Jetsetting Fools

Note--I have been slacking on our travel blog. Actually the reason is that I have been working on another blog, one that I update a lot more. Sorry that this blog has taken a backseat to the food one, but I'll try to do better.

Our second part of our Pacific Northwest trip back in August consisted of a couple of days hanging out in Portland and driving along the northern part of the Oregon Coast. We had been hoping to get out to this part of the nation for years now, but never had a chance till now. Since I had heard so many great things about Portland and Oregon from friends who had been there, I was excited to finally visit this West Coast state.

We left Seattle around 9 AM to miss the morning rush hour traffic and ended up getting into Portland around noonish right in time for lunch. Since we decided to skip breakfast that morning, our stomachs were ready to eat. Our first stop was Dan & Louis' Oyster Bar, the oldest family run restaurant in the city, and another Roadfood pick. We were not disappointed! I started my meal off with a delicious Bloody Mary (the menu had ranted about how it was the greatest--I would say it was pretty close) and a cup of their homemade clam chowder. I ordered the Crab Louis Salad (basically crab meat on a salad, lots and lots of crab meat that is), while Chris got a half order of the Cioppino (a mix of seafood in a tomato-based broth which was more than enough for hungry Chris). Everything was delicious and the seafood was extremely fresh. The walls of the restaurant were decorated with different plates. While I was getting up from our table, I noticed that a plate right above our table was this one.

After lunch, we headed to the Portland Art Museum for our cultural experience of the trip. While the museum was nice enough, I wasn't completely impressed by the collection and wished that we would have visited during a major exhibition (like the Rembrandt one the year before). But the gift shop was lovely (I picked up a few books--imagine that) and the museum was in walking distance of some shopping. We headed to the Nordstrom and hit a few other stores around the area (there is no sales tax in Portland!), but we didn't end up buying anything (don't worry, we'll make up for it later).

So we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts, where they have the famous bacon maple bar that you might have heard about on Food Network or on Anthony Bourdain's show. (I am drooling just thinking about it!) Yes, that is two pieces of bacon on top of a maple bar and let me tell you, it's DELICIOUS! Weird, but delicious!

After my gluttony (Chris isn't a big fan of doughnuts, so I had a few....I had to try them, right?), we headed to the Portland Rose Garden. It was in full bloom during our visit, so we were able see the gardens in their glory. There is also a decent city view from there and a summer concert was going on that night (we didn't stay because we had business to take care of...Powell's).

We tried to go to the minor league baseball game that night, but our pick in a restaurant ended up being one with very slow service and we missed an hour of the game before we got our check. But I couldn't complain because we were heading to Powell's Books. If you are a bookophile like I am, you would LOVE Powell's. It's the largest independent bookseller in the world and their store covers the entire city block! They sell both used and new books, so I was like a fat kid in a candystore and ended up with quite a few goodies to bring home. We ended up staying in the store for a couple of hours until our arms could carry no more.

On the second day, Chris wanted to take a roadtrip out to the coast to visit Astoria and Cannon Beach. But first, we headed to some of the lovely falls along the Columbia River Gorge (I did make sure that we stopped by Voodoo for a couple more doughnuts before we headed out). There are multiple falls along the route that you can stop at before you get to the big one, Multnomah Falls, which is the second largest year-round waterfall in the U.S.

After our trip to the falls, we headed back into the city to try out one of the famous food carts (they probably look more like trailers). For those who haven't been there, Portland has quite the selection of food carts, ranging from Mexican to Russian to Thai food. We opted for the Japanese one called Samuari Bento because the food coming from the cart looked pretty authentic and it had gotten a ringing endorsement from Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese movie director who won an Academy Award for Spirited Away. We weren't disappointed with our yaki soba (fried Japanese noodles) or pork cutlet curry.

With our bellies full of yummy food, we headed NW about two hours to Astoria. The Astoria Column was not open for climbing to the top that day, but views were still excellent from the parking lot . Then we drove down the Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach, which is famous for their haystacks . The temperature was only in the low 60's that day, so we weren't getting in that water (unlike some of the young kiddos). After Chris got his fill of sand and dipping his toes into the water, we headed back north to a small town called Seaside to eat at another amazing Roadfood find, Norma's Ocean Diner for some great clam chowder (it won some award from Bon Appetit), crab and sole--delicious!

