I spent the first week of October in Key West with Jane. (I had my entire blog entry--minus a few pictures-written earlier this week and I accidently erased it. I'll try to recreate.)
It's always good to catch up with Jane in person; it's just never the same on the phone. I'll never forget the first time we spoke. We hit it off right away, talking a mile a minute on the phone without ever having met each other in person. I came out of my bedroom and my parents were trying not to laugh. I said, "what?" They said: "Gee, did you hit it off?" Yes, we did. She's the closest friend I've ever had, and I'm very thankful for our friendship. I wish she lived closer!
Anyway...
Brandon and I fell in love with Key West during a spring break trip in college. We made the 24-hour drive with two friends from the band. It was the first real beach vacation I'd ever had and I was hooked. We returned for a day during our honeymoon and again a year later with Ben and Carrie Feldmeyer.
This, however, was Jane's first trip. As far as I could tell, she loved it, too--except for the walk to Ft. Zachary Taylor beach. (I should have told her to bring a backpack vs. a beach bag.)
We did all the things you must do in Key West except eat at Blue Heaven, a well-known and wonderful restaurant. It was closed for the off season. We did try another historic place--Pepe's Cafe--and it was fabulous. It looked pretty dingy from the outside, but they had a great outdoor patio and wonderful, homemade food. Here's a picture:
THINGS YOU MUST DO IN KEY WEST:
1. Enjoy the local attractions, including the Custom House Museum, Key West Aquarium and the newly opened Butterfly Conservatory. The Custom House in particular is incredible--it is a beautiful historic, renovated building. It has a permenant exhibit of Cuban art my Mario Sanchez, which I always enjoy, and a rotating display. This time it was "Icons Revisited," an exhibit of American icons created in 3D. To promote the exhibit they had a massive statue of American Gothic outside. It was crazy! The first time we noticed it was at night when it was underlit...pretty creepy.
Here are a few pictures from the museum and the butterfly show:
2) Visit Mallory Square to see the street performers. This is also a great place to meet some of the local cat population. I told Jane I needed to move to Key West and start a trap-and-release program to slow the pet population. They all look so skinny! I fed a cats my leftover cuban food, including the cute guy below.
3) Walk all over Old Town enjoying the quaint houses, beautiful flowers and touristy things, like the Southernmost Point:
4)You must also watch the sunset from many places. That meant a sunset sail, the beach and the top of our hotel.
5) You must also spend lots of time at the beach, preferably in a noodle chair.
My laptop battery is about to die, so I'll have to post those photos later.
2 comments:
Hey Amanda, I am commenting on the "should I have kids of my own" area, but I wasn't sure if you would go back and read those comments. Michael and I thought Gabe was so tough as a baby. I was 22 and Michael was 27 when I got pregnant with him. Neither of us adjusted well at first. We were both pretty selfish when it came to having time to ourselves. We had barely been married for a year when we decided to have Gabe. I am 27 now, and I have to say we both had a lot of growing up to do between 22 and 27. Michael actually had a vasectomy when Gabe was 2 years old. Does that tell you how stressed we let ourselves get? Michael had only been working as a P.A. for a year and a half. Bills were crazy, and we were having trouble letting go of our "me" stage and moving into the "we" stage of our lives.
Well, Michael just had a vasectomy reversal about four weeks ago. The healing process was really hard on all three of us. Harder than we expected, and now we have no idea if we will be able to actually get pregnant after going through all of that. Our choices can take us through some pretty rough times, but I find I always come out on the other side having learned something that I never would have otherwise.
I guess what I am trying to say, is having a child is life changing, no question about it, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Looking back the first two years were the hardest. It was just such an adjustment on both of us. Now though, Gabe is five, and it is way different. He sits beside me and runs his fingers in my hair, and snuggles close, and my heart melts. When he walks into the kitchen and just looks up at me and tells me that he loves me... the feelings are indescribable. You both should be ready for a child, and know that things will change. It won't be easy all the time, but what really is? Everything requires some type of work.
As usual awesome pictures. I bet that American Gothic statue is creepy at night but I would LOVE it in front of my barn! Looks like a fun filled trip. Good comment to your previous post from the Kelley's!
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