Key West 2012: An Overview

Yesterday we got home from our 8 day trip to Key West and it was a blast!! We had so much fun this year and it was great to have James be a little older than last year so that he could run around and enjoy himself. The drive down was relatively quick and uneventful. Once we arrived in Key West, we had some time before we could check in to our room so we decided to do some geocaching downtown. We ended up getting three geocaches in a little over an hour! So fun!

We decided to make an effort to take more pictures this year, so there will be many pictures to come, but just so you know it was close to eleventy million degrees in the Keys so I look like a hot mess in the pictures :) Seriously, the heat was pretty excruciating. As soon as you walk out the door, the humidity and the heat slam into you and almost every day I would be sweating before I got to the car. James was extra cranky on most days too, which I'm pretty sure was due to the heat because it brought out the crankies in me too!

Our first night in the two bedroom trailer that we rented was rough. The rooms were so small that James' pack and play was right up against our bed and he woke up multiple times during the night because he would hear us come in or see us moving around in bed. Then around 6am, a rooster started crowing right outside our window! Seriously, the walls are really thin so it sounded like he was right in the room with us. In fact, I thought Anthony had changed his alarm to a rooster sound and I shook him to ask him if it was his alarm. It wasn't. Of course, the rooster woke James up again and there was no going back to sleep. Argh. After talking it over with our friends who were renting the three bedroom townhouse option, we decided to pay the extra $30 a night to make the switch to one they had available. Best. Decision. Ever. The new place was soooo roomy compared to what we had been in, the windows had blackout curtains so you could sleep in past 6am, James had his own quiet dark room to sleep in, there was a screened in back porch where you could lay out wet swimming gear, it had a washer and dryer (!), a second bathroom, and it was newly renovated and was equipped with free wireless Internet (the other ones didn't have it). Seriously, that rooster bugging us was the best blessing in disguise. We enjoyed our trip so much more after our move there the second day.

After that was taken care of, we spent the rest of the week seeing the sights in Key West, swimming, snorkeling, visiting with friends, and soaking in the island life. This was actually the first vacation I have taken in a looooong time that I was genuinely sad to be leaving to go home. Usually I am such a creature of habit that I get homesick really easily and miss my routine, but I was surprised at how much being there felt like home. We had such a nonstop good time, and Anthony was in heaven with all of the fishing and lobstering he got to do. James was crankier than usual, but he also grew so much while we were there. I think we counted close to 15 new words that he said just in the week we were there!

On the way home, everything started out smoothly but unfortunately we ran into some bad traffic after about 40 miles. The cars were all stopped and people were getting out and walking around, so you know it is going to be awhile. We saw ambulances and tow trucks going by, so we assumed there was wreck. Sure enough, Anthony googled it on his phone and there was an accident a few miles ahead of us. We were planning on stopping for brunch an hour or so later, so we decided to turn around and eat then instead while we waited for the traffic to clear. After we ate and got back on the road, things were moving again and we were able to get past the accident without too much trouble. It looked really bad and even though it was a pain to be so delayed on our trip home, we were really grateful that it wasn't us in that wreck. For the rest of the 70 or so miles through the keys, the traffic was pretty frustrating. It would be going along smoothly and then be stop and go for miles and then back again. It took us something like 3 hours to go 100 miles!! It didn't help that James refused to sleep in his car seat and cried. A LOT. There is nothing like a crying baby to make a long car trip seem even longer :) Finally we made it home around 5:30pm and we couldn't have been happier to see our driveway!!