Killian!

So, while I'm in KW for a while, I've decided to hire a one-on-one dog trainer for Killian. Little did I realize how quickly he wants to learn (Killian, not the dog trainer).

I started off this morning to walk Killian, training clicker in hand. It took me about 100 feet (to the stop sign) before it "clicked" with hm. He was ON! And, man, was he ON! We walked down Duval until I spied a dog and yelled to the guy that I wanted to walk by. The guy was more than willing to control his dog as I guided Killian, with clicker, right by. A sharp "Leave It" was all it took to snap Killian's  head away from the facing dog and back to me. Very amazing, all in all. I worked with him about 40 minutes or so and then brought him back to the house where I swapped out wee Gizmo. For what it's worth, it's much easier to train a larger dog. Gizmo, being of slight stature, gets away with all kinds of crap - and everyone, including me, lets her.

Gizmo and I ended up at 801 Bourbon street where we met my new best friends, Vincent and Rob (not a couple). They just happened to both embrace us at the same time. Gizmo quickly disappeared with Vincent but, not to worry, I knew exactly where she was at all times. We chatted and I found out some great Key West secrets, including the best spot on the island to spy the sunset. I'll never tell!

I wandered off and ended up walking up and down Duval street all day! I just swapped out dogs and training mechanisms.

Can't wait for John to get here in two short days. We're heading out to the cemetery tour on Saturday with Sharyn in the morning and then John and I are hitting a deserted island in the afternoon on the jet ski. Sunday will find John and me taking the kayak tour at sunset and then meeting up with Sharyn probably for a late dinner. He leaves Monday and I'm already missing him!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

My fish call did nothing to get the fish jumping on my line yesterday - in fact, this pic is of the largest of my two catches. It was too small to keep and, since I'd hooked the poor yellowtail through the eye, it wasn't going to make it so the boat mate just reset the hook and I used him for bait - still to no avail.

The guy next to me caught 3 beautiful keepers. I threatened to throw him in...

After our 4 hour fishing tour, Sharyn met me and we wandered up Duval street. We had our own little pub crawl including a long stop at Irish Kevins and a wander to the dueling piano bar where the parrot ate my fingernail clean off. Sheesh.

Later in the evening found us walking into the cool house and just sitting back and relaxing. A perfect way to end a perfect day. Here's a few more pics:

St. Patrick's Day in Key West

Was walking the dogs at 6:30 am and had already passed 2 leprechauns in full regalia. The city was on fire by around 9. There's a very small Irish bar right around the corner from the house and I couldn't figure out why there were so many people lined up to get in at 10 am. Turns out that they sold 900 tickets to a pub crawl in town! That's about the full population of Key West!

I headed out to Ocean Key where I had a marvelous time sitting at the pool, reading the "newspaper" which doesn't carry much news, and watching the boats on the gulf. Started to burn after just an hour so hit the homestead where I floated in the hot tub (which wasn't hot) for a bit before napping. Ah, the travails of Key West...

I took Gizmo for a walk up Duval to a small rum bar John and I found. The proprietor, Bob, served me and gave me a hefty discount as I'm a local! How cool! I'm a local in Key West. Loving it. Gizmo was on my lap for the time I sat on the bar stool and drew quite a crowd. 7 very tipsy very funny men came in and passed her around. She was loving it. They left and a quiet and calm came back over the place. Perfect afternoon.

I found a teeny place to buy fresh fish called Tomasito's. Mama Cita, the proprietor, sells, from what I gathered through our communication gap, any fish that her husband and son bring home. So, dinner for Sharyn and me was fresh shrimp that were the best I've ever in my life had and stone crabs. Now, I'm not such a fan of stone crab as I really don't care for cold seafood and the claws have to be eaten cold. They also are quite expensive and, bang for the buck, there isn't much for me.

Dessert was a waddle over to Better than Sex, the most wonderful dessert shop on the planet. They open from 6pm - 2am and only serve dessert. The place is very dimly lit so quite sexy, not that that helped Sharyn and me. We bellied up to the bar for chocolate rimmed Merlot glasses and an exquisite piece of bread pudding. Waddle back home took slightly longer but then bed was wonderful.

So, here i am, 8am in the morning for another day in Paradise. What to do, what to do....I'm thinking a day at the beach may be nice but have to walk the dogs first. Trying to get 7 miles in a day and have been pretty successful of late. Ok, readers, hope your day is as great as mine is about to be!

Bahama Village stroll

Got up early yesterday (and today!) and strolled up Duval to the Atlantic side to watch the sunrise. With a cup of hot coffee in my hand and two fairly obedient dogs by my side, I sat on a chair on the beach and watched the sunrise. It was truly awe inspiring. 

