The Beloved Keys
A look into one of my favorite travel destinations I have ever been to; loaded with suggestions that made our trip unforgettable.
While I am not the most seasoned traveler, I have tried to take advantage of any opportunity presented to me to see and experience a new place.
After visiting family in Tampa, Brooksville, Orlando, and then making a pit stop in Miami, my girlfriend and I had one more destination on the list.
We made the journey across the scenic Highway 1 via Greyhound bus. It was about a 4 hour trip that included a 30 minute stop at Burger King, which somehow proved to be necessary. The crystal blue waters with shallow reef beds extending out for miles and intermittent towns within the trees makes you forget about the time it takes to reach the southernmost island.
We arrived in Key West well before our Airbnb check in, so we enjoyed an oceanfront walk towards the island where our boat was docked. Here is the view from said walk:
The shopping cart pictured was found in the nick of time; just as Ellie had decided that she was done hauling our massively overpacked luggage and elected to raise the white flag and call an Uber.
Key West is not the most friendly place to a college budget, so we aimed to go as cheap as possible for our housing. We also knew we would be spending the majority of our time downtown and doing other activities. Shortly after sorting through the AirBnb results, we landed on this beauty:
Seriously, this made the trip. I left a thorough review on Airbnb which details the experience and can be found here.
After dumping our belongings into the maritime home, we set out for Duval Street. This was where it all went down, and where we planned to spend most of our evenings. Because of the extensive window time on the bus to the islands, we had a playbook of happy hours ready to go. First stop was the Southernmost Beach Café.
Side note: Beware of extensive restaurant reviews in this post
Southernmost Beach Café started us off right with a vacation-ey atmosphere and strong drinks. The bar/restaurant had almost no walls or windows, and was about two steps away from the white sand beach. The food was nothing to write home about, but also no complaining over an $8 plate of buffalo chicken fries.
After leaving the bar shortly before sunset, we turned the corner to see a 30 person line to take a picture in front of the Southernmost point buoy. Awesome if that is up your alley, but we decided to pass and move on towards the action.
As the evening ensued, we bounced our way around various live band performances. This was something that I had heard plenty about and had high hopes going into the trip, but all expectations were blown away. Because we arrived on a Sunday, I expected the night life to be a little sluggish. I could not have been more wrong. We came across three amazing live performances, one being somewhat of a friend. Ellie’s dad, Brad Auerbach, teaches various music business courses at UCSD and Berklee College of Music. One of his previous students turned out to be performing that night at Sloppy Joe’s. He had a great cover on Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, and took a long pause in the show to chat with us.
And so the rest of night one went as expected, ending with a bedtime on the earlier side.
A sunrise wake up call, with waves lapping into the body of the sailboat was about all that I could have hoped for in life. After I took some time to enjoy the area, the princess was awake, and it was coffee time.
We knew this was an important meal, and maybe we spent too much time deciding where to go, but the decision making was worth it. Our spread looked something like this:
Courtesy of Fisherman’s Café, our morning was off to the right start. The Cuban breakfast sandwich, pictured above, was the holy grail of this meal. We also got the guava toast, the other sandwich featured, and that is a must try.
The location of this café conveniently placed us next to the scheduling booth for a (touristy) snorkel trip to Florida’s Barrier Reef, and not so conveniently put us on the opposite side of the town from our next stop: The Butterfly Sanctuary.
If you know me, you know that I am weirdly obsessed with birds. This engrossment was a result of my Environmental Science class is high school, and the universe of birds has captivated my attention ever since.
The butterfly sanctuary was potentially the highlight of my trip, and is an absolute necessity to see for anyone in the area. There were 20 exotic bird species and over 50 butterfly species. Walking through this climate controlled habitat was the most serene and relaxing experience. Here are some pictures I took on my Canon AE1.
This really was an amazing experience and something I will absolutely return to in the future.
Located next to the conservatory was the dock for our catamaran experience. On the way over we made a quick visit to the Truman White House, which was a fascinating look into the historical relevance of Key West.
When we arrived at our snorkel experience, we were greeted by about 100 other eager tourists, ready to jump in line to be first on the boat. We settled into the overcrowded boat and applied copious amounts of reef safe sunscreen, which acts more as Elmer’s glue than sunscreen.
The reef was beautiful and we were greeted by an assortment of bright colors on the inhabitant fish. After taking awkward selfies and obnoxiously long videos on the GoPro for 50 minutes, we packed it back onto the boat where an open bar of margaritas and light beer awaited. As two college kids on a budget should, we became well acquainted with the bartender - who should probably get better checking IDs as I believe I saw a sub 15 year old walking away with a cold one.
We made friends with an older couple who had some home remedies for our lobster-esque sunburns, and set out yet again for more happy hours.
Off The Hook Grill secured the title for happy hour of the trip. We devoured an amazing poke bowl, calamari steak, and a couple rounds of drinks for a shockingly low price. Top notch stuff with this restaurant, definitely a must go for happy hour.
After pinballing off of a few bars that we collected some free drink vouchers for, we found the pièce de résistance of our meal tour. DJ's Clam Shack was the mother of all clam shacks. We saw the lobster roll on the menu and were instantly sold. Perfectly browned and buttered roll chalk full of soft lobster meat. After questioning the cashier to ensure the breading was ~perfect~ and up to Ellie’s standards, we added fish and chips to the order, and there was no scoffing from the queen regarding the quality of fish fry. Our meal came with entertainment from a rooster running around out back, and a chance encounter with the guy who sat right in front of us on the bus ride out. It turned out he was from Argentina, and recently moved to Key West to enjoy the ocean. Our new friend gave us a complimentary bowl of clam chowder too (score), and that was delicious.
Charging through the rest of Duval Street we found a handful of bars with live music, most notably “The Durtbags” who played at Durty Harrys. There was a grouping of three separate bars at this open-aired compound, some restaurants at the front, and 80s/90s rock blaring from the back. All of this was a perfect recipe that resulted in us staying there until the night ended.
We awoke in paradise, this time feeling a little more ill, with the somber realization that it was time to head back to main land. Fortunately for us, the fun was just beginning.
We made our way to Smathers Beach, where we found a taco truck that quickly humbled our run of Michelin grade meals.
Spending about 5 minutes too long nestled in the hammock, we realized we were right on schedule to miss our bus. We power-walked back to the bus station, scrambled to check our bags, and plopped down in our seats dripping sweat. Immediately following a fist-bump celebration for making the bus and successfully completing our Key West trip, we knew something was off near the drivers seat. The bus would start up, sound off a couple of dings, and proceed to turn off. The bus driver would then access the control box, play with some wires, and do it all over again. This went on for a full hour, and I will be the first to say that it did not get any colder on that damn bus.
Laughing it off, we were just happy that there were no safety concerns or financial disasters. And, if it came down to it, I don’t think either of us were going to be too bummed if we were stuck in Key West for a few more hours.
If you made it this far, I hope I provided some useful info, or maybe sparked some interest to take a trip of your own through the Florida Keys. I am so thankful of everything that we did on that quick 2-day pit stop, and Key West will be in my travel playbook for years to come.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate it as always,
Joey
Here are a couple other pictures I wanted to include
Awesome piece Joe! Sounded awesome, take me with you next time :)
They just keep getting better and better... great work Joe! Looked like an incredible adventure!