Magnolia Mamas

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Parents Escape: Key West {Day 4-7}

This week I've been chatting about our trip to Key West. To see the first few days, take a peek here:

All this reminiscing...my trip booking finger is getting a little twitchy. Especially as I am staring down rain, a pile of school tasks, and just general school year chaos. Tropical paradise sounds nice right about now! But, for now, I will just soak in all these fun memories.

Day 4

On this day we woke up and went for a quick work out at the Casa Marina gym (super well equipped by the way!), before heading out to Duval Street.

The World Cup Final was on and we wanted to watch it somewhere fun. We heard Irish Kevin's Pub was going to be hosting a World Cup gathering, so we thought this would be the perfect spot to watch.

It was close to lunchtime so we went ahead and ordered a light lunch. I asked the waitress to surprise me with one of her favorite popular cocktails. So she brought me this...

I'm not opposed to day drinking, but The World Famous Green Alligator was a little strong. She informed me it would taste like Kool Aid. Kool Aid isn't exactly what I would describe it as. I also might suggest Ubering over walking after half of one.

| tank | shorts | sandals |

After France beat Croatia, we decided to walk off our lunch and head back to the hotel on foot. It had rained so it wasn't quite as hot.

When we got to the hotel we heard it was National Ice Cream Day. So we celebrated by grabbing some coconut gelato. It was worth every calorie!

The rest of the afternoon we decided to just lounge beachside.

We knew the next day we would have to get up bright and early so relaxing and staying close for the rest of the day was perfect.

| dress | sunglasses | earrings |

We decided to stay on property for dinner, and couldn't believe we hadn't done that yet. It has such a pretty view in the evenings!

Dinner was so yummy, and once we were full we went straight to bed!

Day 5

Now we had to go to bed early the previous night because on this morning we were waking up at the crack of dawn to go off shore fishing. Mr. Cute loves to off shore fish, and on almost every tropical trip we've taken together he's chartered a boat for us. Now over the course of 17 years that's added up to a lot of trips. Out of those trips I can count on one hand how many total fish we have caught together. He was beginning to think I was bad luck. After last year's trip I made sure to pack an extra iPhone charger and downloaded two extra books.

Do I at least look the part?

| top | shorts |

We met with the Linda D's Sport Fishing crew nice and early. Right off the bat I had to admit it was probably the cleanest boat we'd ever booked. Like I wasn't even scared to use the potty this time around. That's saying a lot. Trust me.

We said goodbye to land for the next eight hours in search of Mahi Mahi.

And even though I typically inform everyone on the crew that I am more of a watch, not catch, kind of girl, this crew wasn't having it. They made me fish and I actually had fun.

And then they made me touch the fish and our relationship was officially dead to me.

Overall it was a super fun trip. The crew was amazing, and Mr. Cute and I had a blast. I rarely had to get out my book. It was a fishing miracle.

After working up an appetite, we showered off all the day's accumulated fish guts and headed out to dinner. I was so excited to wear this seersucker dress I purchased when we were in Hilton Head earlier this summer.

| dress | sandals | earrings |

The charter crew had given us a recommendation for a restaurant that would cook some of the fish we had caught. They also said Dante's had amazing macaroni and cheese.

Okay, if you are wanting to get back in my good graces - mac and cheese is the way to go.

I asked the waitress to surprise me with a house cocktail of her choice and whatever she brought me was amazing!

The food wasn't bad either! And the mac and cheese did live up to it's hype.

We are now back on speaking terms.

Dante's was an interesting atmosphere. I can only describe is as a dockside/poolside/bar lounge restaurant. It was open air with picnic tables, and there was a pretty decent band playing. It was super casual, and great people watching.

Okay, we had driven and walked past this wine and dessert bar dozens of times the previous days. We finally decided to see what Better Than Sex was all about. We heard the desserts were out of this world good.

The menu was extensive and all the desserts are homemade. Reading the descriptions of everything is almost better than eating everything. Key word - almost.