We were disappointed that we missed out on trying some of Portland's many breweries and I was sad that I didn't get another chance to go back to Powell's for round 2, but it gives us an excuse to go back again in the future. I can't wait to go back!

At first, I was going to make our trip one big blog, but it ended up being so long. Here is part one about Seattle.

Chris was sent on a last minute work trip (during my birthday week) where he started in Oxnard, CA and ended up in Seattle, WA, where I met up with him for a little Pacific Northwest vacation. With the temperatures in KS soaring up near 100 degrees, I was more than happy to leave the Midwest for a little bit! Our plans included eating, visiting friends, eating, meeting two new babies, eating, seeing some art, eating....well, you get the picture.

We had visited Seattle together four summers ago, so I was willing to visit again when he asked. I was especially excited to visit Portland due to the fact that I had never been, but hadn't had a chance to go yet. Chris was excited to have me experience Seattle another time to try to persude me to want to move to the Emerald City.

The day I was leaving Kansas, the temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees (felt like a 120) and walking off the jetway in Denver for my connecting flight wasn't much better (they were experiencing a heatwave at the time too). When I finally arrived in Seattle around 7 PM, it was perfect weather--low 70s (my favorite temperature). I was thrilled. We started off with a drive to Pike's Place where we ate at Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar, a choice from the http://www.roadfood.com website. I will have to say this restaurant was one of the few disappointing Roadfood picks that we have eaten at. I had wanted to order oysters on the half shell, but decided against them and ordered the Captain's Platter instead (like fried everything-shrimp, scallops, fish, oysters & clams) while Chris got a seafood stew-type item. I was terribly disappointed in the quality of the fried seafood. I couldn't even imagine what a raw oyster would have tasted like because the fried ones were mushy and totally inedible. Chris' food was ok, but nothing like other Roadfood choices that we had tried out. A little disappointing, but it ended up being ok since the rest of our meals made up for the bad one.

We stayed with our friends, Cory and Bob, who have a sweet 8-month old boy, Vinh. We fell in love with this little guy, who was such a handsome and happy baby! We had a great time spending time with their family and they took us to two restaurants in Seattle, China Gate, for great dim sum (delicious) on Sunday and Gordita's on Monday night(for the biggest burrito ever). We also got a chance to eat brunch with Cory and Vinh (when Bob was at work on Monday) at Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe. The cafe has a couple of booths that they have decorated so that it looks like you are sitting inside a cow plus they also have an all-cow room....really funny. This dining establishment also has an entree of "Shake and Eggs"...we all thought about it, but it was a little early for a shake!

After a wonderful lunch of dim sum, we spent Sunday in Tacoma (just south of Seattle) to visit the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass. One of my favorite artists, Dale Chihuly, was born in this Washington city and the city is very proud of their son. If you don't know who you Chihuly is, if you have seen the Belligio ceiling in Vegas, that's his work. There are countless Chihuly works throughout the city including a very impressive bridge (that houses his work on the sides and ceiling) that you walk over to get to the Museum of Glass. http://www.chihuly.com/bridgeofglass/ The Tacoma Art Museum houses an extensive collection of his works and is definitely worth a trip just to see his work.

After getting our art fix, we stopped by Pike's Place Market to enjoy my favorite part of Seattle. If you haven't heard yet, I have started a food blog and always enjoyed visiting the local farmer's market in big cities. With the hustle and bustle of the market, the fresh produce, the beautiful flowers, wonderful food, Chris' favorite store in the world (Metsker's Maps); it's a fun place to explore and people watch. I always wish that I could buy bouquets of flowers and all the produce because everything is so fresh and beautiful. If you didn't know already, I am a big fan of Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations" where he travels the world focusing a lot on eating (he is celebrity chef for those who don't know). After I read his first book in 2000, Kitchen Confidential, I have been a foodie obsessed with Mr. Bourdain. Chris has even become a fan of his show which means that we try to eat at places that he eats at on his show. A show on Seattle aired early in 2007 on the Travel Channel, where he ate at countless yummy looking places including Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery located in the marketplace. Here we ate a piroshky, which is a bread shaped like a little pie filled with all kinds of delicious fillings. I indulged in a potato, mushroom & onion one while Chris had a sauerkraut, cabbage, onion & carrot one. Both were wonderful, so wonderful that we stopped there again before our flight back to KS for snacks on the plane! (Anthony Bourdain will appear in our blog later....just wait).

