Let's Go See Where The Sun Sets!

During one of Southwest Airline's reduced fair sales Tracy and I decided to book a trip to South Florida to see the southernmost point in the continental U. S., Key West.  We flew from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport to Fort Lauderdale on a Wednesday evening.  The flight was completely full, so masks were a requirement and the Southwest crew was efficient in their reminders to keep the masks in place.  We arrived into FLL, picked up our rental car and we were off!

 After a late dinner and restful sleep we headed south toward the keys on a bright, sunny morning!  We found a great little breakfast place and grabbed a couple of breakfast wraps and it was off we go....  The drive down was uneventful with a couple of stops to do videos, photos and speak with Chamber of Commerce type guides.  Lots of information passed (which we'll include in our video) and friendly smiles.  We headed down through Marathon, across the bridges and ultimately into Key West.  Walking through the city we encountered some historic homes, lots of people milling around and of course the sunset festival at the pier. Jugglers, banjo players, fruity drink makers and more were on display, along with a crowd of a couple hundred or so just sitting on the pier waiting on the sun to disappear across the ocean. 

Later we walked over to Duval Street and found a great sports bar, Sandbar Sports Grill, to watch the NFL draft first round.  Found a couple of seats at the bar and met a great bartender.  A couple of minutes later we had two of the local brews that were quite tasty.  I should get better at remembering the names of people and brews if I'm going to continue this! 

But, great atmosphere and bar food, service was really good and we had fun. 

 

Our trip back up included lunch in Key Largo, a stop in one the state parks for some sight seeing and some really good ice cream at Mr. C's!   While having lunch at Shuck N Dive in Largo we saw a few manatees swimming around near the outdoor restaurant.  Watching them for a bit revealed another visitor... a 3 foot or so shark that was skimming across the water!  With these guys and the waterfowl moving around, lunch was an entertainment show as well! 

We topped off our trip with a visit to a youth soccer match to see one of our friends' son play in a club match.  Perfect weather the entire time (if you take out Saturday night!) 

So the Keys is a place we would like to return to without the pressure of work.  Relaxed atmosphere, friendly people and lots and lots of good food!