What a GREAT Weekend!!

My friend, Jeanne, and I had a HUGE BLAST in Key West this past weekend! It felt so wonderful not to worry about what time we had to get somewhere on Friday! We left in the morning, stopped for mail p/u, then wandered down to Key West. We stopped in Marathon for lunch at Keys Fisheries... GREAT place to take a vegan friend! :-D We enjoyed grilled mahi-mahi sandwiches... then drove on to Big Pine Key where by sheer chance at the Visitor's Center (on the oceanside) we saw a Key Deer! I turned right around, drove in, and she got some awesome pics of this lone male deer.

I don't think we stopped again until we got to our B&B, Courtney's Place, in KW. What a wonderful B&B... GREAT breakfasts -- in fact, I think they had the most incredibly large continental breakfast I've ever seen! All kinds of wonderful & spoiling danish (time to go back on my diet!), cereals-hot & cold, french toast/waffles, bagels/rolls/bread, h-b eggs, yogurt... Wow! I LOVE breakfasts... as if you couldn't tell! '-D LOL

The room we were in was fabulous... two queen size beds side by side (hard to find in KW)... and VERY VERY thick!! I know we both slept deeply on those beds! They also had bikes to rent at 1/2 the price of the rental bike companies. On Saturday, we biked & saw as much as we could on those bicycles... and they didn't have any gears either, so you can bet that all the walking up the stairs I've been doing (to/from my new apt.) has helped my legs be in shape for THAT bike!! :-D LOL

On Friday night we decided to do the Ghost Tour! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and finally got the chance! I haven't checked my phone camera yet to see if there are any ghost sitings on the pics. On Saturday, we started out at the Hemingway House, then... Lighthouse Museum, Southernmost Point (got a pic of Jeanne during a major downpour that lasted a good 20 min!), lunch at Camille's on Simonton St. (we were definitely very WET rats when we got there! LOL) which was really very delicious, West Martello Fort which is now the Key West Garden Club, Higgs Beach, Butterfly & Nature Conservatory... THEN we went back to the room thinking we were going for a swim before we went to see the cloudy sunset @ Mallory's dock (I wonder who Mallory was... do you know?). No swim... no time! Showers and new clothes then back on the bikes to Mallory's dock... as I mentioned it was quite cloudy, so we didn't get to see a good sunset. Oh well... then on to Turtle Kraals at the Seaport for dinner. They have THE MOST WONDERFUL Pork platter dinner! If you LOVE Pork as I do, you'll love eating it there... with a choice of 5 different sauces! YUM!

We rode our bikes back up Duval... it was wonderful, I had a dress on... it was so much fun to ride a bike with a dress on! :-D I felt so happy & free!! LOL Anyway, I wanted to buy a few things at Fresh Produce but they appeared to be closed early, rather unusual for a Saturday night we thought. But had to stop at Mattheson's for a choc. chip cookie & an oatmeal cookie, treating Jeanne to a choc. chip macadamia cookie as well! This is a tradition for me (buying the 2 cookies). :-) Then back on our bicycles to the B&B... it was so nice & cool & windy after the rain storms in the afternoon. Our cold front finally arrived... it lasted only about 2 days. Hope it's a preview of what's to come in January! :-D

As I mentioned... we slept VERY WELL with all the activities we participated in on Friday & Saturday! We left early (about 9:30a) on Sunday... I had to work that afternoon. It took us longer than I anticipated... almost 2 hours to get back home; there wasn't much traffic, so I don't know why it took so long! But of course we had to stop on Big Pine Key again and get some Key Lime Pie on a Stick... EVIL, EVIL, EVIL!! :-D And then I drove down Long Beach Road to see some more Key Deer... mostly females.

What a wonderful weekend it was with her!! We're already planning to go away together on our 55th birthdays... maybe Europe, maybe So. America! :-D

See: Keys Fisheries, Key Deer, Courtney's Place B&B, Ghost Tour, Hemingway House, Lighthouse Museum, Southernmost Point, Camille's, West Martello/Key West Garden Club, Butterfly & Nature Conservancy, Mallory's Dock, Turtle Kraals, Matheson's.