Two girls and a boat

Spent all day on a parasailing boat from Awesome Adventures. We found them in the yellow pages and I can''t say enough about them. Jeff and Scott let us stay on their boat all day and we even drove it while they took on other clients. Infact a family from Texas thought we worked for Awesome Adventures! After Jeff was done parasailing clients, he took us on a boat tour of Key West, both Atlantic and Gulf sides and we got to see one of those beautiful Key West sunsets you always here about. Also, I saw my first live transvestite on Duvall Street. Another recommendation is Hawk''s Quay Resort on Duck Key (outside of Marathon). Quiet and beautiful. Layout poolside or lagoon side! Lot''s of good food, but bring your wallet. Not cheap.

Quick Tips:

You must have a drink in Sloppy Joe''s bar. However, across the street and upstairs (on the roof) is the best dance club (can''t remember the name). If you stay at Hawk''s Quay be sure to look for Julie Salvetti of Designs by Julie, the best handcrafted ankle bracelets and other jewelery you will ever find. Also, Pandemonium is a fantastic art store just off Duvall Street at Olive. Valerie Hoh hand paints ceramic tiles that are awesome. Very unusual items for the art lover.

Best Way To Get Around:

Key West is quite large by Florida Key standards. The only walking to be done is on Duvall Street. Just park your car a few blocks away or in one of the public parking spots and start hoofing it.

Hawk''s Cay is a fabulous place - beautiful pool and beaches, its own private lagoon, and large comfy rooms. The bath tubs have gel-filled bottoms that are so comfortable to stand on when you''re in the shower. Beautiful views of the water from every room. There is a wonderful restaurant that serves a huge breakfast buffet. There is also a marina.

Hawk''s Cay also has the Keys only swim with the dolphins program. I did not participate in the program, but you can watch it from the lagoon and the kids looked like they were having a wonderful time. However, it is expensive!

Let me clarify, I was lucky enough to have won a stay at the Hawk''s Cay through an internet contest. I received a regular room for two nights, breakfast for two, and a snorkel excursion. I checked the prices while I was there and could not believe how much it was, especially for food. The food and service were great when you consider we were staying there for free.

If you have the money for this resort, definitely go. It''s wonderful. If you''re a budget traveler like myself, winning a contest may be the only way you will get there. Side note - we were unable to go on the snorkel excursion because of windy weather (we were there only a month after Hurricane Georges and the sea bottom was pretty torn up).

The Hard Rock Café in Key West is actually a large Victorian house that has been completely redone into a restaurant. Rather odd seeing all that rock and roll paraphernalia in a 1900s setting. My friend and I dined at the Hard Rock for two reasons. We knew what type of food they serve and we know their prices.

We dined outside at a small table on the front porch overlooking Duval Street. Our waitress was really nice and always there to refill our ice teas. I hope we tipped her enough. We both had delicious grilled chicken sandwiches. We didn’t have much money when we went on this trip, and the Hard Rock was one of the few places we ate other than Taco Bell. It was nice to actually be waited on for a change. I’ve been to several Hard Rocks in the country (Chicago is excellent, Denver is excellent, Maui only OK) and this one was excellent.

The thing about places like the Hard Rock, for me anyway, is that when you’re low on cash and not sure about trying out a local restaurant, you can go into these places and know exactly what you’re going to get. After spending a few more days in Key West we did discover some cute local cafes, but when you’re new in town it’s nice to have something familiar to go to until your get your bearings.

A tiny little grill right off Highway 1 before you get to 7 Mile Bridge. Great sandwiches and most of the seating is at the counter which is practically outdoors. There are no walls at this grill.

Pandemonium is a unique shopping experience in Key West. Not the usual knick-knacks and souvenir trinkets. Valerie Hoh sells artistic pieces, both painting and sculpture that are uniquely Key West. I focused my attention on the hand-painted ceramic tiles that Valerie painted herself. She told me she orders white tiles from California and then paints them with Key West themes. I bought two, one had a palm tree and sun and said "Key West", and the other was a comic-looking cat (cats are common in the Keys). I also bought several smaller ones for gifts.

