After my time at the Hemingway House, I spent the afternoon at my hotel, relaxing and cooling off, it was super hot that day. In the evening, walked down to Mallory Square to experience the famous Sunset Celebration. Walking around Key West is so beautiful, even though I had walked this way several times already, I noticed so many beautiful things.
This is one well known historic site that I didn't get to during my breif trip. The Little White House was the winter White House for President Harry S. Truman. Something to look forward to for next time!
The rainbow crosswalks at the intersection of Duvall and Petronia Streets are so fun. They are in the heart of the island's LGBTQ+ entertainment district and have become a city landmark and a popular photo op stop.
"The rainbow crosswalks mean that everybody is welcome, everybody is equal, everybody is recognized and that we really do abide by the 'One Human Family' spirit."
-Key West Mayor Teri Johnston
I got to Mallory Square pretty early, I wanted to make sure I had time to wander through the quirky, fun shops and get my cards read before staking out a spot to watch the sun set.
I love a shell shop and the Key West Shell Warehouse did not disappoint! It had endless rows of all kinds of shells, it was magical.
I didn't know nautilaus shells were so expensive!
These boxes reminded me of sailor valentines. I have always wanted one of those.
The Shipwreck Museum is another thing I have on my list to visit next time. I have seen pictures of what it looks like on the inside and it looks so fun!
This is a good map that shows all of the lower part of Key West.
There was a really neat area that had busts of well known people who had lived in Key West or were important to the island in some way.
By now, some of the live performers had started to show up. The tarot card reader had just finished setting up his table and I was his first customer of the evening.
Ron Augustine is a resident card reader at the sunset celebration and he is wonderful. He is so fun to talk with, he spent a long time with me and gave me several different kinds of readings based on the questions I asked him. He has such a calming, gentle, and patient energy, I learned so much from him. I highly recommend getting a reading from him!
I was so completely enthralled in my conversation with Ron that by the time we were finished and I looked up, a big crowd had materialized waiting for the sunset. Luckily, since I was just one person, I was able to find a spot pretty quickly. We had to wait for a while before the sun started to set, I was glad that we had a nice place to sit.
This was our starting view.
Lots of people watch the sunset from sailboats or cruises, so there were several boats dotting the horizon.
The crowd kept growing as the sun got lower
We watched until the sun silently slipped below the horizon. The whole crowd started clapping the final few seconds we could see the sun, thanking it for the beautiful show it had just put on for us.
After the sunset show, I strolled around taking in all the excitment of the live performers, art displays and people watching. I couldn't resist asking to meet this gorgeous little pony of a dog, his owner was so nice and was like "Here! take his leash and I will take a picture of you!" People in Key West are so nice
I had read that getting a drink or a snack at Sunset Pier was a popular thing to do and it has gorgeous views, so I headed over there next.
There was live music and twinkle lights and it indeed had a wonderful view of the water and the fading sunset. I found a table and perused the menu and didn't really see anything
I wanted to get and, to be honest, it was a little loud and chaotic for me. So I decided to head back to my hotel in it's quiet, little neighborhood.
There is a Mattheessen's Bakery location pretty close to Mallory Square, so I quickly popped in to get one of their famous ginormous cookies.
They had so many yummy flavors to choose from, it was a hard choice. In the end, I went with the chocolate chip macadamia nut. I got a couple of other goodies that I'll show a little later.
I had avoided being out on Duvall Street at night since I am not a partier, but walking on this busy street seemed like a better option than walking on the super dark, quiet streets. Duvall Street has a little bit of everything, but were lots of really cute places that looked so fun all lit up at night.
This is Key West's Hard Rock Cafe, I think that is the cutest Hard Rock location I have ever seen!
My new friend Mark, from that Audubon House gave me some suggestions of some nice places to eat, I strolled passed a couple of them and they did look so fun but they were all booked up and I was in the mood for something more low key and casual. I would love to check them out next time I visit.
When I got back to my hotel, I couldn't wait to try out my goodies. I couldn't pass up the brownie or the macaroon, they are two of my favorite kinds of treats! Their size was just as ginormous as the cookies!
Literally the size of my face
The cookie was the size of my head, I have it pushed up against my nose, there is no optical illusion here.
And the macaroon was a big as my palm! I took one bite of each, they were all amazing, they do brownies right! It is so hard to find a brownie that is done right. Then I put them in my Tupperware container that I always bring with me on trips for this exact reason, and I would be nibbling on those for the next week, it took me so long to work my way through all of them.
As tempting as it was to have baked goods for dinner, I knew I needed something a little more substantial. I was pretty emotionally tired, being around a crowd always drains me pretty quick, and I didn't have it in me to research and walk to somewhere new. So, I changed into some comfy clothes and just crossed the street to Moon Dog, even though I had had breakfast there that morning. Their food is so good, and their dinner menu looked amazing,
I was seated on their front patio this time which has a cool view of the lighthouse. I ordered some yummy comfort food and it hit the spot. Eating alone can sometimes be exhausting because people tend to look at you a lot, and most of the time it doesn't bother me, but since I was already emotionally depleted, it felt extra tiring to me that night, so I put in my headphones and watched a show to kind of tune out the emotional exhaustion. It turned out to be a pretty relaxing meal which was just what I needed.
Towards the end of my meal, this cute older gentleman and his dog were seated at the table next to me. It was kind of nice to have another solo diner join the patio. His dog was so sweet and plopped down under his chair and snoozed.
When my server asked me if I would like any dessert, my initial reaction was to say "no" because I had about 10 pounds of baked goods back at the hotel. However, my curiosity about the pastry with the orange cream that I had been eyeing that morning, got a hold of me and I asked what flavor it was. Once she told me it was passionfruit, I had no choice, I had to try it. I got it packed up to go so I could enjoy in bed.
When I got back to the hotel, Gary was on the front steps, greeting everyone as we returned home for the evening. I stopped to give him a couple of pets and he could smell the passionfruit deliciousness. He followed me all the way back to my room and even came right in and jumped up on the bed! I let him lick the tiniest bit of passionfruit cream off my pinky, there are signs at the front of the hotel warning guests not to feed Gary, but I had to let him have a little taste, he had gone through so much effort.
That passionfruit pastry was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life. The cream was absolutely bursting with flavor, it was tangy and sweet and just divine in every possible way.
Surprisingly, Gary stayed and hung out with me for quite a while after we had eaten dessert. He just made himself right at home and curled up on my bed, I loved it so much it, was so fun to have a little vacation kitty.
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