{"id":3102,"date":"2014-11-16T08:49:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T15:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2014-11-16T15:38:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T22:38:50","slug":"end-of-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/end-of-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"End of Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0have 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\u00a0Keys, focusing on Key West.<\/p>\n

From our hotel in Homestead we traveled the 135 miles to Key West. There are numerous bridges along\u00a0this 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\u00a0few stops on the way back toward Key Largo.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0salads. \u00a0Nice.<\/p>\n

\"Pam<\/a>

Pam getting our fish lunch<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our lunch room<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Exterior<\/a>

Exterior decorations of our lunch place<\/p><\/div>\n

After finishing our fish we walked around the town for a bit. We had to explore\u00a0the typical tourist spots, including the “Southernmost Point in the US.” \u00a0There was a line to take a photo by this landmark, even in\u00a0 October!<\/p>\n

\"Here<\/a>

Here we are in Key West. (Photo by another tourist.)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0covered porch for an hour or two (+ privileges to use restroom facilities)! \u00a0Public 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.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>

House for sale in Key West<\/p><\/div>\n

We finished with a relaxing\u00a0visit to\u00a0the Fort Taylor beach – which did include\u00a0picnic tables to sit and relax as well as restroom facilities. We spent part of the afternoon\u00a0walking 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.”<\/p>\n

\"Ft.<\/a>

Ft. Taylor Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

\"jet<\/a>

jet skiers went past<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Para<\/a>

Para sailing looked popular<\/p><\/div>\n

If we had stayed until sunset, there is a daily (alcoholic) celebration of the departure of the sun on Key West. \u00a0But. it\u00a0was with reluctance that we departed Key West to drive over 100 miles back\u00a0to 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. \u00a0We did make one last pit stop in the Keys – we bought a key lime pie at Winn Dixie to take back to the room. \u00a0(Dessert and breakfast in one pie pan.)<\/p>\n

The following day, return flights were\u00a0uneventful; 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. \u00a0Live and learn. \u00a0Our car rental return etc. was set up for Tallahassee, back we went.) Upon arrival in Colorado,\u00a0we made a\u00a0grocery shopping stop in Grand Junction before heading to the house as Felicity had reported running low on food. \u00a0And\u00a0<snap>\u00a0just like that we were back again and the vacation\u00a0was over.<\/p>\n

Here is one photo I took over eastern Colorado of a wind farm as seen from the sky:<\/p>\n

\"Wind<\/a>

Wind farm in eastern Colorado<\/p><\/div>\n

This was a vacation for the books. OK, minimal\u00a0flight\u00a0mechanical problems on the\u00a0way 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\u00a0and memories.<\/p>\n

Next time: Trip Video and closing thoughts.<\/p>\n

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!<\/p>\n

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:<\/p>\n

For those who expect Key West to look like Jimmy Buffetville, with quaint fishing cottages (conch houses) and fishing\u00a0nets strung on fences, surprise! Condos and yachts and upscale everything is the reality. \u00a0Also, for being on the Atlantic Ocean,\u00a0there’s not\u00a0much in the way of long sandy beaches along the Keys either. \u00a0We purposely missed the Fantasy Fest (lots of nudity and sexual content, apparently) but Key West was still hoppin’ on a weekday in October.<\/p>\n

Back in Colorado, the dogs seemed excited to see “Mom and Dad” (but the cats could have cared less). \u00a0Felicity did an excellent job of giving all animals\u00a0a lot of petting time and belly rubs. \u00a0However, returning from vacation and going back to work\u00a0was frankly depressing. \u00a0Enjoying 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. \u00a0We returned to Winter’s arrival. \u00a0Both 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. \u00a0Bummer.<\/p>\n

Happy Trails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0have 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3102"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}