Key West - Day 2

Day 2 - Woke up with a slight hangover. I guess that's what all of those free valentines pity drinks will do to you. Got my favorite hangover cure from the market at the end of Fleming street then curled up in the fetal position in my favorite hammock and let it rock me back to sleep.

Fun bike I saw on the walk to the market

Funky cars all over the place!

View from my nap hammock back toward
the pool at Eden House

 After I slept things off a bit, I found a yoga studio with great Yelp! reviews so I pulled myself together and started the walk toward Duval street. Got there a couple of minutes late and they were meditating so I didn't want to barge in. I was close to a major tourist attraction and hadn't really seen any yet, so I checked out the Southernmost point of the US and grabbed breakfast at a cafe there. It wasn't the best meal I had in Key West by far, which only further affirmed why I stay away from chain/tourist places to eat when traveling. I'd found another Yoga studio on Yelp! with a class time I knew I could make it to, so I went off in that direction.


It was a Spinal Release class at Shakti and I hadn't been to a specifically focused class like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The class was taught by a lean, tan shaggy-haired man named Carl and I only needed to talk to him for half a minute before I got a totally groovy, chilled out vibe from this centered dude.  He lead the class through bends, twists and stretches to work the six movements of the spine and that was all well and good... until he brought out the "contraptions." They were swing-looking things hooked up to the wall that he had us do various upside-down poses in to stretch our spine and counter-act the pounding we put on it walking and running... which eventually causes us to "shrink" in old age. A very good thing for you... but it felt very bad to me that day with my lingering hangover.


Delores and Tom, some family friends who are very close to my Grandmama, happened to be living in Key West for the month of February, so I made plans to meet them for a sunset happy hour that night. After resting up a bit, I made my way to their cottage that happened to be very close to Mallory Square where everyone goes to see the sunset. I was a little early so I dipped into a couple of shops on the way, including one that sold various antiques and artwork. I did some casual browsing and when I came across the jewelry, I got goosebumps. Remember the bird necklace my grandma had worn for good luck on all of her world travels over the years and had given to me for this trip? There in this little shop in Key West was a charm for sale with the EXACT same mother-of-pearl birds that matched the necklace perfectly. Whether you believe in signs or serendipity or just coincidence, you have to admit... that's pretty cool. I bought the charm and have since added it to my necklace. It will be so special to give back to my grandma after my trip with this addition.

The birds!!!

I made it to the little cottage that Delores and Tom have been living in and it was this adorable studio-style place, much like the little cottage I live in at home in Virginia. Delores was exactly as I'd always remembered her; dressed in bright and fashionable, yet age-appropriate and classy clothing and accessories, and with a bright charisma that was made even more pleasant by her southern accent. They showed me Mallory Square, where everyone flocks for the best view of the sunset and to watch various street performers, including a man who has his house cats trained like lions and puts on a little circus show. I think that's as much of a must-see in Key West as the sunset it… I'm still trying to figure out how the heck he got those cats to do that. They usually seem like such uncooperative animals that don't give a s#&!… just like the honeybadger. Note: If you don't get the honeybadger reference, you can look it up on YouTube but do so at your own risk, there is some profanity, etc. It's a social meme at this current point and time but I bet IF someone were to read this blog in 5 or 10 years they would not understand why that comparison might be funny.

When it came to the sunset, this was not Delores and Tom's first rodeo. Rather than standing among the hoards of people lined up along the edge of the water in the marina, they lead me to a restaurant that was just behind everyone and up the stairs to the upstairs bar/patio area, which was much less crowded than I thought it would be. We'd hardly gotten to the top of the stairs before we hear someone holler "Carlyn!" and there were Linda and Gordon from Eden House waving to me from the bar… I knew I liked them. 


We joined them for happy hour drinks and sunset watching and through conversation discovered that Delores was from the same area Linda and Gordon were from and she'd gone to high school with Gordon's cousin or something like that. These coincidences used to surprise me a long time ago, but they just don't anymore. Once the sun got to a certain point in the sky, it really was as though curtains had been drawn back and it was performing a show. People started looking all in one direction and vigorously taking pictures every 30 seconds or so because the sun, colors, clouds, sails in the foreground… everything kept changing and getting prettier and prettier. I found it hard to juggle conversation during the sun's show with also trying to get pictures with my camera, my camera phone, and then also my mental pictures. I did get some beautiful shots though and afterward, I was able to return to the group's fun conversation and my wine. 

Delores & Tom

After happy hour, Delores, Tom and I went to a restaurant right near their cottage called Kelly's for a bite to eat. When we sat at the bar, the waiter complimented Tom, "wow sir, you're with two beautiful ladies, you're a lucky man!" Without hesitation, and as cool as a cucumber Tom replied, "What? Don't you have two?" I'm still laughing about that one. 


We shared some appetizers and an entree and I'm going to tell you that though I understand most of the time you will want to get seafood in Key West, you must go to Kelly's for the wings. We had some with a sweet chili sauce of some sort on it that I am still thinking about. Whenever I do go back, I'm not even going to bother ordering anything else but those wings…. and maybe a margarita. I had the Top Gun margarita which was really delicious and then I noticed a lot of memorabilia from the Top Gun movie around the bar. I think Delores noticed me noticing because that's when she told me that the restaurant belonged to Kelly McGillis, the main actress in Top Gun. Supposedly, she took her money from the couple of movies she made and then came down to Key West and invested in it a couple of businesses and had this restaurant as an homage to the movie that made her famous. Starred in Top Gun AND Key West business queen/sometimes resident? Kelly, you are my hero. 

I still have a couple of days of Key West to write about, however in the interest of keeping these short enough to read, I'm going to break it up into another post. If you're even still reading...