

Here is a photo of the mooring field at sunrise this morning.  This ideally would be showing nice flat calm water. Those little "waves"  you see are each about as tall as the sides of our dinghy....

Therefore, we remain on the boat, reading and relaxing.  The high today is forecast to be 73, so we're enjoying it.  (And we finished our "Game of Thrones" watching marathon - now we have to wait over a year for the final season....)

More Key West fun

We took the dinghy ashore in the morning.  Approaching shore, we saw this "Tiki Hut" coming out of the channel....didn't look too seaworthy to us, but the folks looked like they were having a great time.

First destination was the Key West Seafood Festival we had read about online.  It was just a good, old fashioned gathering of vendors.    I had some really great conch chowder and we wandered an hour or so listening to the live music.

We respectfully walked thru the Key West Cemetery  - amazing to see all the old graves mixed with the new.  The earliest that we saw dated to the early 1800's.

Back to our favorite happy hour bar, Pepe's...it's just a dive bar, but the had this lovely flower arrangement on the table!

Spied this silly vehicle on Duval Street - not sure why it's decorated this way, must just be a whimsical guy since I didn't see any business name.

And downtown near Mallory Square we saw another one of these statues like in Sarasota.  Not sure why there are so many!

And it was a very, very wet dinghy ride back to the boat!!!  The winds had kicked up while we were gone and it was just a crazy ride....bailing out water of the dinghy, hoping we'd make it back to the "mother ship".  Of course, we did, but I had to take a shower to rid myself of all the salt water!

Key West fun

Just enjoying being in Key West....

We took our dinghy to the marina and walked about a mile towards the main downtown area (Duval St).  On the way, I spied these chickens pecking the ground on the roadside....along with some  white Ibis....strange mix.

Duval Street was pretty laid back for a Friday evening!

After a few happy hour beers, we hopped on the "free bus" - the driver was so cute - she gave us all a "high five" as we entered the bus.

Back to the boat....nice warm evening.

Made it to Key West!!!!

We left Englewood thinking we'd head to the tip of main-land Florida to a little anchorage called Shark River to try to avoid a cold front coming over the weekend.

But after a few hours of pondering, we decided that we'd just go on and head all the way south to Key West instead.

We took shifts overnight - Buddy, me, Duane, Buddy then me....sunrise....

Sailing along in light winds - lots of fishing boats in the Gulf.

Approaching Key West....lots of relaxing.

 Almost calm water.

Close to Key West from the Gulf side.

Passed a huge cruise ship.

Picked up a mooring in the City Mooring field.

And proceeded directly to the pub for happy hour!

The Pub is called the Turtle Kraals..

And we lucked up since it was Turtle Race night!

We were all given "tickets" to bet on our numbered turtle.

Mine was #4 and he won!

Next, if you held a "4" ticket - the procedure was to choose a key -

I chose #5...

But, unfortunately, my key did not open the chest....we may have to try that again!