Off to the side of the building is an early convertible car decorated completely with tiny mosaic tiles. The shop is a little on the expensive side, but remember you are getting a uniquely Conch Republic piece of art, something that no one else will have. Beats buying a silly key chain any day.

The Caribbean Club was the site of filming for the movie classic "Casablanca." We didn't know that at the time so to us it was just another bar. And a fun bar it was. Gwen and I arrived in Miami at 11 p.m. at night thanks to a snow storm in St. Louis. As we were wondering aloud at the car rental agency how we were going to get out of Miami and to Highway 1, a man spoke up and said he was heading to Key Largo and we could follow him. Thanks to him the ride out of Miami and onto the most famous highway in the country was easy and fast. We arrived at Key Largo around midnight and he pulled into the Caribbean Club which is right off the highway at MM 104.

It didn't look like much from the outside, but it was dark so we couldn't see the large deck out back and the marina and volleyball nets behind it. The man, Casey, a screen writer from L.A., invited us inside for a beer. Since he helped us get out of the big city, buying him a beer was the least we could do. Now it was a Wednesday night so the place was almost empty.

We sat right at the bar and talked about why we were in the Keys. Turns out Casey's mother lived in Key Largo and he was visiting for the holidays. We were just looking for a good time on vacation. As we were talking, an old man sitting next to me joined our conversation. Needless to say, he'd been there a while. He told us how he came to the Keys for vacation from Chicago twenty years ago. He like it so much he never left. Turns out the hurricane took his trailer home, but insurance was going to get him a new one so he had no worries.

This laid back resident's attitude was exactly what drew us to the Keys and so from the very first hours of our trip we were already relaxing and enjoying our new friends' company. Our one beer turned into three and it wasn't until 2 a.m. that we left the Caribbean Club and drove another hour and a half to our resort.

On the return trip to Miami the last day we stopped at the Caribbean Club even though it was 10 a.m. and closed to take some photos and check out the area. It looked far more impressive in the daylight, very brightly painted in red and blue with "Caribbean Club" emblazoned on the roof. It was a great place to start and end our vacation.

If you like to drive scenic highways, this is the one to take. There are so many things to see and places to stop you can get overwhelmed, but remember, you're on vacation so you've got nowhere you have to be. Take your time and enjoy it! The only thing I regret was not spending the money and getting a convertable because this road was meant for top down driving! We drove the highway in segments since we spent the first two nights of our trip at Hawk's Quay near Marathon which is about the middle of the Keys. I've never seen more variety in the colors blue and green than while driving Highway 1.

If you've seen the movie "True Lies" then you've seen the Seven Mile Bridge. On one side of you is the Atlantic Ocean and the other is the Gulf of Mexico with many boats traveling under and around the bridge. There's no safe place to actually stop and take photos, however. I suppose you could pull onto the narrow shoulder, but I don't recommend it.

As we were driving farther south we came across two police cars in a parking lot and Gwen begged me to pull over. She wanted to get a photo of her in the back of a patrol car. Apparently that is something she tries to do when she's on vacation. We talked to the cops and asked for a photo, but they didn't like the idea of us in the back of their car. Still, they did agree to a photo with Gwen. As I took the picture, she put her arms around the cops and one of them thought she was going for his gun. Yikes! After many apologies, we got our photo and left as quickly as possible.

As we were driving you could still see damage from Hurricane Georges (this was some time ago so all is well with the Keys now), so there was a dose of reality to our vacation. No one was killed in the hurricane that we know of, but it did do some damage to the trees and smaller homes.

Upon entering Key West we followed the signs to the buoy that marks Key West as the southern most point in the US. As we were taking our photos a homeless man approached us and offered to take a photo of us together. Being the naive girls we were, we let him do this and were surprised when he DEMANDED a tip for taking our picture. We refused and he almost didn't give us back our camera. Instead he yelled obscenities at us as we made our way to the car. Fortunately, this was the only negative experience we had in the Keys.

All of the locals we met were extremely friendly and their laid back Key attitude was so refreshing from our stressful lives in the cold Midwest.