White St

We have MOVED! The new address is 704 White St!!!!

We were notified by the owner of the house on Elizabeth, in early Jan, that he wanted to put it up for sale. At first we were going to stay until the place sold since house sales here are so slow (average of a year to sell a house in the Keys) and this time of year there is usually not a lot of places open to rent. Starting at Christmas through end of April is 'season' when things are busy here. We have snow birds, just like AZ, and then people who come down to work just while it was busy. Shirley and I met a guy that works the pedi-cab who comes from Brazil to work Jan - April. This usually results in very little options to rent. We found that out last year and were lucky to find what we did. So when the house went on the market and we had a steady stream of people in to look at the house we decided to start looking around. The search went on for a few weeks. Having lived here for almost a year now we had our criteria for where and what we wanted.

First the Where - we wanted to stay in Old Town. Key West is broken into 3 parts, Old Town, Mid Town and New Town. Here is a link to a map if you want to check it out. http://www.keywest.com/map1.html

Old Town is where we live now. We love this area and wanted to stay. There is where we can walk every where and most of our friends are. This is the original part of KW with great old houses and lots of charm. It runs from Truman ave. to the Mallory Square and White St to Fort Zac. This is the original part of the island. None if man-made.

Mid Town is the area just beyond Old Town. This was just a little farther out then we wanted to be. It runs from Truman to White St Pier and Fort St to 1st St.

New Town is the rest of the island that was added to expand KW when the Army Corp of Engineers came in and dredged out the ship channels for the Navy base. The dredging waste was used to expand out. New Town looks like suburbia Florida with newer houses, lawns and boat parking on the channels.

Then the What - we needed a yard for Dyna, space for Misa (the stray cat from Elizabeth that has become part of the family) since we brought her with us, a porch, at least 2 bedrooms (you know who you are that need to visit) and 2 bathrooms. The one thing we have learned is that with both of us home full time we NEED 2 bathrooms! Since many of the places in Old Town are small it is very common to have 1 bathroom. In the older houses they didn't even originally have bathrooms and were remodeled to include just one. Tom also wanted some semblance of a kitchen that allowed more than one of us in it at a time, had cabinet doors that would close and where you didn't have to open the refrigerator door to open the oven door.

In early Feb we were lucky to find this place...... White St. Now this was the farther part of Old Town and we joke that if it had been on the other side of the street we wouldn't of even rented it. The house has the same square footage as Elizabeth, 1000 sq ft, but has a different layout with 2 bedroom/ 2 bath. It is also a newer house that has hurricane windows, a kitchen that is large enough for 2 people, a dishwasher, vaulted ceilings and a great layout. Below is the picture of Tom and Dyna on the porch. That is a great part too. The porch is larger and so is the yard so Dyna has more room to roam. We are going to cut down the BIG bushes! We like to be able to see from the porch. Guest room will be ready soon so come on down and join us!

Key West with Mom (Shirley)

Well, Mom (Shirley) finally made it to Key West and we had a great time with her here. We had a chance to show her that we really do not live in grass huts and she was able to see the places and meet the people we always talk about. 

The day she arrived (Wednesday) the last leg of her flight was delayed about an hour and a half but she still made it here before dark so we took her to dinner at the Half Shell Raw bar on the water at the Key West marina. It was beautiful with the sun setting and all of the boats in the marina and she had some fresh KW lobster for dinner.

Thursday morning we walked to a local bakery and picked up some goodies for breakfast including coconut cream cheese croissants, yum!!!! After enjoying breakfast Mom and I took a drive up the Keys so she could get a lay of the land and sea so to speak. On the way back we stopped at the Hogfish restaurant for lunch and she could see were the Mel Fisher salvage boats are docked. When we got back to KW we went to the Hemmingway  House to see the six toed cats. After a afternoon nap we finished the day with watching the sunset at Mallory Square and dinner at El Pepe De Mason for some good cuban food and a Mojito.

Friday started out with a trip to the Butterfly conservatory, a tour of the Mel Fisher museum and lunch at Schooner Wharf bar to listen to Michael McCloud and watch tourists. I have school on Friday night so we had an early dinner at the Meteor Smoke House and then to the Green Parrot bar to watch a local band play. It was a fairly early night but we did get Mom some key lime pie on a stick for a late evening snack.