On Sunday after our museum visits, we went to visit Matt and Cress, who also have a new addition to their family, 9-month old, Ryder. He is another cute, super sweet, smiling bundle of joy! We were thrilled to finally get to meet the two Seattle babies and look forward to watching them grow up. Thank goodness for the internet where we can follow their lives through pics, blogs and emails. Matt took us on a long 2 1/2 hour walk around the Freemont area by their house after dinner and showed us all the points of interests along the way. We had a great time with Matt (who is extremely funny and is never going to ever let one of Chris' comments ever be forgotten) and his lovely family.

Monday after our lovely brunch at the cow cafe, Chris and I headed to the Snoqualmie Falls about 20 miles outside of Seattle. It was getting a little hot that day for Seattle (upper 80s?--I can't remember, but it wasn't very cool) and our flip flops weren't exactly the right footwear to hike down to the falls, so we did not climb over the railing and obeyed the sign that said not to climb down to the bottom of the falls on the rocks (unlike the many people that decided to). Instead, we climbed back up to the top and head back to downtown to Top Pot Doughnuts (another Anthony Bourdain suggestion) where they have some very delicious, dense doughnuts. I am not a coffee drinker, so I did not have any of their supposedly wonderful coffee.
That night we went to visit yet another group of friends, who have moved to Seattle from Lawrence, Alena and Rebecca (Paula was gone with her parents). We got an added bonus that Rebecca's sister, Hannah (who lives in Lawrence, but we never see her), was also visiting with her daughter and niece. It was great to catch up with everyone even if it was a short visit.

We did have some time in Seattle after our two days in Oregon (blog to follow) before our 4:45 PM flight, so we decided to eat at Mario Batali's dad's deli, Salumi http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/. If you have watched the Food Network, Mario Batali is the red-headed Italian chef. His father has perfected the art of curing meats in a location in Pioneer Square (where one of my favorite bookstores in the world is). The deli has gained even more popularity due to Anthony Bourdain's show and at 11:20 AM, the line was already 30+ deep. Our 40 minute wait was more than worth it when one of the girls came out with samples of their salami that was cured with orange peel and cardamom. Their salami is to die for and we were especially fortunate to visit the deli on the day that the special was pork butt sandwiches (a speciality that is produced only once a month). Chris and I ordered three sandwiches, with the idea that the third one would be for the flight. We ordered a pork butt sandwich on their olive oil bread, paprika salami also on olive oil bread and a pork w/onions & green peppers one on the baguette with the intention to share a little bit of all of them. One bite of the pork butt sandwich and I wasn't sharing anymore! The piece of pork butt tasted as good as an extremely juicy piece of filet mignon (maybe even better). It was amazing. I think that Chris might have gotten two bite of the pork butt sandwich and asked if I wanted to trade halves. While devouring the pork butt sandwich, I had to swat his hand away multiple times. I would have been willing to standing in the line (even longer when we left) again if we had enough time before our flight for one more pork butt sandwich. The other two sandwiches were quite excellent as well, but let's just say that I haven't stopped thinking about that pork butt sandwich since! This little deli houses maybe enough seating for 20 people (many people would take their sandwiches to go). Little did we know that we would be sharing the communal table in back with one of the girls who worked there, her boyfriend and co-worker. While eating our lunch, we listened to her talk about how Mr. Bourdain was visiting Seattle and had just come in to eat lunch the day before to bring in an autographed copy of his book for the owners. I MISSED MY FOOD IDOL BY ONE DAY! A real bummer for me.

