Jim & Sal Come to Visit!

I know, I suck at blogging. Sorry.

A few weeks ago my parents came for a visit. Jake and I both took off Thursday and Friday and made it into a little mini-vacay so that we could all go and do some fun stuff. On Thursday afternoon, we picked them up from the Orlando airport in the afternoon and headed straight to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival! We had gorgeous weather all day and sampled yummy food from all over the world. Dad and Jake did a little drinking around the world as well. Jealous.

Here's a mish-mash of camera pics and iPhone pics from the weekend!

A little 90s flashback during Eat to the Beat! Mark McGrath was actually pretty entertaining. I'm not sure what this pic was supposed to be... I think I was trying to get a picture of him taking selfies with people while he was performing. I guess I missed!

We crashed their hotel room and stayed at Disney for the night. After breakfast on Friday morning, we went to Downtown Disney (changing to Disney Springs, I wish they'd leave it alone) to check out some of the new changes. It is a COMPLETE CLUSTER and has been for a while, with all the construction going on. It seems like it's never going to be done. Anyway, we explored a little bit and did a little bit of shopping. Father got a new hat, but I left without souvenirs because now Jake had more back-up when it came to hurrying me along through the stores.

This girl deserves a raise.

Dad and his new friend, with matching old man hats

One of the new restaurants they've added to the West Side area of Downtown Disney, the BOATHOUSE, has an Amphicar fleet that takes guests for rides around the little lake. It was pretty cool to watch them go out.

After everyone (except me) enjoyed some delicious Ghirardelli milkshakes, we headed back to South Florida. Unfortunately, we left the beautiful sunshine-y blue skies behind in Orlando. We got back in time for dinner at Old Key Lime House, one of our favorites. Then we all went to bed early, because in the morning we were getting up and driving to Key West!

It was my parents' first trip to the Keys so we were pretty excited! The overcasts skies followed us all the way down, as apparently there was a huge system just sitting over South Florida and the Keys, not budging. It did not make for a very pretty drive, which was a bummer because the beautiful drive is what I love most about going to Key West! Instead of the beautiful green-blue waters that I never shut up about, the water was kind of grayish. Boo because I really wanted my parents to get the full experience of the drive! We had gray skies for the remainder of the weekend. It actually didn't really rain very much though, which we were thankful for!

We stopped in Key Largo for breakfast at a cute little cottage-y place called Key Largo Conch House. It was right off the highway, nestled and hidden among it's own little grove of trees and greenery. This morning was really the only time it rained pretty hard, so we ate inside instead of out on the wrap-around porch. Breakfast was yummy and I was kind of jealous of Jake and his key lime pancakes with coconut syrup.

Image Source: TripAdvisor.com

Image Source: TripAdvisor.com

Image Source: Yelp.com

 We stopped at the 7 Mile Bridge on the way down and walked out a short distance. It was super windy, if you couldn't tell, and a big dark storm cloud was blowing our way, so we didn't stay long.

Then we finally made it to Key West! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and took a cab down to Southernmost Point. We of course got our picture taken, then cut over to Duval Street to start our sight-seeing!

Father waiting patiently in line for our family pic. Look how cute he is. ;)

We all started down Duval together, and Dad and Jake stopped in at a little bar for a beer. After that, we split up so Mom and I could go Hemingway's house. So we went our separate ways and the boys went to the bar. We cut back over to Whitehead Street and took the self-guided tour of the house and the grounds. I of course stopped to pet and cuddle six-toed cats along the way. :) I love going to Hemingway's house and wouldn't mind going again the next time we're in Key West!

After shopping for souvenirs (Mom got a t-shirt and an ornament and I bought a copy of Death in the Afternoon, complete with the official seal of the Hemingway Home and Museum), we set out to find the boys. I tracked Jake on my stalker app and we found them at a nearby bar on Duval. From there, we made our way up Duval Street, stopping at all the famous places.

Dad with Jimmy at the original Margaritaville!

Once we made it almost all the way north, Jake and I quickly ran to get my race packet for the next morning. About that... After my parents booked their trip, I found out that the Halloween Half Marathon & 5k was going on that very same weekend. So of course I signed up for it! No way was I going to miss out on a chance to run another 5k in Key West!

