long weekend key west escape

Me and my two headless friends in the Florida Keys. Photo: Him

The long weekend is over and the southernmost sunset in the U.S.A is an eight hour drive behind me and my wonderful dude. A three day weekend escape to Key West was right on time and all the time I needed. (I’m slowly, but surely finding which vacation hot-spots aren’t necessarily sizzling for me.) I’m a true culture junkie and quite frankly being a pretty poor swimmer makes me less enchanted by the life, times and culture of a fisherman. I’ll gladly sample the fresh catch of the day provided it didn’t previously live in a shell.

Let me describe this weekend escape the right way. Key West is a vibrant South Florida destination located as far south as your automobile can go. Perfect for party animals, beach bums, food junkies, snow birds, spring breakers, gays, lezzys, cross-dressers, retirees, couples, singles, baby boomers, me, you, your momma and your cousin too… However, if I was a parent with children, I would not bring them to Key West unless I was renting a nice beach cabin. This is just me.

Check out my incredible Naija joy-boy. (I totally claimed/stole that term from Dr. Bob and last weekend’s NOLA trip.) He is far more happier when I don’t have my digi SLR in his face. Photo: Adrienne C. Wilson

Now that we’ve gotten past the who and the where of this travelogue you probably want to know the what and more of the where.


Our home away from home in Key West. Photo: Adrienne C. Wilson

We stayed at the Southernmost on the Beach, a resort in the Southernmost Hotel collection. The ocean view room was pleasant, but really nothing to write home about for the cost. My boyfriend and I shared the same thoughts on the hotel. We just feel like they could have done more. The bathroom was small, but clean and the amenities weren’t anything to knock your socks off. Next time I’d like to stay at a smaller B&B or one of the little motels. Sounds a bit like a down-grade right? Only time will tell.

During our time outside of room 512 we ate a lot of food! See some of the pictures below.

The best and easiest way for me to tell you about the restaurants I enjoyed is to list them beginning with my favorite.

First place: nine one five
There are no pictures above from the plates we sampled at nine one five because we were too busy shoveling the incredibly mouth-watering and ambrosial fare into our pot-holes. My baby-boy had the Thai Whole Fish and I had the salad special for the night. I don’t recall what the name of the salad was, but I’ll describe it: Spinach leaves tossed in a creamy avocado-butter dressing mixed with Oregon shrimp and grapefruit. Gah!! The deal was finished when I ordered the fresh fruit cobbler with home made vanilla ice cream. I was in HEAVEN.

P.S. The wait staff was delightful and well informed about the wines and menu selections. The atmosphere was trendy, sophisticated and romantic. Nice music plays overhead as well.

Second place: Old Town Mexican Cafe for lunch
Third place: Blue Heaven for breakfast

I had high hopes for Banana Cafe after seeing all the Josephine Baker inspired decor, but breakfast fell flat. I’ll take partial blame for ordering the crepe I ordered as I’m not a Swiss cheese fanatic and it was oozing with Swiss. The real sinker in this tale is discovering the dead insect smooshed on my glass of water. They apologized a lot and knocked off a few dollars from the check.

I won’t bother with the Conch Republic again. There is way too much GREAT seafood in Key West to settle for mediocre.

When our time wasn’t invested in some food joint we did check out a historical site or two. The legendary American writer, Ernest Hemingway’s old Key West home was one of our stops. I do need to pick up and read Green Hills of Africa before my next big trip.

Bahia Honda State Park (about 36 miles north of Key West) was also of interest. I’d love to go back in the Florida winter season, rent a cabin and stay here for a few days.

Lastly, we walked around Old Town Key West and strolled Duval an innumerable amount of times. We caught the sunset at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park and we called it a wrap. Well sorta – we did end up catching an episode of Pawn Stars on the History Channel. I should close by saying the things people try to pawn are very, very interesting and not all reality TV is terrible. Will I watch Pawn Stars again? Who knows?

Photo: Adrienne C. Wilson