Key Largo and Key West

My son Steve and I had the chance to spend a few days together in the Florida Keys. We fished offshore from Key Largo, and then we hung out in Key West enjoying lots of live music. This blog post is just a few photos from our adventure.

We stayed at a marina in Key Largo and spent a day fishing on one of the charter boats. It turned out to be a rough and windy day, and the sailfish didn't cooperate. But we got 4 big barracuda and a number of mutton snapper and mangrove snapper. We gave away the barracuda and took the snapper to a local restaurant where we had them cooked for us for dinner.

Two of the four Barracuda we caught

Next day, we drove down through the keys to Key West, stopping here and there in Islamorada and Marathon, and checking out the Key Deer (miniature deer) in Big Pine Key.

View from our hotel room in Key West

Cigars on Duval Street

Key West is a great place for live music, day and night. Lots of bars have bands, duos and solo performers. Many of them are great! We heard music at Sloppy Joe's, Irish Kevin's, Lazy Gecko, Willie T's, Hogs Breath, The Bull, the Sunset Pier, and Blue Heaven (and I'm sure lots of other places I've already forgotten).

Check out the dollars stapled up at Willie T's

Live music at Wille T's

Blue Heaven in a quirky little outdoor cafe

Live music at Blue Heaven

Roosters walking around at Blue Heaven

Always ready to spend some time on the water, we picked one of the tall ships for an afternoon sail. On my last visit we sailed on the America 2.0, a replica of an America's Cup racer from the past. This time, I picked the "pirate ship" Jolly Rover. It was a two hour sail complete with simulated cannon fire on another of the sailing ships. I helped raise sails and took a long turn at the wheel. The crew was friendly and a lot of fun and Captain Rio (they all swear it's his real name) posed for a selfie with me on my way out.

We sailed on the Jolly Rover

At the wheel of the Jolly Rover

Selfie with Captain Rio of the Jolly Rover

It was a really touristy thing to do, but we stopped at the Southernmost Point and Steve took my photo.

At the Southernmost Point in Key West

 On several of the evenings we walked around Mallory Square at sunset, seeing the street performers and the great sunsets.

Street performer at Mallory Square

Sunset at Mallory Square

I really love the Florida Keys and will be back again soon!

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