Florida Keys Feb 2016 (newest post first): Valentine Shut-out

After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel cafe, we continued our exploration of the City of Key West The weather today is a bit cooler and breezier. (BTW - the beach across the street from the Sheraton is awesome!) We started at the Key West Garden Club. Lots of history here - the club garden is inside an old brick fortress that was built during the Civil War. Did you know that, while Florida was a Confederate State, Key West was under control of the Union? That at one time Key West was the largest city in Florida?

We then poked our way around the downtown areas we visited yesterday on foot. Note to self: if you want to explore Key West, use public transportation (bike, scooter, bike taxi). Leave your car somewhere, there is no place to park! We drove past Harry Truman's summer White House, Ernest Hemingway's home, the art museum, and more but couldn't stop.

Then we found the beginning of US 1 and headed north to our destination for the day, Islamorada. The water is so turquoise! Our reservation for the night is at the Days Inn Oceanside Resort. Who ever heard of paying $240 for a room at a Days Inn? But that's the market in the Keys. This place is really old and a bit rundown but it'll do. We asked the lady at the counter for a dinner recommendation. She recommended a place down the road and offered to call for a reservation for us. Forget about it! No reservations left, you can drop in and wait an hour. She called FIVE other places and got the same answer - long lines and wait times. Well, duh, it Valentine's Day!

So, she suggested we "eat in" and have something delivered, or go to the store and buy something to cook in our little efficiency kitchen. So from the five menus she gave us, feeling like Italian, we headed up the road to Tower of Pizza. We figured if couldn't get seated, we'd order something to go.

We arrived about 6:00 and they did have a table for us. It was AWESOME!! We had chicken parm and manicotti. A cozy family run place reminded us of Andy and Gay's in Oneonta! By the time we were finished, there was a line out the door! So its all good!

Tomorrow we head back to Miami, with some more things to see in Key Largo on the way through.