After our fantastic meal, we walked down to Elliot Bay Book Company. It's also located in Pioneer Square and a bookophile could spend hours in this wonderful cedar bookcase lined bookstore. http://www.elliottbaybook.com/ But we had one more stop before we had to head to the airport which was the newly opened this year, Olympic Sculpture Park. This nine-acre park was once an industrial site and has been transformed to an open waterfront park with great views of the water, the Space Needle, and the mountains. It's owned by the Seattle Art Museum and is proof that an eyesore in the city can be made into something nice for people to enjoy.

We ended our time in Seattle with picking up some piroskhy for the flight and being tempted with free flights to give up our seats on the return home. Since Chris had been gone for so long, we decided against it and flew home.

Has he convinced me to move yet? I told him that we needed to spend a week there in the winter when the skies are dark and gloomy, then we'll see. I do love the water, the restaurants, Pike's Place, the mountains, all the trees, Elliot Bay bookstore and who could forget that pork butt sandwich. I am almost sold just on that sandwich alone. Just don't tell Chris....shhhhhh......

Sorry that I didn't get to blog right after our road trip, but I headed out to spend time with the family in SoCal for 10 days and didn't have access to my pictures. Then I got back from my trip and have been adjusting to Chris' working at home status. I figured that our readers will have to forgive me this time.

The last three summers have consisted of an art & baseball road trip, so this year wasn't going to be any different (even with soaring gas prices and my gas guzzling vehicle). When we found out that Detroit was going to play the Dodgers in interleague play, our minds were made up on where we would be going this summer. We also decided to combine our trip with a visit to see our friends who moved to South Bend, IN from Charlotte, NC.

We left on Friday the 13th and headed to Indianapolis, IN. The Indianapolis Museum of Art is open till 9 PM on Fridays, so we were able to get there before the museum closed. The museum sits on 152 acres of beautiful grounds and also includes the Lilly House, a 22-room mansion that was once the home of an Indianapolis collector and businessman. We didn't get a chance to tour the mansion, but the art museum itself was quite large and took up two hours (skipping parts because the museum was going to close). Best of all, the museum was FREE!!

After our cultural experience, we headed for a quick stop to Trader Joe's. Unfortunately the closest one to us is in St Louis, so road trip stops at TJ's are common whenever there is one around. Kansas City is missing out on this wonderful grocery store. If you don't know what I am talking about, there is the link http://www.traderjoes.com. It's kind of like a smaller version of Whole Foods without having to break the bank.

By that time, we were ready to eat some dinner. It was nearing 9 PM and we headed to the oldest restaurant in Indy. A German brewhouse called The Rathskeller http://www.rathskeller.com/default.htm, where we feasted on Brat 'n Kraut Balls (delicious), Schintzel and a combo plate of Wursts. The dinner plates came with soup or salad and the choice of two sides from their long list. (Pictures of the food will be posted to our shutterfly account as this blog doesn't allow us to post too many of them yet). Add in the sampler of beer plus my medium size (a huge 28 oz) and I was ready to go party in the biergarten where they had live 80's cover bands that night. But we knew that after a long day of driving, we needed to get to bed.

The sole reason for going to Detroit was to finally get a baseball game in and with the Dodgers playing, there wasn't any excuse. I hadn't heard too many good reviews of the city from various friends, but I was willing to keep an open mind and not really expect anything. Chris had also spent many weeks for work there when he first took his job, but he was stuck there during the winter (a season that no one would be happy with if they were stuck in MI). I had spent hours googling the Detroit area on things to do and eat, so we were ready to experience the city.

First off, we headed to West Bloomingfield for some dim sum. Over the years, I have ruined KS Chinese food for Chris because he had no idea that it wasn't supposed to be a sticky, gloppy, greasy mess until I took him to eat the real deal in LA. Also, after eating my mom's cooking, he has become quite the connoisseur of Chinese food. But who knew that great dim sum could be found in the burbs of Detroit at a restaurant called Shangri-La? I was greeted by a waiter who spoke Manadrin Chinese to me and I also noticed that the non-Asians were also eating the odd dim sum dishes like chicken's feet, which was a good sign. The food was very good (not CA good, but good enough to satisfy our craving) because it was fresh & hot plus there was a decent selection of items. After filling our bellies, we headed to the Detroit Institute of Art before the baseball game. The DIA is very impressive and just completed a remodel. Unfortunately, the game had a weird start time at 4:15, so our time in the museum was limited. When this happens, we hit the highlights and my favorite genres (Renaissance and Modern European Art--1900 to 1945). The Diego Rivera murals were well worth the trip up there if you can't make it to Mexico City and the museum is definitely a must-see for art lovers.