So we grabbed my stuff and headed back to find my parents, who had made their way to Sloppy Joe's. The boys drank more beers as we were entertained by a band on stage singing a bunch of funny songs with inappropriate lyrics. It was starting to get near sunset time, so after a while we left and started heading towards Mallory Square to hopefully catch the sunset. We walked around and watched some of the various performers, including this poor dog who does all kinds of tricks. He's (she's?) so cute though, and goes around and takes money right out of people's hands after the performance is over.

Stopping off at the Key West Memorial Sculpture Garden for a quick pic with Ernest

One of the Disney cruise ships was docked right at Mallory Square! It started heading back out to sea just after sunset. It was so big and beautiful and I wanted to be on it. I'm thinking next vacation!!!

After Mallory Square, we had dinner at Conch Republic Seafood Company before calling it a night. Then we took the shuttle back to the hotel, because the next morning I was getting up to run the Halloween 5k at 6:30 am!

So the next morning my wonderful hubby got up well before dawn to cart my butt down to Schooner Wharf Bar, which was headquarters for the race.

Ready to race in the dark!

starting line!

The Halloween Half Marathon/5k is a HUGELY popular race in several other cities. I guess the race people figured that Halloween and Key West would be a great combination, since there are so many "interesting" people here, so this was the first year they added Key West to the list of cities. Well, the turnout was not great... what you see above was pretty much it for 5k runners. The half marathon people's starting time was 10 minutes earlier, so they were already gone at this point, but I don't think there was a huge turnout for that either. I guess because of the fact that Key West is really so far from everything, and that it was at 6:30 in the morning, a lot of people did not make the trip. The regular Key West Half Marathon/5k that they hold every January is insanely popular though, and I think that is also an early morning race, so maybe it was just that this was the first year for this one. (I already tried to sign up for the one in January, but every single hotel room cheaper than $300/night is BOOKED, even on some of the other nearby Keys. Boo.)

ANYWAY, I kind of liked the fact that not a lot of people showed up, because I was completely by myself for most of the race, and it was kind of nice. There were times where I couldn't even see anybody in front of me or behind me, and it almost felt like I was the only one out there roaming the streets of Key West all by myself. Kind of crazy to be alone on Duval Street, with everything closed and not a soul in sight, when usually it's crazy busy and there are people everywhere. But this morning, it was just me and the chickens. :)

Little pit stop at Southermost Point for a quick pic!

Finally found the Mile Marker 0! We've always forgotten to find it and I stumbled upon it by accident during the 5k!

Official race photo at the (nearly empty) finish line!

While I was at the race, everybody else went to Smathers Beach, which was right across the street from where we stayed. Jake picked me up when I was done, and after some quick pics, we packed up and headed to breakfast at Blue Heaven.

Awesome, awesome place. I think now maybe my new favorite place in Key West. I want to go back. Breakfast was SO GOOD, but I would go back there just to sit there! I had heard of it because Hemingway used to referee boxing matches here, but had never been. My parents' friends I guess came here at one point and recommended it to them, so we went! Such a cool atmosphere, with outdoor courtyard-style dining wedged between some old buildings. The buildings and the palm trees completely hide it from the street, and it's like its own little world once you make it back there. We got there just before prime brunching hour, and there was already a little bit of a wait. So we had some mimosas while we waited, and then stuffed ourselves with huge portions at our little umbrella table as the Key West chickens scuffled around. By the time we were finishing up, there was a huge mass of people just standing/sitting around, waiting for tables to open up and waiting for the live band to start playing. So if you're going to Key West, DEFINITELY go to Blue Heaven, and if you don't mind missing the band, definitely go early to beat the crowds!

After breakfast, sadly, it was time to leave Key West. So we made our way back up through the Keys (it was still cloudy and overcast, and the water was still not very pretty, boo). While passing through Islamorada, we stopped at Anne's Beach in the hopes that we could see some nice scenery. We spent a little bit of time here on our Islamorada trip last January, so it was at least something we somewhat knew about. Unfortunately, all the recent storms had brought the tide in extra high, which made the water kind of murky looking and not the prettiest. We still took a little walk and got a few pics, then headed back to the car and continued the rest of the way back up to Boynton.

SUCH a fun weekend! And I guess you guys will have to come back so we can do it again when we have nicer sunnier weather!!!