Thackering: Key West for REAL, part 1

(Whenever Tank wants me to look at something he'll say, "Look, Mom." I'll respond, "Yeah, I see." And whether I actually looked or not, he'll say, "Now look for REAL.")

Okay, okay. Here's the post about our Key West trip.

Driving Down - Friday and Saturday
We are lucky to have good friends in Atlanta and family in Orlando, so we made the trip in 3 days, about 9 hours of driving each day. Not bad. Not a ton to report about on those driving days. Atlanta is much like St. Charles, where I grew up, except with horrible traffic. Chatanooga, TN was GORGEOUS with the turning leaves and layered mountains. Florida takes way too long to get through, and who knew there were so many pine trees in FL?! It's supposed to be citrus and palms trees only!

Arriving on Sunday
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving we arrived in Key West. Driving down the Keys was awesome, and Rob and the kids were captivated by the ocean. There are so many colors of the water down there. Not at all like the drab gray ocean of Northern California. (Sorry for those of you who live(d) there and love(d) it. I think the ocean in No. Cal. is an ugly color.) My favorite quote about the ocean comes from Tank, who said, "I didn't know there were so many signs in the sea." It cracked me up, and it was true. In the Keys there are lots of signs posting about water levels and where it's safe for boats to go and such.

The downside of driving down the Keys: It's a long, long drive. Miciah was counting bridges and Keys and she says she ended up with over 40 of each. Near the end of the drive she started saying, "If the next Key isn't Key West, I'm going to die!" The next Key wasn't Key West, and she didn't die.

Luckily our van arrived in Key West with us. About 2 hours North of Miami the AC died and the transmission started going out, all at the same time. We were on the side of the road twice, and when we stopped to eat, the van almost wouldn't go into gear again. Good times.

Monday
Which meant that the first order of business on Monday was to take our van to a mechanic. Key West Friend found us a really nice mechanic (think laid back Florida Keys style). Rob detailed the issues we've had with the van and the mechanic said, "So, when I'm doing looking at it, you want me to just drive it into the canal for you?" That was awesome.

The kids had a ton of fun playing in and around the palm trees in Key West Friend's backyard.

When Key West Friend got off work and after we'd made a million phone calls to rental car companies, etc., we took the kids to the Key West lighthouse. It offers a great view of the island and ocean. And as an added bonus, the man who runs the place was super nice and gave the kids free postcard souvenirs.

There was a great banyan tree on the grounds and the kids played in it for a while. Banyan trees are SUPER COOL.

Then we went to Mallory Square for the Sunset Celebration that happens every night. There are performers of all sorts. Most of them use fire on sticks and/or unicycles. The one that Rob and the kids watched was an escape artist with a crass sense of humor. So Key West Friend and I went around looking at the overpriced jewelry that was for sale. We didn't actually get to see the sunset because a cruise ship was blocking the entire dock. I told Rob it wasn't a big deal, cause we could see the sunset another night. Turns out that never happened, and Rob missed his sunset over the ocean. (I said, "It looks like the sun. And then the water. Not that big a deal.")

My favorite part of Mallory Square was how interested Elijah was in the performer. After the show was over, Key West Friend gave the kids a dollar each so they could tip him. Afterwards Elijah said, "We gave him money because if you work hard, you get money." Umm, ... let's aspire to something higher than being a Mallory Square performer, please.

Tuesday
By Tuesday morning we knew that the transmission was dead (well, we pretty much knew that on Sunday) and that it would cost $2,500 to fix it. The real kicker, though, was that it was going to take 1 - 2 weeks to get the transmission down to Key West! Adding together the cost and time factors, we decided to just gift the van to the mechanic and get a rental car for the trip home.

We went to the mechanic's and cleaned out our van, and then we checked out every car dealership on Key West. We tried to call it a "date," but it was too stressful to count. All we really got out of it was the understanding that we could NOT afford a $300 monthly car payment. So we started getting used to the idea of having only 1 car. Then I looked at Rob and said, "Okay. For the rest of the week we aren't allowed to talk about our van." And we put it out of our minds and enjoyed Key West.

We took the kids to the aquarium which isn't big, but it is fun. We got to touch a nurse shark (they used to use their skin for sandpaper!) and a baby alligator, which was cool. We also got to see some big sandbar sharks feed. Very neat.

Rob touching the alligator.

The kids loved the touching pool. Miciah especially was into it. She touched everything without fear. She even helped an adult visitor work up some bravery to touch a starfish. It was cute to see Miciah talk her though it. "It feels really neat." "Here, I'll hold it for you."