Because a chocolate rimmed wine glass might now be my favorite thing. Throw in a decadent chocolate cake...I'm never leaving.

Are they hiring? Someone ship my kids to me. I'm a writer...I can help with the menu...you know a more PG version, but still...

All that to say, it's worth a visit. A kid-free visit.

Day 6

We knew this was our last full day so we decided to do nothing but relax. We did a quick down the street to take a peek at the the Southernmost Point in the U.S.

The line was quick (apparently it can get pretty bad), and then we made our way back to Casa Marina for the rest of the day.

We parked ourselves at the adult only pool with a good book and a few cocktails, and didn't move until absolutely necessary.

And this called for absolutely necessary. We ordered lunch and all of the sudden these guys leaped out of the bushes behind us.

And brought nine of their friends. I was pool bound after that. This mama doesn't do large lizards. This nice couple from New York was in the adjoining cabana and let us lounge with them for awhile once they saw we were under siege. It was a fun way to spend the day, and we had a good laugh about it once we commandeered our stuff back.

That night we made our way to Duval Street to enjoy a dinner at Antonia's. It is an Italian restaurant and it was so so good! I didn't take many photos because the food didn't last long.

| dress |

Day 7

Time to go home... but not quite. Our flight wasn't scheduled until almost dinner time. So we were able to lounge at the hotel most of the day and requested a late checkout.

I made sure we soaked in every last ounce of beach time that we could.

It was super hot this day, so around mid-day we decided to change and get some lunch. I don't care where you are in the world, cheese dip and margaritas are always a good lunch option. And Old Town Mexican Cafe held that statement true.

Our food was excellent and we ate way too much of it! Oh so worth it though.

We still needed to kill a few hours, and we saw the Key West Aquarium was close by. It is small, but has a lot of hands on experiences and a lot of rehabilitated animals.

After this we made our way back to our bags at the hotel.

We couldn't leave without at least one more key lime pie under our belts. We hadn't really had any the entire trip and felt like it was necessary before we left.

Shortly after we were back at the airport and headed home to our crew.

It was such a fun week, and I definitely get the draw to this part of Florida. I can't wait to plan another trip there soon, and am already living through Carrie Beth who heads down in a few weeks.

Have you traveled to Key West? What are some of your favorites on the island? I feel like we saw a ton, but still missed so much!

Come spend the day with us on:

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Parents Escape: Key West {Days 2-3}

Yesterday I shared the first day of our trip to Key West, and today I am going to recap a few more days. It was such a fun trip, and looking back through these photos makes me want to hop on a plane and do it all over again!

Day 2

Okay, so through all the times Mr. Cute has traveled to Key West, and all the times Carrie Beth has been, I never remember them once mentioning this...

Roosters! Like everywhere! I mean...I was clueless. They're everywhere you turn, even the beach! It was the funniest thing to me, and apparently Key West is known for this and they are highly protected. I was oblivious to the fact that roosters apparently like to vacation too.

We woke up early our second day (parent life training), and decided to forego the gym and take advantage of the "cooler" weather. Our goal was to walk from one side of the island to the other. It was approximately seven miles round trip. About halfway through we wondered why we thought this was a good idea. Yes it was cooler than we were used to in Atlanta, but let's be real...it's still the South. In Summer.

It was hot and humid.

Revisit this idea in October and I bet it's perfection. The views along the way were gorgeous and that's probably what kept me motivated.

And I could do some major house dreaming...

The homes in Key West had me all sorts of smitten with their bright colors, tropical foliage and large porches.

After we made it back to the hotel we were so hot the only thing we could do was sit poolside and hydrate all day. I don't even think we ate lunch that day because all we could think about was cold water.

Once we recovered we were starving so we decided to go somewhere close for dinner. Louie's Backyard is just a block or two from the Casa Marina, and we had heard great things about it.

We called ahead and they said there was plenty of room, but by the time we arrived the downstairs was booked so we ate at the Cafe at Louie's upstairs. They have two completely different menus.

The views upstairs were gorgeous!

