Sunday, December 30, 2012

12/30/2012 The First Beer Was Opened By….

(Key West, FL)

I was the last one up this morning and when I walked out of our room I heard this very familiar noise come from Di and KK’s room across the hall.  Like a flip top on a soda can, but that couldn’t be, I drink my Pepsi’s out of bottles and KK drinks water, also from bottles so that left one thing.  The partying had begun at 8:20 a.m., the first beer had been opened!  KK was standing in the doorway to their room so that meant Di or Bob had the honors.  Turns out it was Dian, I’m thinking something about the hair of the dog….

By the way, here’s our room that we had in the Truman Annex of the Naval Air Station.  On the opposite wall was an alcove that held a small fridge, microwave, Keurig coffee maker, sink, and storage cabinet.  The bathroom was off the alcove.  Each room has two closets, a safe and cable TV.  Luckily, we were able to get two rooms.  Military people, this place is a steal at $60.00 a night.  We checked around and hotels at this time of year are averaging $200.00 plus.

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So we head out to Duval Street with no particular destination in mind but somehow we ended up Southernmost Hotel and Restaurant again.  Dian and I decided we didn’t want to hang in bars today so we took in The Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory just across the street and up a block.

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Had anyone been around to take our picture I would have been the blue butterfly. 

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We spent a little time in the gift shop that just sold everything in butterfly form.  Books, clothes, toys, jewelry, glassware, knick0knacks,,,you name it, if a butterfly could be incorporated in the design it was sold here!

We then went into the conservatory and immediately noticed how warm it was.  I can’t imagine what it is like inside this glass house in July and August.

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There were hundreds of butterflies flitting from tree to tree, flower to flower, person to person and gathered in  groups eating.

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It was not unusual to see a butterfly land on a person.

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There was a gazebo and small pond which was home to giant goldfish and turtles.

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There were lots of beautiful butterflies here.

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  Did you know the lifespan of a butterfly is only 10 days?  That surprised me.

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We couldn’t stay in the conservatory too long because it was so darn hot and humid.  It was already eighty degrees outside so you can imagine what it was like in this glass house.

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Not being able to take the heat anymore we had to move on.  After making sure there were no hitchhikers we moved back in to the gift shop.

We went into a section we didn’t see previously.  For some reason they didn’t want pictures taken in this area.  Like that stopped me.  Or the half dozen others who were snapping away.  It was no wonder because we were seeing the most beautiful butterflies of all!

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Butterflies, encased in clear acrylic, preserved forever.

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These were by no means inexpensive.  The cheapest I saw was $45.00 and that was for the run of the mill butterflies we had seen in the conservatory.  Other butterflies are from around the world and absolutely beautiful!

The larger collection in the picture below had a price tag in the thousands.  Twenty seven hundred if I remember correctly.

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Dian made a purchase and we were on our way.

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Next stop, the Key West Cemetery.  I had heard the inscriptions on the tombstones were pretty unique and I wanted to see them.  This is where the original….I told you I was sick!….tombstone is.  We got directions, walked block after block and couldn’t find it.  We asked more directions, were sent in the opposite direction and still couldn’t find it.  Talked to a local, got directions and still couldn’t find it.  We gave up.  Of course, later, with a map in hand we saw that we walked right past it three times just one block over.

In the meantime, Bob and KK are barhopping.  I have to admit, I was quite surprised when KK sent Dian a picture via her IPhone of her and Bob and a drag queen!

Bob and drag queen

Dian and I did a few more shops and headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  It is very late afternoon by this time.

Darkness settled in over Key West and Dian and I were getting hungry.  She texted KK several times asking about dinner but wasn’t getting much in the way of response. 
Finally, KK and Bob decided that we should just go to dinner and they would keep on barhopping.  Surmising what condition they were in I had no problem with this.

Dian and I called a taxi and asked for a recommendation from the driver. He suggested Michael’s and dropped us off minutes later.  It smelled heavenly from the outside and mouths were watering before we even got in the door.  Therein lied the problem, getting in the door.  We were told the first table available was going to be at 10:30p.m..   Oh great, we were not going to wait for three and a half hours!  We called the cabbie but he had already picked up another fare.  We decided to walk.  We got to the end of the street and sniffed the air.  Garlic!  Oh yeah, an Italian restaurant just down the street.  There was quite a line outside and the restaurant looked teeny-tiny but I went to put our names on the list anyway.  We were quite surprised when told that there was a table for two on the patio to follow the hostess.  We were happy campers!  Until.  Until the menus were presented.  We didn’t know what half the stuff was and the stuff we did kinda sorta recognize we didn’t want.  This restaurant was way too fancy for our tastes.  This Italian restaurant didn’t even serve spaghetti and meatballs. 

We started walking back to Duval Street and ended up in a bar/restaurant with a Mexican flare.  We both wanted a steak and baked potato and couldn’t get one in Key West.  We talked to a local businessman and he confirmed it, we wouldn’t find what we wanted.  We did get the steak but in order to get any kind of potato we had to order the breakfast potatoes and I do believe they were leftover from breakfast and not necessarily this morning’s breakfast.  At this point it was food and that was all that mattered.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and there they were.  Passed out.

Another fun day in Key West!

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