Key West: Daytime

With all the driving we did in freezing temperatures, we wanted to treat ourselves to some tropical weather.  Such a shame Ft. Lauderdale was a chilly 70 degrees.  We decided to take the nearly 5-hour trip to balmy and beautiful Key West.

Food: Savory, Spicy and Sweet

It was lunchtime when we arrived in Key West.  We went to Garbo’s Grille, a one-woman operated food cart that sells some pretty awesome fish tacos.  Heidi, the owner, gave us some helpful sightseeing suggestions for tourists our age.  I added the age qualifier, as most of the winter-time visitors were retirees stopping by on cruise ships.

Garbo's hours of operation.  This is livin'.

Lunch al fresco.

Heidi Garbo, owner and chef and refugee from cold Connecticut.

Fish taco burrito made with mahi mahi.

The best part about Garbo’s Grille?  Location, location location.  Directly across the street is Peppers of Key West, a hot sauce store that will let you sample different hot sauces on your yummy fish taco burrito.  They feature some sauces made in house, but they have a wider variety of sauces from other companies.

As much as we love hot sauce, we needed to cool down our mouths with the island’s famous Key Lime Pie.  Here it’s served frozen on a stick and dipped in chocolate, unlike the slices on a plate I’ve had on the mainland.  Sadly, most of the pie-on-a-stick businesses have closed.  The Key West Key Lime Pie Factory, the only one that’s still open, seems to have a bit of a monopoly on the island.  Nevertheless, it was still delicious, but could’ve had a touch more lime.

Sightseeing

Apparently the best way to see the island is to rent a bike.  Embarrassing confession: I only learned how to ride a bike at the ripe age of 20 and I haven’t gotten back on a bike since.  Yes, laugh all you want, but at least I don't have gruesome scars from falling on asphalt.  Feeling rather dubious of my skills, we decided to drive around instead.

 The Southernmost Point in the Continental US.  I felt the need to clarify since I unwittingly covered most of the buoy.

90 miles to Cuba (not pictured).

I guess we could have seen the island this way. 

The beginning of US Route 1

Feral chickens run rampant on the island.  One of our servers told us that if you kick a chicken, they'll put you in jail; if you hit a homeless person with your car, you'll get a fine.   He was exaggerating, clearly, but I wouldn't put that logic past most vegetarians.

Apparently the only way to deal with the wild chickens is to get a cat -- preferably not a lazy one like this.