Currency:
US Dollars

Highlights:
Sunsets and Sloppy Joes

Our Adventure Summarised:
So after 7 weeks it was the first time that the original tour crew would split up so we bid each other a rather sad farewell and headed off in our separate directions and in search of our next adventures. Next stop for Lara and me was Key West, Florida.

After jumping off the boat we headed to Dollar Rental Car to pick up our car for the next few days. After a good 2 1/2 hour wait which included waiting for confirmation numbers to come through from the UK, the worst customer service ever, a very unhappy Jamaican woman, an even unhappier Hispanic customer service assistant and managing to save ourselves only US$10 we finally got into our Dodge and hit the road.

As we drove out of Fort Lauderdale thinking our waiting was behind us we came to a complete standstill on the highway and we witnessed multiple fire trucks and ambulances passing us en route to a car which had burst into flames on the highway. Fortunately everyone in the car was okay and after maybe sneaking ourselves into some live news footage being filmed from the news helicopter we were back underway in an hour or so.

Key West is a city and an island of the same name, the county seat of Monroe County, and an island in the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys are made up of a number of keys with Key West considered the southernmost city in the continental United States. The drive through the keys is beautiful and our journey was lined with palm trees, the amazing ocean and many, many long two lane bridges that join the keys together.

After a rather long 4 hour drive we arrived in the city of Key West. First stop was to drop our bags off at the Days Inn which would be our hotel for the evening. As we only had the night in Key West we grabbed some wake up shake up coffee and jumped in the car to go and see what Key West had to offer.

We drove around the key on the outermost road which provided the perfect setting which was the smooth turquoise ocean on one side and many quaint houses, condos and hotels on the other side. Although Key West is a very popular holiday destination in the US only has one beach so most of the activities focus around boating, yachting, fishing and any other water sports activity that you can think of. Our first stop was the southern most tip in the US which is marked with a massive multi-coloured beacon. This beacon looks out over the ocean and provides the ideal setting for many tourist photos.

A great way to see the city is by jumping on an Old Town Trolley which runs around Key West and specifically down Duval Street which is the main street and contains multiple shops, bars and restaurants all with a very relaxed holiday vibe and often with the sounds of live music emanating from them. After we wandered down Duval Street and lapped up the atmosphere and our surroundings it was time for something that anyone who visits Key West needs to do.

Key West is also known as the conch republic and the home of the sunset and as it was late afternoon we decided to head towards Sunset Pier to go and watch the many street performers, listen to the buskers and people watch while watching the sun set over the ocean. The street performers were amazing, the buskers brilliant and the people were of all shapes, sizes, nationalities and proportions. As we sat on the edge of the pier with hundreds of other revelers we watched the golden sun set over the turquoise oceans and just as it set it was greeted with claps from all of its spectators. A truly amazing sunset and it is easy to see why Key West is nicknamed the home of the sunset.

We wondered through the viby Mallory Square which still had many of the street performers and buskers performing for the many tourists who had descended on Key West. We wandered past a bar called the Hogs Breath Saloon which had a two man band playing some great tunes and if time permitted we definitely would have sunk a good few early evening cocktails in there.

Our final stop for the evening would be a restaurant and bar called Sloppy Joes. Sloppy Joes is famous for being Ernest Hemingway's stomping ground and in his honour they have a yearly competition to find an Ernest Hemingway lookalike. Rumour has it that Sloppy Joe's used to sit at the current location of Captain Tony's, which is another bar in Key West, but the landlord raised the rent on the owner back in 1937. Legend has it that upon hearing the news, the bar owner and his customers (including Hemingway) moved the bar, barstools, alcohol, etc. across Duval Street to its current location.

The 'sloppy' in Sloppy Joes is mince cooked with a tomato and onion mix and it can be added to multiple dishes from sandwiches and fries to quesadillas - you name it and they will smother the famous sloppy sauce on it for you. Lara and I grabbed a seat at the bar - feeling like we were in a typical old school saloon - sunk a few drinks, appreciated some more live music and had some great 'sloppy' food to wrap up our day in Key West.

If it was not for our 04h30 wake up the next morning to drive back to Miami to jump on our flight to our next destination we could have easily got lost in the many bars and live music venues that adds a great vibe to this city. A great city where we could have easily spent a lot more time in.

You can view our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=350620&id=713415257&l=ae4ed53731

Next stop: the West Coast and more specifically Lake Tahoe

Leise + Lara