Day14 27Feb25 - KW

Thursday after breakfast June and I scootered to Mary and John's hotel, The Key West Capitana Hotel, it is very boutique. 

We eventually decided to take a boat ride.  We decided to take a glass bottom boat ride but somehow, Fred, booked a snorkel trip.  I am still not sure how that happened but it was done, we were booked on "Reef & Ritas" by Fury Adventures for a 1300 departure.

June and I scootered back to camp to get our swim suits and we met at Mallory square around 1100 to find a place for a quick lunch before our 1230 check in at the boat.

While looking for a place for lunch it started to rain, not a good sign. We ducked into "Pickel's Pub Sandbar", it is basically a bar with food. We both ordered Nacho's to share, good lord two of us could not even finish them, and they were pretty tasty, if you like lots of jalapenos. 

We made our way to the docks in plenty of time, checked in and looked at the beautiful boats with envy, it must be an entirely different life. 

The Fury departed on schedule with about 36 passengers, the weather was still iffy but so far the rain was holding off. 

The cruise is basically a 1 hour ride to the reef, 1 hour snorkeling and 1 hour back with drinks, thus the name Reef and Ritas.  It started raining pretty hard on the trip out but eventually it cleared and the sun was quite warm, it remained very cloudy looking back at KW. 

Despite the marginal weather, it was fun to get out on the water again and for us northerners, it was still quite warm.

June and I snorkeled, June went down the stairs and I jumped off the side, but I failed to find her in the about 1/2 hour of snorkeling. With heads down, everyone looks the same and the little women didn't care for me coming up on them to see if it was June, so I just did my own thing. 

The reef was a fair distance from the boat but that is where you had to get to for good snorkeling. The fish were plentiful and colorful, but I did not see any turtles, or rays we always look for. I decided to look for June again so swam back to the boat only to find her standing on the rail.  

June and at least one other woman we spoke with saw a large shark swim below them and that was enough for June to head back to the boat.  She spoke with one of the deck hands about it and he said they won't bother you, but June was having none of it, I am sorry I missed it. 

Once done snorkeling we were served drinks of beer (Land Shark) or Margaritas.  The Ritas were surprisingly good!  June needed a few just to calm down from her close encounter with a shark!

The ride back was fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

The "people" watching on the boat was almost worth the trip. The girls sat next to a young man that had to be 6' 5" and built like a Greek statue. Mary said he had to be a model but neither would ask him. Of course they said his girl friend was not pretty enough for him.  There were also attractive and not so attractive women with suits that just disappeared in certain places, the girls kept saying stop staring....(of course that was only to John). 

Once back on land we wandered KW taking in the sights. We get a kick out of the chickens, they are everywhere and quite noisy. 

Some of the shop owners put up funny signs. 

Baker could post this sign on his property!

We walked by the little white house with its impressive banyan trees. 

The girls look small next to the massive tree. 

We eventually wandered to the south section of the city to eat at the Ram's Head Southernmost restaurant. John and Mary ate there on their first day and liked it. 

The girls shared a bucket of painkillers. 

It was a great meal, with live music and great food.  

We even shared a piece of Key Lime Pie that was very delicious. 

Our neighbor, Tom, keeps asking us to bring him back some Key Lime Pie, but we keep eating it.... Sorry Tom, it wouldn't survive the scooter ride anyway....that is my story and I am sticking with it. 

After dinner, we sent John and Mary further south to the buoy, if you are in KW you have to get the obligatory picture, we got ours in 2020, they done good. 

June and I set back for Mallory Square where we left our scooter. When we arrived the sun was below the horizon but being a cloudy day it made for a spectacular post sunset. 

The entertainers were still playing to the crowds, Mallory Square is the place to be at sunset. 

It was our last evening in Key West, we were a good kind of tired and scootered back to camp.  

Friday we will start our way north, we have no set plans other than we want to visit Bruce and Melissa on Sunday.