August Adventures

So we are into the HOT days of summer. August seems to be the worse month in KW for us due to the temp being around 90 and the humidity being 75%. Just stepping outside makes you break out in a sweat. Even so it doesn't keep us at home and from spending time out on the town.

Latest info on looking for a new hangout......

The Iguana hasn't closed. They did cut back to only being open 3 days a week, Fri - Sun so we are spending at least 1 happy hour a week there trying to get our fill of hog wings and tater tots.

There have been a few of our favorites places closing. With the recession and the people not traveling the local places have been hit hard.

Our favorite delivery place - Damn Good Food To Go closed a month ago. It has been rumored that they may reopen in a different location. We can only hope!!! Their current location was next to the White Tarpon which has the BEST key lime martini on the island.

Meteor closed a couple of weeks ago. This was one of our favorite late night places since they are next to the Green Parrot and served food till 3am. Will miss the BBQ pork and fried pickles!

We are still on the hunt for the new hang out. Last night we were at the Chart Room (an old favorite we haven't been to in months) and the Hot Tin Roof for the first time. We really liked the Hot Tin Roof. It is above the Sunset Pier which is one of our favs. Jan and I have a list of more that we haven't been to so we continue the hunt!

We also just returned from the family invasion on Richmond. Patti, Shirley and Mike planned a trip to see Ashlyn so Tom and I crashed the party and went for the week too. We also turned it into birthday week since Patti had hers in July, Mike in Aug and Taryn's in Sept.

So the week was all about Ashlyn and touring the VA area.

Ashlyn is of course the CUTEST baby ever!!

Now at being over 3 months old she laughs and smiles and is such a good time!

We each got to spend time with her and I think her Grandpa Tom was the favorite. There was something about being up SO HIGH when he held her that she got a big kick out of!

There also is the 4 generation picture that we wanted to take which is below. The rest of the vaca pics are on my Face Book page if you want to see them.

The days were spent getting to see Richmond and VA. We rented a 12 seater van so that we could all ride together and carry all the baby stuff. It was a HOOT!

We did the wine tasting around Charlottesville which was a great time. I think between Tom, Patti and Mike we bought 16 bottles. We also found this wine chocolate sauce which was amazing.

We toured downtown Richmond and ate amazing pizza at Bottoms Up.

We got in touch with our southern side by touring the American Civil War museum and then headed out to the James River Plantations. There we found Shirley Plantation and toured a few others.

We drove to Virginia Beach and checked that out.

We had great BBQ at Q Barbecue and the amazing beer menu at Capital Ale House so we went back there 2 more times.

As you can tell the week was a blast and it was so much fun to have the family together.

We also found out that Brandon is taking a new position as a youth pastor at Sagebrush Community Church in Albuquerque NM. It's a great opportunity for him to work for a large church in a satellite location that they have started. He and Taryn are really looking forward to being back in the southwest again being the 'desert rats' that they are. We are really excited for them and it works out great for us too since my Dad is in Las Cruses NM and still close to Phx to see Tom's family.

In Sept they will be relocating. First they are coming to KW for a vacation and then Brandon flies from here to NM to start his job. Taryn will go back to Richmond to close up things there where we will meet her on Sept 21 to load up the Uhaul and once again drive across country. This will be our 3rd cross country trip and Taryn's 4th in 2 years!

As they say... On The Road Again!!!

100th Blog - July comes to an end.

Welcome to the 100th posting to the Boesch's Great Adventure blog!!!! Hard to believe there has already been 100 stories to tell since this was started Jan 2008. We hope you have enjoyed them at least half as much as we have in sharing them. The move and life on the island has truly been an adventure and a dream come true! We are blessed to be able to have made it happen!!

July comes to an end.........

Hurricane season has started but with no named storms in the area yet it has the weather forecasters all worried. We are predicted to have 9 named storms this year and now it only leaves 3 months to get them all in. I checked the hurricane site this morning and they still don't see any new storms forming in the next 7 days. Late August, Sept & Oct may be an interesting time.