And, my "awe" moments continued when I went to the grocery store to stock the house up with staples and some fresh vegetables. It's very very expensive down here but, I knew that and it is what it is. I often wonder though how the waiters make it on tips. I tend to tip more than 20% while here as I'm a fan of spreading the wealth and they certainly need it. Housing is ridiculously expensive. I bought the local paper and was perusing the ads yesterday - there's one ROOM to be rented right over a storefront on Duval for $1,000 a month! WHAT?

Anyway, later yesterday, I took a wander with Killian through Bahama Village - one of the oldest sections of Key West. A lot of the houses are "Conch style" and were physically built in the Bahamas and then shipped to Key West for permanent inclusion into the colorful history of the island.

Afternoon found Sharyn and I floating in the pool, reading books, and chatting about nothing in particular and everything in general.

Evening found us watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn in my lap. How perfect a way to spend an evening.

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!

Dolphin HO!

We headed out of Savannah around 9 this morning for the drive to, we thought, Ft. Lauderdale. Savannah is so picturesque, we couldn't resist stopping the car on the side of a road and walking briefly through a park. Beautiful trees, azaleas, people with dogs abounded. After snapping a few shots, we headed to where my Pilot's GPS told me to go - we thought. After making 3 swipes around the block (ostensibly killing time until one of us could figure out how to get on the freeway), we turned the Pilot, jet ski, us and the dogs south on 95 toward the Keys.

Since John did such a good job yesterday finding us that hotel in Atlanta, I called my "consierge" again today to hook us up with a beach front hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea. More difficult than one might think while expecting to room with 2 4-legged companions. While we were mulling what to do, one of us (I think it was me....) came up with the rather brilliant solution of not staying there! Duh! I'm still not used to having all this freedom. Anyway, we had John check the upper keys and, well, here we sit in a hotel smack dab on the Gulf!

The hotel is about what you'd expect for the Keys - laid back, clean enough but certainly not anywhere near fancy. In fact, if you were picky, it's not the spot for you (poor you). You'd miss a pretty good time. The sign in the lobby said it all:

We spent a few hours in the tiki bar listening to accoustic guitar, eating shrimp and fish dip. How amazing was that?! The dogs were very well behaved, and I gave Killian a little tune up in obedience. He's doing so very well - more like the Killian of old. He's very attentive to both Sharyn and I and rarely strays or pulls on his lead. Bobo is another issue....

The day was just totally topped by the fact that we've been watching dolphins feed right off the shore for the last few hours. I've tried to get some decent shots and hope to get many more before my 6 weeks in Key West are over.

Key West Bound!

Yesterday saw Sharyn, Killian, Gizmo and me rushing like a herd of turtles to get out the door and hit the open road to Paradise. We left around 10am and pulled into Savannah, our first stop, around 7 pm. Now, normally, we would have made better time but 2 of us (who shall remain nameless) got antsy and had to get out of the car periodically (ok, it was Sharyn and me)...

We stopped and let the dogs out every few hours and, since we're towing the jet ski, we had to give the car a couple of good drinks along the way.

Savannah is gorgeous and I only wish I had more time here. We're smack dab in the middle of downtown, no mean feat when pulling the jet ski. The nice woman at the hotel desk had to call a guy in his room to come move his car so that I could have the only large spot in which to park the truck and ski. It was quite comical to see 4 of us try to figure out how to back the ski into said spot. After a bit, I just went around the block and came in face first. Now, this could well present a problem today when I have to back out....should have thought more ahead.

Sharyn and I saddled up the dogs and headed to dinner at a town square (the place is all squares!). We ended up in the City Market area where a beautiful fountain periodically spurts water in tall plumes. Sharyn and I were both impressed with how gentile the city seems; people wandered around and all seemed to be having a great time. We settled in a restaurant with outdoor seating so the dogs could be with us. I love that this city is so dog-friendly. Every place should be like this! You see every kind of pure breed and mongrel mixing and having an all around good time. Killian was a bit on end walking to the square but, then again, he's a country dog in a city setting. The backfire from a bus would have made Killian's fur stand on end if he wasn't shaved bald in prep for Key West. But, the walk back was much better. He relaxed as did I. He's actually been quite the trooper although Gizmo is a pain in the ass. I've pretty much figured out that I'll put Gizmo in an obedience class in KW and do private lessons with Killian. I'll be busy!

Ok, off today down to Fort Lauderdale which shows a 7 hour drive on MapQuest. In fine Joe-fashion "I can beat that time." My dear father would always try to beat his best time driving from Arizona to Maryland. I think, one time, he made it in, oh, 4 hours. More later!