Key West, Florida

November 19th, 2015

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We left Fort Lauderdale in the rental car heading for Key West. I haven't shown you the rental car yet so here is a pic of the Nissan Sentra car.

Nissan Sentra

We like to eat at local non chain food places if possible. We figured there must be someplace to eat breakfast somewhere along the 200 miles between Fort Lauderdale and Key West. This did not turn out to be true! Many miles of nothing!

Key West - 157 more miles

We were getting to close to lunch time and still no food, when we came across this "authentic Cuban food" food truck.

Cuban Cuisine

There was a menu board in front written in spanish. The cook/owner did not speak english, but a customer spoke broken english and agreed to translate. The truck was very busy so that was a good sign. We had wanted to try Cubano sandwiches so this was a great opportunity.

I had the bistek (beef) Cubano and Patty had the pollo (chicken). Mine was only $4.00 and Patty's was only $3.50 so it costs $7.50 total for huge sandwiches. They were great!!!

Cubano Sandwiches

We looked for the truck on the way back, but sadly he was not there.

After eating we continued on to Key West. We stopped on the way and took this bridge selfie. The water on our side of the bridge is the Gulf of Mexico, on the other side of the bridge is the Atlantic Ocean.

Bridge Selfie

This is the longest bridge on the overseas highway, it is called the seven mile bridge.

Seven Mile Bridge

We arrived in the afternoon in Key West.

Key West

We checked in our hotel the Blue Parrot Inn. It was a very small but clean room. 

Blue Parrot Inn

In the morning they served a free continental breakfast outside by the pool.

Front Porch

It was a very small room.If we were staying for several days we would have needed a larger room, but for one night it was fine.

Small bedroom

The bathroom was regular sized and was nice.

Bathroom

After checking in we realized that Key West is NOT a driving around town. The streets are narrow and there is no parking available. Everything is within a few miles from our hotel so we decided to go walking.

We walked down Duval Street and headed to the Southern most place in the continental United States. There used to be a sign but people kept stealing it so they now have this huge concrete buoy!

Southernmost Point in USA

People stand in line to take pictures here. You take pics for people and they recipricate for you.

We hung here for awhile. The sun started setting and it was quite beautiful!

Sunset

It was getting to be dinner time. Everyplace in town was big bucks!! We found this saloon that had nightly specials. On this night they had 1/2 lb. burgers for $5.00. We had that and fries.

Dinner at Viva Saloon on Duval Street

After dinner we walked to Mattheessen’s to get some Key Lime pie. This was based on a recommendation from the Blue Parrot Inn keeper. We got one piece and shared it.

Yum it was good!

Key Lime Pie

After walking around town a little more we headed back to our room. In the morning we packed up to head to Key Largo. This is allowing us to stop on the way. One thing we are noticing is there are chickens an roosters running wild around town. We were told these were brought here many years ago and now it is against the law to harm them or cage them. Also there are large iguana's that hang out in the trees. They poop on the cars which we found out the hard way!

Chickens and roosters

While we were still in Key West we wanted to put our feet in the water. We went to a public beach called Smathers Beach. Even though it was middle of November the water was still warm here. Of course the weather is still warm and balmy.

Smathers Beach

Smathers Beach is on the Gulf of Mexico. Well that's it for today's blog. Next blog will be about Key Largo. We will be writing that soon. Thank you for reading!

God Bless,

We love you,

Brian and Patty