After the museum, we headed down to Comerica Park to drink $8.25 beers (one of the most expensive in the big leagues) and watch my beloved Dodgers get beat badly by the lowly Tigers (at the time only the Royals were worse in their division). But the ballpark was really nice and the people even nicer--surprising since we were decked out in Dodgers gear. Even more amazing was the fact that the stadium was completely sold out for a team that was barely out of last place (even without any promotions going on which seems to be the only time that the Royals sell out these days).

Our lovely time in Detroit was topped off by a dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant that was featured in Bon Appetit magazine a few years ago (a fun, funky & very modern designed restaurant with good food) and a breakfast at Detroit's Breakfast House & Grill, a very hopping breakfast spot in downtown. We waited about 40 minutes for a table and I was awarded with shrimp & cheese grits (yummy) on the menu. Detroit isn't as bad as everyone said, you just need to keep an open mind and enjoy the friendliness of the people. We were also amazed by the cleaniness of the city. It's really too bad that many of the downtown building are so run down because many of them are an architecture lover's dream.

After breakfast, we drove south to Canada. What? Yes, you drive from Detroit south to get to Windsor, the only Canadian city where you do so. From there, you get beautiful views of the Detroit skyline as seen in this picture which was taken at the Art Gallery of Windsor.

We also made a detour to East Lansing to visit the art museum at Michigan State. The art museum was disappointing because it's really just a big room in the art history department building, but they are in the process of building a large free standing building to house more of their collection. Here in Lawrence, we are spoiled with the Spencer Museum of Art. Many people think that most universities/colleges house their collections in a place like that, but that's not the norm. Most school's art collections are stored somewhere and not always in the most prime conditions, which means that many priceless pieces of art are sitting where no one ever sees them. Sad, but true.

Our destination was South Bend, IN to see our friends, Jaime and Lori, who are the proud parents of nine-month old Tegan. What a sweetie she is (even if she never sleeps)! We ended up taking a walk around Notre Dame's campus, then having a picnic there, a tour of the South Bend Chocolate Factory and watched some guys kayak down a kayak course. We weren't really expecting too much excitement in South Bend, but we were really only there to meet the baby and hang out with our friends.

On Tuesday, we headed back home with a detour to Omaha for a College World Series game (the eventual Champions Frenso State vs. North Carolina). As we have told people before, if you are a baseball fan, this sporting event is a must do at least once in your lifetime. It's a lot of fun (even if you aren't fans of any of the teams--but I always cheer for any of the CA schools since there is almost always 2-3 of them yearly) and the fans are super friendly. The grounds around the stadium have a party-like atmosphere filled with tents selling baseball gear. Since 2004, we have it to three CWS and we figured that as long as we were in KS, we would make it a yearly tradition. Maybe we can convince some of our friends to join us?????

After we booked our South Florida trip (and being the crazy travelers that we are), I started looking up flights to various places in the Caribbean. Since Miami is American Airlines' (our international airline of choice) Caribbean/South American hub, I figured that I would be able to find a decent ticket to the Bahamas or somewhere close by. My research came up with a great deal to the small Netherlands Antilliean island of Curaçao, just off the coast of northern Venezuela. Seeing that we had just visited the Dutch part of Belgium earlier in the year (and loved it), I was thrilled to get to go to a place where the Dutch love to vacation (there is a direct flight from Amsterdam). Another bonus for us was to be able to go to a foreign Caribbean island and not have to listen to Americans the whole time plus we were thrilled that there was a direct flight from Miami.

This was the first vacation for the two of us that was just about relaxing and doing nothing. To be honest, we weren't really sure that it would be a vacation that we would like. We are used to vacations in cities with lots to do and Curaçao is a small island with not much to do. We were also staying in a beach resort (that was 45 minutes away from the capital) in the far western part of the island where it is sparsely populated. I have always picked the city over the beach, so I wasn't really sure about how I would deal with the lack of traffic, noise and people. We were pleasantly surprised that we LOVED it!