Saturday started with breakfast at the Flamingo Cafe followed by shopping on Duval St. After a cocktail at the Flying Monkey we took a pedi cab to Nancy's Secret Garden for a self tour of this beautiful property filled with amazing plants and a lot of colorful parrots in cages. After another afternoon nap we were off to Alonzo's for happy hour with drinks and appetizers. With high spirits and full stomachs we were off to the Iguana Cafe for drinks with our favorite bartender Mike who always treats us right. We did a couple of dial-a-shots calling Patti and Jan and Ray's daughter Tracy. Mom spent the evening talking to our friends and having a good time but she had been going all day so it was time to go home because she had to leave the next morning.

Mom did great getting around town and she wanted to do as much as she could while she was here. It was fun having her here and we are already figuring out what to do when she comes back so she can continue to be part of the adventure

   

Night out on Duval

This last week was the continuation of Al's 70th birthday week. The second part of his birthday surprise was all 3 of his kids and their spouses showing up at Schooners Thursday night. Of course we were in on the set up (the local group of us) and then spent the evening with all them  going from Schooners to Turtle Krawls to Sloppy Joe's. It was a great time. His sons (and spouses) came from VA and the funniest thing was that his daughter (and spouse) live in Fountain Hills! Over in Crystal Ridge for those of you who know the area and live across from the Vaughts.  They have been there a few years and were there when we left! What a HOOT!

Now Thursday was also the coldest day we have had in KW since we got here. It was almost a record! The record low was 41 degrees and we got down to 45 degrees with

 only a high of 54 degrees. Here we all were at Schooners with 2 shirts and a jacket plus pants, shoes & socks! 

Tom finally had to give in. He has been holding out to not allow a jacket, shoes (with socks) and pants to all come together on his body at the same time. He has had various versions of jacket with shorts & flip flops, pants with t-shirt & flip flops, shoes with pants and a t-shirt but this was a FIRST for all 3!! It was noted as a major milestone.

Also on Thursday Jan & Ray had old friends from PA come down for to stay till Mon. John & Jen come to visit them every year so it was great to get to know them too. Now of course when they have friends visiting that always results in an evening on Duval. We had all recovered from Thursday night so Saturday night was the next night out (remember Tom has class on Friday night). Now we had a bit of a set back since Iguana was closed. They had closed for cleaning and a few repairs for a few days so one of our usual haunts was not accessible. Fear not that did not detour us! We started at our house, then off to Rum Barrel for dinner, stopped at Tw

o Friends for karaoke, John is the only one of us who sings (of course after more than a few drinks Ray and I have been known to be back up singers). Things didn't work out there since it was packed so we ventured down Duval an eventually ended up at Cowboy Bills. I have talked about Cowboy Bills before since that was where we started the hay ride from and is a usual hangout for a number of our friends so it is not unusual for us to end up there. 

The other reason we ended up at Cowboy Bills is that Jan has wanted to ride the mechanical bull that they have. Tom has ridden it a few times and she has always wanted to so we talked her into it and got her set up. She did great. She is now hooked and road it twice that night!  can see picture of Tom on bull below (sorry but the back shot was the best there was since the bull was moving). 

Below is the link to the web cam that they have... check it out on Saturday night and you never know if you will see Tom. www.cowboybillskw.com/bullcam.htm

So the night ended with snacks and drinks at Meteor and then the walk home. What a great night out with great friends!

 

Jimmy, Al and Super Bowl

Last week was a mix of Jimmy, Al and Super Bowl.

First there was Jimmy. Jimmy Buffett that is.

Early last week we walked by Jimmy's house (the one we suspect is his) and it looked as though someone was living there. Tom and I commented on how it would be great to run into Jimmy and see him play. We didn't get that chance but we did find out the Jimmy was in town and did play at Margaritaville.  A friend of ours has a shop next to Margaritaville and actually ran into Jimmy when he came into the shop before he went into his place. So we are still on the hunt to see Jimmy. 

Then there is Al. Our friend Al. 

Saturday night we celebrated Al's 70th birthday with a surprise party at a great restaurant. Al is an amazing guy who lives on a boat with his wife Jan. They retired 10 years ago and have been living on the boat ever since. They split their time between Key West, St Augustine FL and Virginia. Now don't think that Al's age of 70 makes him an 'old guy' or slows him down at all. He is on the go and can drink most of us under the table. 

And on Sunday was the big game... the Super Bowl.

We had a Super Bowl party at the house with our PA friends. We made it a complete AZ party with mexican food and margarita's. Of course we had to make all of it since we can't find any place that has good food and our friends hadn't had green chili beef so it was a treat for all. Unfortunately the Cardinals did win but it was a great game and we had a great time.  

So ended our week of Jimmy, Al & Super Bowl.