Being a bum in Key West

Since I didn't do very much blogging in Key West, I'm going to try to try to write some highlights of the trip, not necessarily in chronological order, just as I think of things!  

Once the half marathon was out of the way, it was time to have some fun in Key West!  I couldn't wait to visit a bakery that I visited last year, Mattheessen's bakery for a giant cookie!!

Giant chocolate chip cookie from Mattheessen's bakery! 

Erika and I each had a chunk of the cookie and took the rest back to the hotel room and had more later and finished it off the next day!  They are really good!  I bought another chocolate chip and an oatmeal raisin on the last day we were there to bring home and I cut each into four pieces and froze them!
We rode our bikes around quite a bit.  We had fun goofing around with a bunch of sculptures in the Mallory Square area:

High-fiving a sailor

flirting with railroad worker

Helping an elderly lady with groceries

We saw cruise ships docked in Mallory Square, we took lots of pictures in those photo thingies - I'm sure they have a name but it's where you put your face through an opening:

Oyster waitress

Fishing charter

Sunday night we went to Willie T's bar to listen to my favorite Key West singer:

Gerd Rube

I listened to him last year when I was there and I looked up his website shortly before my trip and found out that he was playing in Key West again this winter!  I was so excited!  He also had a brand new CD so I bought one when he was on his break:

My new BFF!

While he was on the stage and between songs, he commented on my shirt! He asked if I had run the half marathon and asked what my time was! 

We went running both of our remaining mornings because we were in Key West and could run in shorts and back here that was not an option:

71 degree temp difference at 7:23 am

Running along the ocean

playing in a sculpture on the beach

Monday night we stopped by the Southernmost point because every time we go by there it's crowded and there were always long lines for pictures.  When we got there, there was nobody else around!  We took each others pictures and then two men came along and asked if one of us could take their picture so they took ours together.  It worked out well!

Southernmost Point at night

goofing around at the Southernmost Point

We went to a drag queen show!  That's something I've never done before!
Monday afternoon, we rode our bikes all the way around the perimeter of Key West.  The half marathon used to go all the way around but the main road is under construction on the north side of the island so for the last two years the course had been an out and back along the south side.  Last year a lady told me that the other side is really boring and we really are running the best part of the course twice with the modified route.  She was right.  The other side is very commercial and looks like any street in any town around here:  McDonalds, Burger King, Home Depot, gas stations, muffler shops, etc etc etc...  There was also a lot more traffic.  If I'm never on North Roosevelt Ave. again, it will be ok with me! 
All too soon, it was time to pack up and check out of our hotel room.  We were able to leave our luggage in a room at the hotel since our flight wasn't until late afternoon.  It rained a little bit on Tuesday morning while we were packing but then it stopped and the sun came out and it was really nice.  We rode around, stopped at shops, and had a late lunch since our flight was going to be so late.  While we were having lunch, it began raining again and rained really hard.  We were sitting along an open wall in a restaurant on the harbor.  It did eventually stop raining and we got on our bikes for our last hour of riding around Key West.  At the time we started to head back to the hotel it started to rain again.  We got soaked!  We had to change our clothes before leaving.  (We had to change EVERYTHING, that's how soaked we were!)  The desk clerk called us a taxi, the taxi came and we were headed to the airport.
Our flight home was uneventful, both planes left on schedule.  We got back to Detroit, my diesel Jeep even started right up.  (I parked in the enclosed parking garage connected to the airport; well worth the extra few dollars per day cost.)  I dropped Erika off at her apartment and headed home.  I got home at about 2:15am.
To sum up my 2014 trip to Key West:  I had a blast!!

Key West 2014

Runner Nerd
home from Key West

What a day

What a day!!  I ran a half marathon, I had a yummy seafood lunch on the Historic Seaport, I had a gigantic chocolate chip cookie, I took a nap, I went on a ghost tour of Key West, I listened to live music, I got hugged by a drag queen, I  am in Key West!!!!!

Lunch was great!  The restaurant is open like the one I went to yesterday.

view from my table

This restaurant is on the Harbor in the Historic Seaport District.  Right behind it are charter fishing boats.  Fishing trips are a big thing here.  This was on the menu:

you hook 'em...we cook 'em

Apparently, they will cook fish you catch and bring in!!
I also saw this in the restaurant:

Doggy having lunch with his humans!

you would NEVER see that around here!  Only in Key West!!
After lunch, I rode my bike around, went into a couple of shops and then I got away from the town area and rode in residential areas.   One thing I've noticed is that everything in Key West is old.  Everything is well kept up but it is old.  I really love the architecture here.  The houses all have porches the length of the front; two story houses have two story porches.  Many houses have palm trees taller than them.
I came back to my room and took a nap for about 1.5 hour.  I also put my running clothes in a washing machine here at the hotel and run it without any detergent.  My clothes were soaked and quite smelly.  Even the t-shirt I changed into before riding my bike back here was sweaty.  I don't have any detergent so they got washed in just water; it has to be better than leaving them in a pile in my room to ferment! 
Around 6 pm, I headed back out.  I had to be at the trolly tour place at 7:30 to check in for the Ghosts and Graveyards tour.  But first, I had another thing to do!  I had read on a woman's blog about a place with really good gigantic chocolate chip cookies!!  I wrote it down and looked it up online so I'd know where to find it.  This is the mother of all cookies:

Mattheessen's 1/2 lb chocolate chip cookie

It was really good!!  I didn't eat all of it, more than a quarter but less than half!  I went into some shops along Duval street.  Duval street is "the" street in Key West where it all happens! 
I decided to ride back to my room and put the rest of the cookie in my refrigerator, I grabbed my jacket because it had cooled down a little.  It was still warm but it felt a bit chilly when riding the bike.  Then I went to check in for the Ghost tour.  I wish I had taken a picture of the trolly.  It was fun, I learned a lot of history of Key West.  We went into an old fort that is now a museum.  They passed out EMF detectors - just like on Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures!!!

my EMF detector!!! 

Mine blinked a few times when we were in there.  Only three of us had them blink.  Who knows?  It was fun! 

After that, I was back to wandering Duval street.  All the bars are open to the outside and have live entertainment so you can listen to the music from the sidewalk.  I listened to this dude for the rest of his show; he was awesome!

Gerd Rube

I listened until he was done and then I found out that the place I was going to eat was closed.  It was a pizza place I saw earlier.  They make individual pizzas so I was thinking I'd do that for my dinner.  Oh well.  It was worth it to listen to Gerd Rube!!  I ended up having a slice of pizza at a place that was still open.  It was a place that sells pizza by the slice from the heated case.  (like at the mall) It was not terrible but I'm sure I would have liked the other much better.  I went back to my hotel and ate the rest of my cookie.

Sooooo, yes, this was a great day!!!  I love Key West!!!!!!

Runner Nerd
loving Key West