Conch Republic Part I: Smelling Sea Air

This week we are in Florida's southernmost city, Key West!  Also famously known as the home of Buffet and Hemingway, Key West has come to be one of our favorite places to visit.  This unique and quirky island is full interesting people, fun holes to find great food and a very, very laid back culture.  When I say "we", I mean adults only.  Sadly, I wish it was as fun as it use to be for Justin and I to fly away from DFW for some interesting destination, but we start missing our boys the minute we pull out of the driveway.  Of course, we know that alone time is few and far between these days, and although we wouldn't have it any other way, when we have the chance, it is still precious to us.  So here is an early update on our trip.  I wanted to let the boys and Grammy (who moved in when we moved out) see where we are and what we have been up to.....

 Key West is definately dog friendly.  Dogs are welcome pretty much everywhere as you can tell by our taxi driver's driving partner!

It was cloudy when we arrived, so instead of hitting the beach we decided to catch up on some sleep from our early morning flight.  That afternoon, we had some bikes delivered to the hotel. The island is only about a mile in circumference and bikes and scooters are the choice of transportation for many.  Parking is expensive and hard to come by.  It took a few minutes to get use to the way a trike handles, but once I did, we were off to discover the island.

Our first stop was our favorite little afternoon spot, Kelly's (named after Kelly Mcgillis of the movie Top Gun, a former owner of the restaurant) More interesting than that, the building is known for being the birthplace of Pan American Airlines.  Pan Ams first tickets were sold out of this building to Cuba in 1927.

Then dinner at El Meson de Pepe, where we had one of the best Cuban meals we have ever tasted of roast pork, sweet plantains, yellow rice, black beans, and warm bread and salsas!

Next we biked to the southernmost point in the USA for a pic.

Finally, our nightly Key West ritual of trying to find the best key lime pie on the island. Tonight, we tried a tiny little spot called the Key Lime Pie Factory.  Yummy!  It will be hard to beat.

Of course, vacations just aren't as sweet when you have little boys that you miss at home.  We are so thankful to Grammy for taking care of them while we are away.  Good night sweet boys. We miss you!