The German dancing earlier in the week prompted Yvonne to want to have a German Beer Fest/Barbecue. On Friday while everyone was at work, Nina and I went to the store and bought beers, sangria, brats(sausages, as the German's call them), hot dogs, chicken, pork, veggies to grill up (Yvonne is a vegetarian), 4 loaves of garlic bread(I mention 4 loaves because Yvonne had instructed to get 5 loaves, and there was only supposed to be 10 people at the get-together. I guess she really likes garlic bread, but there was plenty and it is delicious), salad and many more things. They had instructed their friends to come at 8pm and no one got there until around 9pm, I guess its a south Florida thing to do everything so late, but it just made me hungry. I manned the barbecue while the girls prepared the cold food. It is pretty hard to barbecue in the dark, but everything turned out pretty well.
Friday night we went out to where all the clubs are in Fort Lauderdale. I'm not sure if it was because of the weather, because people had heard I was coming, or some other reason, but the bars and clubs were all very empty, so we didn't stay long and made an early night of it. We had big plans for Saturday.
Saturday Yvonne woke Nina and me at 8:30 to get ready to go to Key West. We helped clean up from the night before and Yvonne made left over grilled veggies with eggs. She put Italian seasoning in the eggs, which was different and interesting, I'm pretty sure she carries around a shaker of that stuff with her and puts it on everything.
On the way down to Key West by car one has to drive over many islands and bridges. There were a ton of cars and people everywhere, there was a 100 mile relay going on that day so it was slow moving watching out for people running everywhere. I'm not sure how big the teams were but the people looked to be working very hard and that also looked like a good time. We stopped at Bahia Beach State park and the water there is so pretty and blue and clear and the weather was amazing. I sat in my usual shade chair while the girls laid out and then I laid down on the sand and covered myself with a towel to keep the sun off of me. Everyone always laughs at me but later when they are sore and red and peeling, I get my revenge. We walked around the island shooting pictures and goofing off. Yvonne has a Digital SLR camera and a tripod and a fancy camera bag she carries with her. Looking at her pictures compared to mine, you can definitely tell the difference, makes me want to have a nice camera, but I don't want the extra size of the larger camera and the hassle of the tripod, it is nice though.
In Key West we booked the absolutely cheapest room available $150 for a Motel with 1 twin and 1 double bed. The twin bed reminded me of college, at least this room was large enough that they didn't have to loft the bed. Normally I would think the room was plenty good enough, but that's when I'm paying $30 a night not, $150, but I guess that's what you pay in Key West, especially on a Saturday when the town is full of people. To quickly jump ahead to Monday night, I am staying in a $30 motel that is so cheap, they keep the tv remotes in the office in baskets marked, “Zenith”, “Samsung” etc and they have a list they use to determine which type of tv your room has. There is also no phone or clock and you can see on the wall where they used to have pictures screwed in. I'm okay with this though, save the money and pass on the discount to me. I was going to stay at a campground but it was $22 and for a bed, air conditioning, my own shower, tv and the ease, I think it was $8 well spent.
Back to Saturday and Key West, after checking in we headed to Malory Square where everyone goes to watch the sunset and street performers try to impress. They are all so practiced with their “talents”be it tight rope walking, fire breathing, juggling, or pretending to be a machine. Mostly though their talent comes in the form of talking up their talents and trying to draw people in. It's a game of numbers and the more people you start with, the more people you draw in and the more people that are left at the end to give a donation, they recommend $5 per person is a measly amount for anyone and less than a margarita.
The nightlife in Key West takes place on Duvol Street where there are plenty of clubs, bars, restaurants and shops. We headed down the street popping in and listening to the various types of music playing and settled into a bar that had a guy playing guitar. As soon as we sat down he stopped playing and steel drums were setup. The man who was to play the steel drums looked like he was from Jamaica and I believed that he was until I heard him talk while setting up his drums and you could tell that he was from America. That is until he starts to perform and then he had a great Jamaican accent. He was definitely a showman jumping and singing and having a good time “Mon”.
Sunday we went to the famous “Most Southern Point in the United States”, accompanied by the “Most southern house in the United States”, “Bar”, “Hotel” and anything else that could play off that idea. The only problem is that on all of the maps of Key West that we saw it didn't appear to be the furthest south point, but who am I to argue with a giant painted concrete thing. We walked around some more, found some fun shops, had some drinks and then headed back towards Fort Lauderdale.
As we were driving back we decided to wait to eat dinner until the sun was close to setting so we could see the sunset while we ate. I have no idea how these girls do it but they only eat 2 times a day. I walk around with a backpack full of snacks that I'm constantly munching on! We found a restaurant on the Gulf and had some amazing views.
Monday morning, I said goodbye to Yvonne and her roomates for a great week in South Florida, and then went back to bed. They had to leave for work at 7am and I had no intentions of going anywhere at that time! I'm currently heading back to the Saint Louis area for Memorial Day weekend.
I have decided that I want to learn to ride a motorcycle, skateboard, wind surf, hang glide and make a good faith effort to learn a language other than english.
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