keyed in

i have a particular soft spot for beach towns, and key west hit it spot-on. i'd like to go back some day for longer and just hole up in a beach shack and rent a bike with a basket and spend endless days peddling around.

but, for the three short days we had, dana and i did the keys up right.

a summary.

conch fritters at alabama jack's where we ate by the water and also saw kathie lee gifford, who has a mansion nearby. it's one of her favorite places.

robbie's pier where we bought a bucket of bait fish and hand-fed them to the enormous and frankly terrifying tarpon. though not actually hand-fed because we always chickened out and dropped the bait as soon as their enormous jaws were coming towards us.

plus we saw a manatee!

beach time at bahia (pronounced bah-ya) honda state park, including a stellar view of the old railroad bridge.

sunset in mallory square on key west and cuban food for dinner at el meson de pepe.

the next morning we started at the southernmost point of the continental u.s.

except that the real southernmost point is on this restricted navy base a few inlets over. but that doesn't matter, right?

we saw hundreds of gorgeous butterflies at the butterfly conservatory.

and dozens of six-toed cats, including a gray one named frances, at the ernest hemingway house.

and street after street of charming houses.














we ate chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick.

i toured harry truman's favorite vacation home, the little white house, while dana read on the beach.

and that was all on sunday!

sunday night we headed back to key largo, with a stop to watch the sunset over seven mile bridge.












it was perfect. and it was just the beginning.