Our trip began with the Miami International Airport. Wow! What craziness! I had never seen so many people at an airport during a non-holiday time (and remember I have flown out of LAX a lot) and thought that we were never getting through the line. Luckily, the international line (Curaçao was considered international and we didn't have to go in the very long Caribbean/Puerto Rico line) was short. The lady behind the counter asked if we were going on our honeymoon and I said no. But later, we realized that she was probably going to upgrade us to first class if we said yes. Oh, well.

We decided to stay at the Lodge Kura Hulanda & Beach Club instead of the Marriott, which ended up being the perfect choice since most of our fellow American travelers on the plane were staying there. Since we were traveling during the shoulder season, we pretty much shared the resort with only 30 people or so, who were mostly Dutch with a very few Americans and Canadians thrown in the mix. The hotel sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean with its' own secluded beach. The staff was friendly and attentive (most of them spoke English very well and the ones that didn't, spoke enough to get by) and made sure that all the guests had a great time. Even the few small Dutch children that were at the resort were perfectly well behaved. Getting into the ocean water was a bit on the rough side because of all the coral & rocks that are right off the sand, but after awhile, you get used to it. Water shoes would have been good. As soon as you entered the water, there was some decent snorkeling (mostly fish since the coral was dead around the area). It was my first time snorkeling and after figuring out that it was my mask that was having issues (it kept fogging up) and not user error, I had a great time. We had purchased our gear in Kansas City before we left so that we wouldn't have to rent them for $20/hr, which ended up being great since we snorkeled quite a bit whenever we went down to the beach. I LOVED the fact that someone would come and bring us drinks if we wanted while on the beach. We threw back more than our fair share of Polar & Amstel Bright (not light, but bright which specially made for the Caribbean) beers and I got the bartenders to fix me the perfect mango daiquiri (which ended up being my drink of choice). The pool was beautiful and had a great view of the ocean. Chris took a few siestas in the cabanas by the pool on a couple of the afternoons.

After a couple of days of doing nothing in the sun, we decided that since we had a car (we forgot to take a picture of it, but seriously, it could have fit in the back of my 4-Runner) that we should venture outside of the resort. One night, we went to eat at a restaurant that was close by that the bellman had told us about. The restaurant, Jaanchie's, is famous for uncaged songbirds that fly around the open-air dining room. Since it was nearly dark when we got there, I did not realize that the things that were actually flying around were bats (another one of my least favorite things!) until I started looking at the pictures that I had taken. Chris had realized what they were, but wanted to keep it a secret until after the dinner was over. Being a good sport, I sat cringing with each bite while they flew back and forth next to my head. The meal was great (Chris had goat stew and fried conch, while I had grouper and shrimp) and the owner even gave me a present of a painted, hand-carved parrot with the restaurant's name on it as a memento of our meal. It was a good thing that it was a bird and not a bat or I might have left screaming!

The next day, we decided to head for the capital, Willemstad, to see the Dutch architecture that we had read about that is painted in Caribbean colors and to do some shopping. Since our hotel had a sister hotel in the city, we were able to park our car in their lot for free. The hotel, Hotel Kura Hulanda, is like a little village in the middle of the big city and worth a look at. We ate at the Gorverneur De Rouville, which over looks the water and faces some of the Dutch architecture. Chris had the yeshi yena (the local speciality of stuffed cheese, chicken & prunes! It sounds weird but it was really good) and lobster bisque & a lamb sandwich for me. This is what we were looking at while we ate. Willemstad has an interesting floating bridge called Queen Emma Bridge, which opens and closes frequently to let ships pass. It looks like it's swinging away from the other side and you take a ferry to the other side when the bridge is closed. After our ferry ride back, I was starting to get grumpy because of the heat and the $2 bottles of water didn't help matters, so we went back and spent the rest of our trip never leaving the resort.

http://www.curacao.com/ Curaçao is overshadowed by the more popular island to the west, Aruba, but we were happy that we decided to give it a try. Things that I learned on our Caribbean vacation 1) we can have a vacation where we do NOTHING (actually it's bad because it's opened a new can of worms of places to go) 2) I am not able to wear multiple styles of bikinis on my Caribbean vacation unless I want to have 160 different tan lines 3) snorkeling is ok and I am not going to be eaten by a shark 4) don't trust flying objects after the sun has set and 5) Chris doesn't snore when he naps in cabanas, so maybe we need to move somewhere he can sleep outside all the time. We were sad to see our time here end. We decided that our 5 days/4 nights wasn't enough time, but then again, 2 months in paradise still wouldn't be enough.

