Key West

During our sail south the previous year we had not made it as far south as Key West primarily as we just ran out time on our visa.  A few people had mentioned that it was a nice place to visit and although we had previously not been that enamoured by the Keys we thought it was worth a visit.

Not sure either of us felt like that was the best decision as we started the drive south, the road from Miami through the Keys in dull, initially the outskirts of Miami is filled with the usual shops and restaurant, unbelievable how many of the same fastfood places you see within a 10 mile strip.

As you get into the Keys the road as far as Marathon is pretty dull and slow, we were wondering whether to turn round, we did have the highlight of seeing a deer but it was only a fleeting glimpse.  The scenery improves on the last stretch of the journey with longer bridges and more views of the sea but 4 hours drive was a long time!

First stop was the beach to have our picnic, we had high hopes for the beach, in the photo is looks nice than it was unfortunately it was very smelly, so lunch was quick.

We then spent some time driving around the streets just taking in the quaint houses and general  atmosphere, this was easier than walking around when we were short of time and there was no way we wanted to pay for one of the many tours which were running.  We did enjoy a wander along Duval Street which is the main street, full of shops and restaurants, yes it is a little cheesy in places but general we didn’t think it was too spoilt.

The drive back was just as painful especially as we had heavy rain for over an hour but the drive was slightly less tiring for Mark as Amanda was keen to take her turn in driving as we had a cool little Beetle.