Thanksgiving in the Florida Keys

November 2012

 

I must admit I was a little sad when I left Dallas on Tuesday mornng before Thanksgiving.  I was thrilled to be headed to Key West to celebrate the wedding of 2 of our closest friends, Austin and Amy, but I was a little sad to be leaving behind our kiddos on Thanksgiving, especially Olivia's first Thanksgiving. Of course, I knew Olivia would be well loved by everyone at the family Thanksgiving celebration in Tennessee and Jack would have so much fun playing with Nana and Papa and Lincoln, but it is always a little strange to be away from family for the holidays.

 

Key West is a beautiful, eccentric little island of the southern tip of Florida and such a fun place to escape, especially when the rest of the country is just starting to settle in to the cold of winter.  Esther found the really beautiful old Victorian Bed and Breakfast where we stayed while we were there, The Artist House.  Legends held that the house was haunted by Robert the Doll, a toy of a boy who lived in the house in the late nineteenth century, and also by the ghost of a woman, the wife of the young boy who grew up with his doll in that house, and later lived there with his family.  While we never experienced any hauntings, our hotel was visited regularly by the ghost tours that toured the island nightly. Here's Tommy in front of our lovely B&B:

 

They had happy hour around the little pool in the back of the house late each afternoon.

Our room was the former nursery, now accessible only by a really steep set of stairs around the back of the house.  Yes, they were as steep as they look in this photo! 

 

The day after we arrived, the boys left yearly one morning for a day of deep sea fishing, leaving Esther and I to wander leisurely around the island.  We stopped once (okay, maybe twice) for drinks on a pier with a lovely view of the ocean and surrounding islands.  Not a bad way to spend a day!

The boys returned with quite the catch from their day of fishing.  We met Austin's family at a yummy restaurant that actually cooked the fish they caught for us and served it with some delicious sides.

The next morning was Thanksgiving, but was definitely unlike any Thanksgivng I've ever experienced, although we did start out with a large, delicious meal, brunch and mimosas at the beautiful Casa Marina Resort.  We had tables under umbrellas outside overlooking the ocean.  As you can see it was a beautiful day, and a beautiful place to start out Thanksgiving day!

From there, Greg, Esther, Tommy and I wandered the island.  Of course, we stopped for the obligatory photo op at the Southernmost Point in the United States:

After our walk, it was time for the rehearsal dinner, a sunset cruise around the Keys.  Here we are before we boarded the boat:

And on the boat. The wind was crazy, but the views of the sunset more than made up for a little windblown hair:

Friday was the day of the big wedding.  Tommy and I woke up and decided to tour the island a little before the wedding.  Our first stop was the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway's home.

We took the tour of the house and learned all about his life and the time he spent in the home.  On the bed is one of the famous six-toed cats, descendents of a cat given to Hemingway by a ship's captain.

This was a little room in a guest house behind the main house where Hemingway supposedly wrote some of his most famous novels:

After our visit to the Hemingway house, I spotted a cute little French Creperie, so of course we had to stop there for lunch:

We were having great time, but even the street signs were reminding us how much we missed our little ones:

The wedding was at the Sunset Key resort.  The resort was on its own private island, so we took a ferry boat out to the island.  They had an amazingly beautiful day for a wedding, on the beach, right near the shore as the sun began to set. Here is the altar where they were married:

The bride and groom's nieces, Sierra and Gemma, made adorable flower girls.

Here are the lovely bride and her groom.  There were less than 40 people there, so the ceremony was very intimate and comfortable.  We are truly honored that we were able to be a part of their special day:

Here we are with Greg and Esther during the cocktail hour:

And enjoying dinner - still outside - gotta love weather in the Florida Keys!

On Saturday, our last day in Key West, we started out with a little more sightseeing, this time, a boke ride around the island, with a stop for a free slice of amazing key lime pie - courtesy of the wedding welcome package we received in our hotel room the day we arrived. 

 

We pedaled around a huge cemetary for what seemed like a very long time to find this grave marker that we read about in the guide book.  Ha! 

We stopped for an afternoon snack and drinks at a cute little restaurant right on the beach - picture perfect weather once again:

 

For our final night in paradise, Austin's family invited us back out to Sunset Key for a fancy dinner.  This was our view as we waited for the ferry to the island:

And this was the view from our dinner table.  Really, it doesn't get much better!

We returned home the next day.  The kids had such a good time with their grandparents that I'm not sure they even noticed we were gone, but I was very excited to squeeze and cuddle them again and I'm sure the grandparents were even more excited for some much-needed relaxation.  Congrats to Austin and Amy - we love you guys!