About ten years ago, I read a biography about my favorite author, Ernest Hemingway, which detailed his life in Key West, FL. Since finishing that book, I have been wanting to make the pilgrimage to his house to see where the author lived and wrote one of my favorite books For Whom The Bell Tolls. We knew that it was going to be too short of a trip (we were only there for one night), but we were both ready to visit this island paradise that we had heard so much about from friends and travel shows.

We started driving on May 15th from Florida City (which is at the gateway to the Keys) around 8:30 AM and kept the convertible top up while the weather was still a bit on the cool side. Our first stop in the Keys was 30 miles away in Key Largo to see the original boat from the Hepburn/Bogart classic African Queen (one of my favorites). Funny quote from Chris "What movie is this from?" Not super exciting, but it gave us a chance to put the top down. Chris kept teasing me that there were crocodiles (one of my least favorite things in the world) waiting in the waters for me--not really funny.

We made it over to Key West in about 3 hours, just in time to eat lunch at the Cuban restaurant, El Siboney, that is hidden in the corner of a residental area. Chris had fried pork cubes, while I stuck with my seafood theme for the trip and ate freshly caught grouper. Our restaurant picks in Key West came from the website http://www.roadfood.com/ and we were very pleased with all three meals. Dinner and breakfast were especially great. Our dinner was at the Victorian House turned into restaurant, Louis' Backyard, where we had a wonderful view of the water and enjoyed a magnificent meal. I was especially excited that the restaurant had shrimp and grits (I am big fan of grits) and made up my mind of what I was having as soon as I noticed the picture on roadfood of the dish. I was not disappointed in my plate and even had to smack Chris' fork away a couple of times, while devouring the shrimp, grits and sauteed veggies in my bowl. This is our view from our table that night. Our wonderful meals in Key West was finished off by breakfast at Blue Heaven http://blueheavenkw.homestead.com/Blue_Heaven_Restaurant_Key_West.html. This is a quirky restaurant with an outdoor eating area with random chickens & roosters running around and kitties taking siestas. Ernest Hemingway also boxed and had cock fights at this location. We had to wait awhile for a table, but it gave us time to look around the grounds where people were selling their artwork, a lady was singing some folk songs and people were starting to drink at the bar (Key West is serious about their drinking!). Ever since New Hampshire Street Bistro closed down in Lawrence, both of us haven't been able to cure our Eggs Benedict cravings. So we each ordered one (a regular one for me and a lobster one for Chris). Marvelous! Both were perfect and Chris' spiny FL lobster was sweet, tender and unbelievable. They didn't call the restaurant Blue Heaven for nothing!

As for the non-food side of our trip, we were able to do a lot in our short time on the island. Key West is small and compact. If you have a car there, it's really easy to get to all the attractions in a short amount of time. Since we weren't hanging out at the beach (we were waiting for the Carribean part of the trip for that), we did everything that we had planned on doing. My only "to-do" was to visit the Hemingway House, which was well worth it for the historical aspect, the friendly, lazy kitties and beautiful garden. This picture is pretty typical of the Hemingway Cats: lazy, lazy, lazy. Other things that we did were the Key West Lighthouse (88 steps to a great view of the island), Fort Taylor (which was actually used in the Cuban Missile Crisis in Oct 1962), shop & walk down Duval Street, the Southernmost Point of the U.S.A. Marker (which my geography nerd told me really isn't the southernmost point) and a drink at Sloppy Joe's.

All in all, Key West was very relaxing, laid back and a perfect place to get away from everything. We'll be sure to visit again!