Last summer before we left our homeport of Charlevoix, Michigan we made plans with a few of our friends to meet in Key West near the mid to end of January. Last time we did the Loop we all planned to meet in the Abacos and it was so much fun we had to plan to meet again this year. We were pretty busy our last week in Key West while our friends from home flew in within days of each other and we tried to cram in as much face time as we could. We did a good job and lots of good memories were made.

Above Left: Rick and Elene (Jim) Jean and Gary. I (Lisa) am, of course taking the photos tonight, but I really was there. Rick and Elene put together a BBQ dinner, a feast really, for us to enjoy tonight. They have rented this cute little house in Old Town for the winter.

We visited Jean and Gary at their winter rental home just across from the cemetery and later Gary helped Jim with his fishing gear. Then we said goodbye, Jean is staying, Gary is going home and we will be leaving on Monday to head up to Marathon.

We’ve been in Key West long enough (three weeks) now and we’re beginning to recognize some of the locals. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not!

I (Jim) visited Floyd’s Barber shop last week. This little shop has been in operation for over fifty years and my barber’s family is a fourth generation family having been here 110 years. The only reason I mention this is to let everyone know that the locals are not 5-year transplants.

Key West has a colorful population and this flamboyancy can often be expressed in the way they decorate their transportation. 

We’ve had fun trying to identify all the different fish we are seeing whether they are swimming in the clear turquoise waters or dead in a fisherman’s catch. We’ve seen lots of turtles and Key West has roosters EVERYWHERE.

There are a lot of these old trees here with humungous roots.

If you can’t see the sign in the bottom left photo it says the Southern Most Broken Cleet, Key West, FL USA. There are a lot of things named southernmost here.

You can walk around Key West and continually be amazed at what you might find. Treasure Chest (lower left) really caught our eye. We found this sculpture sitting in the corner of a garden while walking around downtown. We found this “doorbell” (lower right) right next to the cemetery. If you can’t read it it says ” Hit this with that. NO JUNK MAIL!”

Key West has so many colorful restaurants and bars. As we said before we like to visit places that are off the beaten track. The more local the better. The Seafood and Cuban restaurants have been tops on our list and we just can’t get enough.

Jim and I both wish this ENTRANCE sign (left) was real.

We went to dinner with Rick and Elene last week to try Hogfish Bar and Grille, a local place definitely off the beaten path on Stock Island. Besides a great dinner and good company we were in awe of the entertainment.

The woman who was singing was amazing in that she has not only a raspy Janice Joplin voice in addition to a very smooth melodic voice but would also sing the male and female parts of a Johnny Cash and June Carter song. The Johnny Cash voice was so real we had to keep watching her to make sure it was really her singing.

In addition to the on stage entertainment watching the locals enjoy a Friday night at their local bar was fun as the place hummed with people having a good time.

We had a quiet, romantic dinner at Mangia Mangia a local pasta restaurant.

We also enjoyed Hurricane Hole which is close to the marina along with the local Mexican restaurant where everything is homemade. We also got some really good Florida shrimp from the Shrimp Shack.

Our friends Rick and Elene just arrived yesterday in Key West for the winter. We have looked forward to spending some time with them before we leave for the Abacos at the end of the month. So, after lending us their car the night before, we met them for breakfast downtown at Pepe’s Cafe the next morning. Pepe’s, which is open every day, is the oldest restaurant in town. Opened in 1909 it is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year. We sat at the table which is actually a huge rudder. This small building the size of a large garage had the biggest ceiling fan we have ever seen.

This afternoon we hopped on a bus to go down to Bayview Park for the fourth annual Key West Seafood Festival. Lots of choices for some good seafood at low prices along with a great local band, Mr Nice Guy. Lisa got to satisfy her sweet tooth with a huge cone of cotton candy.

There was a petting tank provided by the  Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, Fish & Wildlife. The salt water tank was staffed with real live scientists who can answer all your questions about the assorted critters in the tank.

More cemetery photos. Flowers, tombstones and statues. Well worth a visit while in Key West.

We loved the sign on the fence of the cemetery.

A few days ago, Lisa and I ventured out in our dinghy to the protected Sand Key reef area in the Atlantic Ocean side of Key West to go snorkeling. The day had all the characteristics of the perfect day, clear blue sky, calm waters and no wind. On the way to our destination we saw a good sized turtle, feeder sharks, crabs, flower pot sponges and lots of fish from the dinghy in only 4-5 foot water depths. Our goal was to find one of the sunken boats just offshore to snorkel around. This one (see photo) was easy to find since parts of it stuck out of the water. There were quite a few colorful fish swimming around the boat so I jumped in with my snorkel mask on and set our dive flag in the water to float nearby. However after fifteen minutes or so, as I was returning to the dinghy, I suddenly felt a very sharp pain and boy did it hurt.

Ouch!!!

I threw my foot up on the dinghy ahead of me for Lisa to check out what had happened and she saw what looked like tracks all around my ankle with a little bit of film attached. It appears that I was stung by a jellyfish. I think that it could have been worse but that thought did not help much while trying to soothe the stinging discomfort. immediately we tried the only thing we could remember to do for this kind of sting and that was for me to urinate onto the area. It seemed to help a little but when we got back to the boat we tried another remedy which was soaking the wound in vinegar for thirty minutes. Well, we just happened to have a couple of gallons of vinegar on hand so in the bucket goes the vinegar and my leg. I added the beer myself, it’s probably the thing that helped the most. The pain lasted about twelve hours.

Steve and Pat are from Omaha, Nebraska, we had the pleasure of meeting up with them in Key West. They boat in Lake of the Ozarks and have an interest in doing the Great Loop and thought we might be able to answer their Looping questions. We had a fun lunch at Hog’s Breath, downtown and we think they’ll be venturing out some day in the near future on the Loop route.

For us, boating has been a way of making new friends from all over the country and now we can add Steve and Pat to that list.