It’s HOT in Key West!

Day 3 of our vacation started just like day 2. We got up before dawn and went out onto the balcony with our coffees and snacks and waited for the sun to come up. This view was too gorgeous to not enjoy it until the very last minute. After the sun had come up we took showers and went down to the restaurant to have some breakfast. That day I finally remembered to bring the camera and take some photos of the food.

We both picked quite similar dishes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage patties, and breakfast potatoes. Very nice and filling. After that I had some French toast and pancakes with syrup and a fruit yoghurt while Tom decided to have French toast and pancakes with syrup and some real fruit.

There was a little time left, so we went down to the beach one more time and dipped our feet into the ocean for a little time. Back to the room, one last peak from the balcony and then we had to leave.

We carried our luggage to the entrance of the hotel, Tom went to get the car, we were able to fit everything in the trunk – yippie – and off we went. It is a long drive to Key West and we soon left Miami behind us and crossed the boring part of this trip before we finally made it to the scenic part that involved crossing a lot of bridges. It was fun to see the clouds roll in behind us this time, we were still heading into the sunshine.

All the way we were looking for a place that we had gone to in 1999 and that was very beautiful.We could not remember the name, but finally it hit us – there it was Bahia Honda.

Tom was able to change lanes just in time for us to make a d-tour there. We paid the National Park Fee, drove to the visitor center and had a look around, had some drinks and some sandwiches we had prepared with the leftovers of our picnic dinner. We needed to use the restrooms and these were a sight in themselves. Old creaking stalls which weren’t shutting properly and made you feel like in the older days. After “visiting” those sights we headed for the beach, just in time for a thundershower to start.

I am not easily frightened, but the thought of SO much water and thunder and lightning made us head straight back to the car. Only an hours visit for a 6$ fee, but what the heck, we were on vacation!

On we travelled towards Key West. More bridges and little islands to cross. We soon left the rain behind and were looking forward to arrive in Key West. We arrived at around 3.30 and went straight for the Best Western Hibiscus Motel. What a nice place. We were assigned a nice room overlooking the pool on the second floor. The size of the room was stunning – it was huge and had a fridge and a microwave. We hauled all our things up to the room and relaxed for a while.

It was sooooo hot outside! Later we decided that we didn’t feel like a huge cooked dinner and we went shopping for food again. (Thanks to navigation devices it is easy to find the nearest grocery store nowadays – shopaholics delight!) We picked up more picnic food (cold cuts, fresh bread, herb cream cheese, veggies, coleslaw ….) and some sweet treats and returned to our room.

We had a very relaxed dinner and afterwards went out to explore Key West – means Duval Street. Our hotel was just 2 blocks from Duval and we soon were in the middle of the action. It was fun window shopping and exploring everything Duval had to offer, but it was still so hot! It made us really tired and after walking for about 45 minutes we turned around and walked back to the hotel. We returned at the hotel just in time to watch the new episode of “The Closer” and call it a day.