End of Trip

This is the 6th and last post describing our visit to the Gulf Coast states including parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Up to this point I have covered New Orleans, brief stops in Mississippi and Alabama, St. George Island on the Florida coast, various beaches, Epcot Center, visits with Mary and Jeff Hayes and Jenn, Jeff, and Rowan Gould, and a quick visit to the Everglades. This post covers our excursion into the Florida Keys, focusing on Key West.

From our hotel in Homestead we traveled the 135 miles to Key West. There are numerous bridges along this stretch (25? 26?) and quite a variety of sea birds, but few beaches and not many places to pull over to enjoy the scenery. Our plan was to get to Key West and work our way back up the Keys, but we ended up staying longer in Key West and made few stops on the way back toward Key Largo.

The weather was great. Lots of sun, lots of islands, and temps in the mid-80s. We made out way into Key West, found a place to park, and took off to view some of the tourist spots. I asked a local about a good lunch spot and she pointed us to this place (Bo’s Fish Wagon) that looks like it should be bulldozed and rebuilt, but it had good food! Really, really fresh fish in the fish sandwich, crispy salads.  Nice.

Pam getting our fish lunch

Our lunch room

Exterior decorations of our lunch place

After finishing our fish we walked around the town for a bit. We had to explore the typical tourist spots, including the “Southernmost Point in the US.”  There was a line to take a photo by this landmark, even in  October!

Here we are in Key West. (Photo by another tourist.)

Within the same block as the photographic southernmost point pictured above, we walked past this “for sale” house (1.9 million) and Pam came up with a hammock rental idea; rent a hammock on the covered porch for an hour or two (+ privileges to use restroom facilities)!  Public restrooms and places to sit back and relax seemed to be few and far between in some parts of Key West; this idea could probably be mildly profitable.

House for sale in Key West

We finished with a relaxing visit to the Fort Taylor beach – which did include picnic tables to sit and relax as well as restroom facilities. We spent part of the afternoon walking the beach and watching the beach activity. “Dear Santa: This year give me a big bank account and a slim body. Do not confuse the two as you did last year.”

Ft. Taylor Beach

jet skiers went past

Para sailing looked popular

If we had stayed until sunset, there is a daily (alcoholic) celebration of the departure of the sun on Key West.  But. it was with reluctance that we departed Key West to drive over 100 miles back to our hotel, reluctant not just because we enjoyed ourselves, but this was the last tourist stop before we began heading home. The next day it was a lo-o-o-ong drive to Tallahassee and the morning after that is was back to Colorado.  We did make one last pit stop in the Keys – we bought a key lime pie at Winn Dixie to take back to the room.  (Dessert and breakfast in one pie pan.)

The following day, return flights were uneventful; first from Tallahassee to Orlando, then Orlando to Denver, then Denver to Grand Junction. (Pam said she should have booked us home straight through the Orlando airport, she was thinking we would have ended up on the Florida panhandle again at the end of the trip instead of the Keys.  Live and learn.  Our car rental return etc. was set up for Tallahassee, back we went.) Upon arrival in Colorado, we made a grocery shopping stop in Grand Junction before heading to the house as Felicity had reported running low on food.  And <snap> just like that we were back again and the vacation was over.

Here is one photo I took over eastern Colorado of a wind farm as seen from the sky:

Wind farm in eastern Colorado

This was a vacation for the books. OK, minimal flight mechanical problems on the way to New Orleans initially, but we also learned some “south of the Mason-Dixon Line” history, visited friends and family, had a few great meals, took many photos and some video, and came back with a new perspective and memories.

Next time: Trip Video and closing thoughts.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

For those who expect Key West to look like Jimmy Buffetville, with quaint fishing cottages (conch houses) and fishing nets strung on fences, surprise! Condos and yachts and upscale everything is the reality.  Also, for being on the Atlantic Ocean, there’s not much in the way of long sandy beaches along the Keys either.  We purposely missed the Fantasy Fest (lots of nudity and sexual content, apparently) but Key West was still hoppin’ on a weekday in October.

Back in Colorado, the dogs seemed excited to see “Mom and Dad” (but the cats could have cared less).  Felicity did an excellent job of giving all animals a lot of petting time and belly rubs.  However, returning from vacation and going back to work was frankly depressing.  Enjoying the glorious weather during our time in the Gulf and Florida (68 – 82 degrees night to day – perfect) meant we missed Indian Summer in Colorado.  We returned to Winter’s arrival.  Both of us quickly reviewed our retirement options with our various retirement plans but – alas – retirement is still not in the immediate future for either of us.  Bummer.

Happy Trails.