Ragnar Florida Keys: No More Running, Key West

On Monday morning, the gang did their separate thing for awhile (Murph and Meg ate breakfast at the Conch, I logged into class, Chris and Taira wandered a bit, and Scott and Erin watched the season premiere of The Walking Dead from the night before), but we gathered together around 10am to walk to the shuttle stop.  We originally thought about driving the van to Key West, but given the parking limitations (small island + tons of tourists + a dearth of available parking spaces = wanting to end one’s self) and our desire to imbibe in several alcoholic beverages each, we decided the $4 shuttle was the way to go.  The shuttle makes several stops, so it ends up taking about two hours to go from Marathon to Key West, which is twice as long as it would be to drive on our own, but we got to sit back, enjoy the scenery, and have someone else transport us, so it was worth it. 

We were on the sunny side of the bus

Additionally, as anyone familiar with cheap mass transit knows, the people watching on buses is generally spectacular, and the Lower Keys Shuttle didn’t disappoint.  Erin and I were sitting together for awhile, but I got up to offer my seat to a stooped, elderly man who didn’t seem like he could stand for very long.  I took another seat further back (actually, Chris gave his seat to me), and a bit later, I received a text from Erin (sent to Scott as well) reading, “If I get TB from the mayor of munchkin city, it’s Amy’s fault.”  At another point, I looked over, and the man on the other side of Erin was eating (with her permission) from her cup of hummus; apparently, he’d never tried hummus before and wanted to know what it was.  The weirdos like her; indeed, they do.

I mean, look at the strange man who sat down next to her after that!

Meg with new buddies on the bus.

Murph, representing the back of the bus.

Eventually, we made it to Key West and immediately needed to find lunch, which we did at Caroline’s on Duval Street; everything was great, and it was nice to sit in the shade and relax after being off the bus.  

At WOB Key West!

We then headed to Ernest Hemingway’s house, which is a major tourist attraction in Key West.

Let’s tour!

Our tour guide in the house gave us a wonderful narration of the rooms of the house and information about the six-toed Hemingway cats that roamed the property.

At least the extra toes aren’t truly opposable. 

Thank God for small favors.

They call me big Papa…

The Hemingway house was just a skip and a jump away from the Southernmost point in the continental USA, so we had to take a group picture there…

The whole gang!

We also heard a trolley driver telling his passengers about the Southernmost point and how right then, he was the southernmost trolley, (pointing at a nearby dog) that was the southernmost Corgi, etc.  A slew of “southernmost” jokes were made to celebrate this occasion.

After standing in the hot sun at the point, we decided it was time for beverages, so we visited the Rum Bar on Duval Street, where we logged into our Southwest apps and checked in for our flight home the next day.  We then proceeded to do the “Duval Crawl” all the way to the Sunset Pier, where we watched the sun go down on another lovely day on the Keys, drinking and eating once more.

After the grill, we headed to a local sweet shop to buy giant cookies and coffee.

HEAD!  COOKIE!

We had some time to kill before the bus came to take us home, so we toured a local church and then relaxed in the La Concha’s lobby until it was time to head to the bus stop.  Erin found a notable celebrity and paused for a candid shot:

Personally, I fell asleep on the bus on the way back and other than a confusing stop somewhere along the line to kill the 8 minutes that we were ahead of schedule, the bus ride was smooth and uneventful.  We agreed to meet for breakfast at the Conch at 9am the next morning before we departed the Sea Dell for good.

The next morning, we Froggered across A1A again to the Conch, where we enjoyed our last breakfast together for the trip.

Mmmmm…breakfast food.

Around 10am, we checked out of the Sea Dell and loaded up the van with our stuff.  Scott, who was flying out of Key West, headed back to the bus stop to take the Lower Keys Shuttle.  Thankfully, he had company to kill the time with.

“As I was saying…”

The rest of us had an uneventful trip north, pausing to see the “Pilar,” a boat Hemingway used, contained inside the Worldwide Sportsman shop on Islamorada.

Ahoy, matey!

Avast, ye landlubbers!

We stopped for lunch at one of my favorite Florida haunts, Sonny’s BBQ. 

Delightful!

After that, it was to the airport to bid adieu to the Bear Force One and hop on our flight home.

Leftover GORP is always a treat

Cheers to a great trip!

Just one more post to go!

Amy