Tom has been busy with Mel Fisher Atocha Adventure. It is a new program they started to allow people who aren't investors come down for a week, stay in Old Town, tour the museum, and do a few dives out at the treasure site. He has done two weeks so far with one more group scheduled for next week. Here is the site if you want to check it out and come down to dive for treasure.

http://www.melfisher.com/myadventure/default.asp

There have also been a lot of investors in town since Mel Fisher Days so he has been taking them out to dive too.

Then when he isn't out at the treasure site he has also been working for one of the local dive shops, EcoScuba. He works for them as either a captain or a dive master depending on what they need to dive the reefs or the Vandenberg. His first priority is working for Chris or Mel Fisher so he works for Eco when he has an open day. Here is their site if you want to check it out. http://ecoscuba.com

All of the work has left him busy, out of the house and paying the bar tab, YEA!!!! He has actually had to turn down EcoScuba to get day off over the past month.

It's interesting since he went from not working much due to instructors classes in the first 4 months of this year to 26 days of work in the past 3 months. He is really enjoying it and getting great experience as both a boat captain and dive master.

Mini lobster season just ended. It cracks me up about what a big deal it is here. It gives people 2 days to dive for spiny lobsters before the commercial season opens. Now mind you there are 7 months that they can hunt for lobster but the 2 days when the season opens is a BIG deal. We have people from All Over come down. The marinas are full and there are boats and people EVERYWHERE in the water. Next weekend is the lobster festival on Duval and of course we will be there.

Our friends Louie and Maureen (their house is The Resort we love to go to) are also having a booth at the street festival for their sign shop, Montage. They lost their shop on Duval last March when it burned down. The art store next to them had an electrical short and burned which took Montage and the creperie place with it. They lost everything they had in the store (luckily their shop is on Stock Island so they didn't loose all of their inventory) and the building, with the 3 stores, had so much damage they leveled it. Now there is only an empty lot. So they have been waiting for the insurance to pay out, summer season to end (this is a slow time and not a good time to open a store), and are looking for a new store to rent on Duval in the fall so they can open for season. Check out their website. They have have great signs! I think we now have 3 and I have already decided on my 4th one. http://montagekeywest.com

So what will the 4th sign be you ask..... Iguana Cafe! Our favorite bar is closing next Friday. Our favorite bartender, Mike, already left a month ago. We will be there next Fri night for our final drink!! It will be a sad day for us indeed!!!!

Then of course that brings us to the hunt for a new 'favorite hangout'. We have been trying various places especially since it's been so hot we have been targeting the ones with AC that we can hang out in year round. A few of our current favorites are Rum Barrel, Sports Page and the BottleCap Lounge. Last night we were at the BottleCap and had a great time. They have also opened up a cafe next door which delivers food to the lounge. Definitely a keeper!!! There are still a few more on the list to visit. Some we have never been to (yes I know that is hard to believe) and others we are visiting more than once to be sure.

Now what is the criteria for our 'favorite hangout' you ask.....

• Air conditioning - there are just some places we won't go in the summer since it is WAY to hot. We love Schooner Wharf but its not a summer time place
• No smoking in the bar
• Great happy hour prices - there are some great deals for happy hour and we are finding them all
• Food - we don't require great food but at least good food that is not to expensive
• Location - since we walk we are limited on some options. Don't get me wrong there are PLENTY of places in Old Town to visit. It just there are other bars, such as Hogfish, that we really like but won't drive to every Fri.
• Great bartenders - ones that remember you after couple visits, remember what you are drinking, are nice and fun to talk to. Unfortunately this is not the case in all bars. Being a tourist place some of the bartenders have become jaded (lost their island spirit) in their work and are no longer a good time.

And so the search continues... I will be sure to updated you when the latest place is found. We don't mind the hunt since that is all part of the adventure!!