The menu is mostly small plates, which was more than fine. All of the ones we tried were delicious!

We split a few of them and Mr. Cute had a Caesar salad that he said was the best he had ever had. He raved so much about it that the chef came out with a printed copy of the dressing recipe for him.

We were so full at this point, but we were talked into trying their Key Lime Pie. It was out of this world delicious!

After this you needed to wheel us back to the hotel. We wobbled back and lounged in bed the rest of the night watching the World Cup. It was a great day!

Day 3

So day three started nice and early...

The fire alarm woke us around 4:30a.m. It went off for a few minutes and then stopped. After a mad scramble for our valuables and everyone heading outside for an unwanted pajama party we made it back to our rooms and went back to bed.

And then it happened again. For a longer amount of time. We have our suspicions of why it happened (more on that in a sec), but needless to say we weren't too happy about waking up that early on vacation. We get that at home with our kids. We don't need that on tropical parent escapes.

We tried to go back to bed, but after an hour or so of lounging we realized it wasn't going to happen.

We also noticed the amount of expensive cars in the parking lot for the Corsa Rally had more than quadrupled overnight. We asked the hotel about the show and they said over $30 million dollars worth of cars was sitting in the parking lot to rally and parade down Duval Street over the weekend.

It was crazy to see all the different cars. We learned a few things about the show, but we noticed the attendee's liked to par-tay. It was highly entertaining to witness sometimes, and totally makes sense about our early wake up call if you think about it.

After we caffeinated ourselves from our early wake up call, we decided to do some exploring to check out some of the museums in Key West. First up was the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum.

He was quite the character and it was fascinating to see his family home and see some of his memorabilia. I think my favorite was seeing his writing studio. This is the space he chose to write most of his books.

The house itself is neat, and I loved hearing some of the behind the scenes stories about he and his wives.

Everywhere you turn there are his infamous six toed cats. We saw them on displays, lounging in doorways, and even snuggled next to the stuffed cat animals in the gift shop.

It was a fun little museum. You can go on your own or take a guided tour. We opted for the guided tour and I was glad because we were able to learn more behind the scenes little stories or explanations to the displays we were seeing. The entire tour and museum doesn't take very long, and I think we were in an out in just over an hour. I would definitely put it on your radar if you are looking for something easy to do in Key West.

It wasn't quite lunchtime yet, so we decided to take in another museum. Our Uber driver from the airport told us about the Mel Fisher Museum, and said it was his favorite thing on the island. So we decided to head there next.

The museum is way larger than we were expecting, but I think it was my favorite of the two we visited.

I had never heard of the Atocha or Mel Fisher's story, but it was inspiring and I loved learning more about it. He is a great example of how positive energy and having a goal that you work hard at sometimes has great rewards.

There are tons of amazing treasures on display from the Atocha, and a few other shipwrecks that the Fisher family have found as well as a lot of interesting facts on treasure hunting, pirates, and modern day conservation.

You can also leave with a one of a kind souvenir if you like.

After we wrapped up at the Mel Fisher museum we had a quick lunch at The Commodore's Boat House Bar & Grill. It is located right on the water in the marina, and had yummy beach style food.

| tank | shorts | sandals |

But most importantly, just around the corner was the Lilly store! After lunch I decided to try on a few new things, and maybe take home one or two as well. I think this might have been Mr. Cute's favorite part of the day. ;)

This hot pink halter top and light pink halter dress were my favorite of all the things I tried on.

The both made their way back to Atlanta with me.

After shopping we went back to the hotel and just relaxed poolside for a bit. We finally resurfaced for some dinner just after sunset. We were given a recommendation of a restaurant just down the beach from the Casa Marina, and from the outside it looked like a typical beach restaurant with beach volley ball courts out front. However it was a hidden little gem with some upscale food, and a great wine list.

We came away super impressed...and full.

| romper | sandals |

At this point in the day we were tired, and decided to call it a night (and hope that our friendly car loving neighbors decided to have a slightly less exciting evening).

Tomorrow I'll share the last part of our trip!