Key West!

After an uneventful ride (thank you, God!), we arrived in Key West around 11 am yesterday and dropped the jet ski at Hurricane Hole marina on Stock Island. I decided to put it up out of the water in a boat hotel - I can call and they will have it in the water, ready for a ride. Sadly though, there's few places where one can ride in the waters of Key West as most of the area is deemed a sanctuary. That's ok though, we can still head up the Gulf coast on it and I'm interested to see the keys from the water side.

After dropping the ski, we made our way to get the keys for the house. With a bit of trepidation, I opened the door of the Tobaggo house only to be faced with - pure Nirvana! I mean, this place is the stuff dreams are made of! Sadly, I'll never find a place to buy down here that is 1/4 of the beauty in which I'm living for 6 weeks. The picture does NOT do it justice (note to self - learn how to use camera...). With two bedrooms, two baths, a full kitchen, and a backyard that is to drool over, I'm about to be the happiest woman on earth - that is, I would be the happiest woman on earth if only John were here (and Bobbi too!) at the moment. He comes in the weekend after next and I just can't wait!

Anyway, the house is truly lovely and way more than I ever expected. See, I'm a fan of not expecting much and this is why. I'm rarely disappointed and frequently delighted to find more than I expected which is certainly what happened this time. My bedroom is gorgeous, my bathroom has a very nice large jacuzzi. The house is stocked to the gills with fresh towels and linens. The hot tub out back wasn't very hot but we can work on that today.

Sharyn and I walked around exploring the house with our mouths hanging open. She was thrilled to find that the website was wrong - her bedroom has a nice queen bed instead of a pull out sofa! Very nice indeed.

After stowing all of our assorted sundries, we took showers and hit the streets, sans dogs. They were quite content to stay in the house and, I imagine, doze the night away. Sharyn and I wandered down to the White Tarpon where we rang in our Key West extended vacation with Key Lime martinis. While there, I started talking to the bartender and it turns out that she (Jesse) went to school with my nephew. Too funny! Got him on the phone for a moment of reminiscing and some good laughs over the chance meeting. Also met Karen who works at one of the local museums where the "Robert doll" lives. The story of this doll, who is haunted, is very weird. Evidently, a quite eccentric gentleman, named, strangely, Robert, got this doll and treated it as though it was his brother. He even gave it his name, "Robert" and the man started using his own middle name instead. He had a whole room in his house devoted to "Robert's" needs such as a small doll bed, doll sized furniture, etc. Legend has it that the Robert doll is haunted although Karen said she's never seen it move but has heard the "giggles" twice. Needless to say, the museum is on my to-do list.

After that, Sharyn and I headed over to the Conch Republic for a great meal of fresh fish, for me, and fresh tuna bites on her salad. All in all, a truly delightful time and just the right start to our Key West time.

I'm hoping to take a lot of photos this trip, as I learn to use my Nikon D5000 and my sony waterproof DSC-T10.

Stay tuned. I'm going to try and update this blog daily with our movings and shakings around the Conch Republic!