Stayed here all season

“Don’t know the reason—stayed here all season”. We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Key West for the past nine weeks.

On Monday, April 18^th, we attended the 21^st annual Taste of Key West. The Taste of Key West, an annual fundraiser of AIDS Help, was held at Truman Annex on the waterfront. There were about 30 restaurants that participated, wine from about 100 wineries, and several local breweries provided beer for sampling. The local restaurant chefs created gourmet bites of various Keys cuisine. We especially enjoyed a shrimp and grits dish, a sea scallops plate, and Philly cheesesteak sliders.

 

We went out for dinner last Wednesday a week ago to the Blue Heaven restaurant. All seating was outdoors, under shade trees and canopies. There were a few local Key West chickens hanging out. It was our first visit there and the food was incredible. Julie had a special blackened grouper dinner while I tried the grilled sea scallops entrée. We also tried the home-made key lime pie. We have to say we prefer a whipped cream topping rather than a meringue topping.

 

We went to Sloppy Joe’s on Saturday afternoon to see a teenage band WYK (What You Know), based in Miami, where Phil Collins’ son Nicholas, 14, was the drummer. Nic was very good, as was the lead guitarist. However, the lead vocalist needed a little polish.

 

Last Sunday, April 24^th, we celebrated Julie’s birthday by going to dinner at Latitudes Restaurant on Sunset Key. We took a short boat ride to Sunset Key, just off Key West. The restaurant was very good and the sunset even better.

 

 

Yesterday we enjoyed lunch at Firefly restaurant where I had an excellent fried chicken sandwich and Julie enjoyed the shrimp and grits. Firefly was at the Taste of Key West and that’s where we discovered their outstanding shrimp and grits.

It’s with a sad heart that we leave Key West tomorrow. We head up to Naples for two nights, then Seffner, in the Tampa area, for three nights. It’ll seem very different to us to be back driving down the road again.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Watchin’ the sun bake

We moved into a full hookup site on Sunday, April 3^rd, in the “Circle” and have been here since. It doesn’t appear that we’ll have to move when our two weeks are up because, as of today, there is only one camper in the overflow area.

When we first arrived back in February there were about 189 campers in the overflow area. Fellow campers have left and headed back North towards home. We’ve enjoyed our unobstructed view of the gulf the past few days, with the overflow area empty.

 

We also enjoy watching the local Key West chickens. There are at least three roosters, one hen and a flock of 10 baby chicks. Julie has named one of the roosters “Doodle”. I named another one "H-P" (hen pecked) because I saw the ole hen go after him one day, pecking at him.

 

We’ve been monitoring the cruise ship schedule and go downtown when there aren’t any ships in port. The streets are a lot less crowded than they were last month with all the vacationers on spring break. It’s given us a chance to try a few new restaurants we haven’t been to before.

Every so often we ride our bikes over to the Sunset Lounge for dinner and to watch another sunset. It’s a nice ride, about 1.5 miles, from our campground.

 

Currently we plan to leave Key West in two weeks on Thursday, April 28^th and start heading up U.S. Highway 1. We plan to go to Naples for a couple of nights, then the Tampa area for three nights.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Back on the Grid

Our two weeks were up in “Hollywood” full hookup site on Easter Sunday and we moved back into the overflow campground with no utilities. This time we secured a front row site facing the Gulf of Mexico.

The first few days last week were okay with a light breeze at night. But later in the week, the temperatures were in the mid-80s, with 90% humidity, and very hot for us. We’re not used to the humidity, coming from the arid climate of Colorado. We ran our generator and the air conditioning in the early evening to cool off the coach before we went to bed.

On Friday, April 1^st, the Budweiser Clydesdale horse team made an appearance at the Navy Exchange here on base. We’d never seen them up close before and they were huge, majestic horses.

Yesterday we went to Boca Chica key to Naval Air Station Key West for the 2016 Southernmost Air Spectacular. The air show was free to the public and included aerobatic pilots and other various airshow performers, including a wing-walking act.

The highlight of the show was the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels. We had never seen the Blue Angels perform before and their demonstration was very good, although we’re still partial to the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

 

Last night we went to the eighth annual Keystock Music Festival here in Key West. The headliner was Huey Lewis and the News. They performed most of their hits as well as several new songs.  It was an outdoor venue and we took our lawn chairs to watch the show.

We only had to wait one week to move back into a full hookup site. We moved this morning to a campsite in the “Circle” which was close to where we were already camping. It’s our first time in the “Circle” and the campsites are much larger with full concrete patios. Now that we’re “back on the grid”, we plugged in and turned the air conditioners on.

  

Steve & Julie Cornelius