Memorial Day Weekend in Key West: Day 1

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Earlier this week we realized Memorial Day was coming up and we really didn’t have any plans for the long weekend. With limited time to plan, we decided to drive down to the Florida Keys and visit Key West. We’ve lived in Florida for 13 years and have never been there so why not check it out over a holiday weekend? Road trip!

I was already planning on getting up early (3:30am!) this morning because of the Camelopardalid meteor shower. So we decided to just hit the road right after that and get an early jump on the traffic. The meteor shower was a letdown but by 4:30am we were on the road heading south on I-275. We stopped briefly for breakfast at a Starbucks outside of Naples and then turned east across Alligator Alley. The morning traffic around the Miami metro area wasn’t too bad and by 10:00am we were on US-1 on Key Largo. The drive through the Keys wasn’t exactly what I had pictured (except of course the 7-Mile Bridge south of Marathon) but was still very scenic. The traffic gods were still watching over us and except for some slowdowns in the more populated areas, we made good time. 12:30pm found us in Key West, checked into our hotel room at the Almond Tree Inn.

We brought our bikes with us, but decided to walk around this afternoon and get a feel for the layout of Old Town. Plus we had brought our dog so we wanted to take him around with us instead of leaving him in the hotel room. We ended up outside at the Schooner Wharf Bar for lunch and then walked over to Mallory Square to check out the Key West Aquarium (pet friendly!). By now the afternoon heat was getting to us (and the dog) so we went back to the hotel and spent a little time at the pool.

After cleaning ourselves up, we walked over to Blue Heaven (on a recommendation from a colleague) for dinner, which was an all-around excellent experience (atmosphere and food). Back at the hotel, we took advantage of our free drink vouchers for happy hour and played cards in the outdoor common area, enjoying the cool evening. Finally, it was a quick walk next door to Polar Bear Ice Cream for dessert before we collapsed in our room around 10:30pm. It was long, but our first day in the Keys was a lot of fun.

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