Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

Billy hopped on a plane to Florida last week after finishing up school in Denver. Between his grueling school schedule and my hours at WEF, we were more than ready for a break, and we wasted no time taking off.  We set out for the Florida Keys to see Leah, who works with Billy on Base Directory. She lives on Summerland Key, which is about 30 minutes north of Key West, and was kind enough to host us for a few days. Leah was amazing and we could not have asked for a more generous hostess - or a better tour guide!

Escaping Wellington for our fill of island life!

We picked up Leah in Summerland and went in to Key West for lunch and a quick driving tour of Key West. Spring break was not quite in full swing yet, but there were still plenty of frat bros and people of all ages alarmingly intoxicated for mid-day. From Leah's description of Key West's festivities, most of them involve partial to full nudity, which isn't even illegal in the "Party Zone" on Duvall Street. Fortunately, we didn't run into any of that and instead fruity drinks and yummy food at Sunset Pier before heading over to the Key West Legal Rum Distillery. 

I made the fatal error of forgetting my ID during Spring Break season, so I did not get to partake in the rum tasting. Leah and Billy told me it was delicious though haha. The distillery made their own white rum as well as key lime flavored rum, which apparently was amazing. As a sidenote, I didn't realized that the "key" in "key lime" came from the Florida Keys. Apparently they have their own lime species here! Obviously, we had to indulge in authentic key lime pie, which Leah whipped up for us our first night. I quickly bonded with her boyfriend over his philosophy of pies being split into six slices, max.

Tuesday was our only full day in Key West, so we packed as much in as possible. We started off with a running tour of some Key West landmarks, beginning with the Southernmost Point in the United States.

Next stop was the Key West Cemetery, which I didn't take pictures of because that would be creepy. It had a really cool, eclectic assortment of memorials - everything from very modest to incredibly ornate. Then we turned back for the car before stopping at Ernest Hemingway's house, which was gorgeous. We were running out of time before snorkeling, so we snapped a quick picture courtesy of a friendly tourist and were on our way!

Leah recommended Looe Key, a protected coral reef off the coast of Summerland Key that takes people out snorkeling around the reef. In retrospect, after getting to know Leah a bit, I should've known that this would be a more adventurous snorkeling trip than I originally imagined. I didn't realize we were going out into the ocean, but as the shoreline quickly shrank behind us, it became more clear what I had gotten myself into. Coupled with the fact that our boat captain told us we would see "anything and everything" (read: sharks) out in the water, by the time we stopped at our first point on the coral reef I was pretty nervous.

I hopped in the water with only a slight death grip on Billy's hand. After seeing hundreds of tropical fish immediately upon looking underwater, I was having the time of my life. We saw a ton of very cool fish, including a goliath grouper (think a 200 pound brown bumpy giant) AND a blacktip shark. It was a very small shark and was not swimming towards me, so it was all fun and not terrifying! The grouper actually started swimming at me, so I was legitimately more scared of that than the shark.

The water was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We also had some great company on the boat ride out (not including the idiot spring breaker, who in a fantastic stroke of justice got incredibly sea sick). 

I highly recommended the Looe Key Dive Center for anyone visiting the Keys! The staff is great and super friendly. 

Since Billy and I hadn't been together for Valentine's Day, we had a belated celebration that evening in downtown Key West. We avoided the crazier/more Spring Break-y sections of Duvall Street and opted for dinner at BlackFin Bistro, again on Leah's recommendation. Since I was in the Keys, I decided to expand my seafood palate and try out grouper. Our food and wine was amazing, and the tropical patio behind the restaurant was the perfect setting for dinner.

Great wine and a beautiful tropical setting.

Even better company!

We ended the evening at yet another recommendation of Leah's (she's three for three!), a dessert and drinks restaurant called Better Then Sex. If that doesn't sum up Key West's overall persona, I'm not sure what does! Their signature is chocolate rims on different drink pairings, as well as fantastic home-made desserts. Between the chocolate rimmed drinks and the peanut butter pie we tried to take down, we didn't end up finish everything in fear of going into a diabetic coma, but that's not to say we didn't try! 

The pie tasted like Reese's Peanut Butter Cup filling...and the crust was cookie dough!

We packed as much into two days as we could, so while our trip went by way too quickly, we had a blast. It was great to meet Leah in person after hearing about all the great work she does for Base Directory with Billy and Tony. Her boyfriend is in the Navy and is stationed at Key West, so unfortunately we didn't get to see him too much, but their house was the perfect tropical oasis for us to unwind at.

I've gone on long enough for now, so stay tuned for details of our nautical adventure with Billy's mom and stepdad! Billy didn't quite tell me we'd be anchored offshore, so that was an exciting surprise when we headed out early this Monday! Unfortunately, Billy headed home Wednesday, but I'll be back to Denver soon enough :)