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Old 13 Oct 17, 01:00 AM  
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anji
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Road Trip – OLD & NEW ADVENTURES – Day 14 – Key West

Road Trip – OLD & NEW ADVENTURES – Day 14 – Key West wildlife, gardens, beach, fort and sunset

Breakfast at the Westwinds is outside in the garden decking area. I love doing this. There’s a whole range of cereals, fruit, eggs, yogurts etc plus a range of bread, bagels and pastries from the Old Town Bakery up the road. The guava empanadas are just wonderful. We sit for a while and read the newspapers that are available.

We were going to use the car today as we wanted to find out about returning it, as Alamo isn’t at the Key West Airport, and sort out our flight details for our return to Tampa. We walked via a little health food shop and Will bought some goji berries. He eats these every day and we always buy some wherever we go!

Off to Alamo. We chat to them and realise that we’re better off to take the car back the day before as they are not open early enough in the morning to coincide with getting to the airport in time for our flight – as it turned out we would have had plenty of time, but more of that later!

Then we went to the Airport to suss out where to go etc. Our flight with Silver Airways had been moved a couple of times already so we wanted to make sure everything was ok. First in the afternoon to tie in nicely with flight home from Tampa, then to later in the day (so we would miss connection), then I changed this to 7.30am and finally it was moved to 9.30am. We had booked a car for the day in Tampa and a table for lunch at Columbia restaurant in Ybor City. We had a coffee and a look around the nice little airport.

Key West Wildlife Center was to be our first call of the day – I’d seen this and was keen to visit. It’s a charity responsible for rescuing and rehabilitating 1400 birds every year, plus animals too. They also provide medical care and rehousing for the Key West chickens -which roam free and are many! I knew they also had a nature trail, small lake etc.

We had a great walk round and suddenly the biggest iguana I’ve ever seen was coming down a tree right next to us. Absolutely huge and brightly coloured! keywestwildlifecenter/

As we left we put our $$ into the collection box (free admission) and I got chatting to the couple who run it. They were just lovely and offered sympathies about the London Bridge terror attack, which we’d seen on TV that morning. Manchester was at the start of our trip too. They were so lovely that I had to turn away for a minute as I started to cry.

They said that when we go home we could take Donald Trump with us and she would wrap him up for us however I wanted him! I said absolutely not but I’d love to take Obama instead. She said they’d never let him go! Lovely couple and if I lived in Key West I’d definitely be volunteering there.

We walked across the street to the Pier and visited the AIDS memorial to over 1000 who have died. Very moving and I thought this sentiment was right for today.

We walked to the end of the Pier and back and then just down the road to the West Martello Tower. This is cared for by the West Martello Garden Club – again, somewhere I would love to volunteer! keywestgardenclub Again it's free with voluntary donations.

This is such a peaceful and beautiful place, wonderful plants and trees and lots of my favourite orchids (although not many in flower this time). We had a good walk round and saw some bright green lizards who were doing a great job of blending into the background!

My favourite part of the garden is the little bricked arch and the giant strangler fig tree next to it. Sadly I know that this tree fell during hurricane Irma and crushed the archway. Luckily a lot of the gardens survived and there are before and after photos on the website if you want to have a look.

We drove back to the hotel and parked on the street again – free and easy to do. We bought some sandwiches for lunch in the Old Town Bakery and ate them on our patio at the hotel. There wasn’t much left to choose from by this time as they sell out every day and there are always lines for serving.

We get out beach gear and headed off for the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. We spent an hour or so on the beach and in the sea before packing up and going to look at the Fort.

This was much bigger than we thought it was going to be and very interesting. I’d like to be there over Halloween as it’s transformed into a giant haunted house.

Back at the hotel and we went to the pool nearest to our room for a while. Again, there was a rustle in a tree and there was a big green iguana! Unfortunately I only took a video so no photo to post here. The pools at the Westwinds are beautiful – so secluded with lush greenery and always plenty of comfortable sunbeds.

That evening we went to Mallory Square to see the sunset – which wasn’t especially good that night but still fun. Lots of street performers, some good and some not so good! We love the atmosphere down here at sunset.

By this time we were hungry and walked back up Duval Street. We settled on Carolines to eat and got a good table overlooking Duval Street. I had Mah Mahi tacos and Will had Philly Cheese Steak, finished off by sharing a piece of Key Lime Pie … well you have to!

Afterwards we went to The Bull and had some beers and watched a band called Kim Jade Band for a while. They were quite good and mainly did rock covers. As everything is open to the street you’re allowed to smoke after 9pm inside!

Finished up a good day and walked home around 11pm.

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Edited at 01:04 AM.
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Old 2 Apr 18, 06:49 PM  
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Dragon31
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Hi Anji,
Just wanted to say hi... and that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your trippie 😁

Im currently sat poolside in a villa at Eagle Pointe (just 86f) and read your trippie from start to finish... well the end of day 14. I hope you made your flight to Tampa in good time for your connection. The little dolls house looked lovely and the catamaran looked great fun. We head to the keys in August and a stop at the turtle hospital is a definate. Thanks for a great read 😊
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Old 2 Apr 18, 11:48 PM  
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collybird
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An emotional day for you, and the Pier looks absolutely lovely and the Gardens are beautiful.

Those tacos look amazing!
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