We woke once again to Key West's most unignorable residents — the roosters — but this morning the hotel added a soundtrack: hidden speakers in the courtyard rocks kicked on at dawn with Bryan Adams, followed immediately by ZZ Top. So picture it: roosters crowing → "Summer of '69" → "Sharp Dressed Man" → us blinking awake, mildly confused but also, yeah, not a bad way to start the day. Locals called it "cold" this morning — 69°F — which, coming from the land of actual seasons, we'll gladly take.
We walked out into the cool morning air, straight to our old friend the colada — that tiny Cuban espresso shot with the caffeine punch of a baby star going supernova — then walked all over town, partly to see the sights, partly to metabolize the caffeine before it remodeled our DNA.
Hemingway, Waterfronts & More Magnets
With checkout pushed back, we hit the city one more time: the Hemingway House (still full of wandering six-toed cats plotting a literary coup), waterfront corners we hadn't explored, the ceremonial acquisition of more refrigerator magnets, and finally the Conch Republic flag — a perfect souvenir from a place that once unironically declared independence to protest a roadblock. There's something beautiful about a city that wakes with chickens and rebels with humor. Lunch at Old Town Tavern was exactly what we wanted for our final taste of the island: a couple of IPAs for me, a Key Lime Martini for Aimee, which she immediately certified as "most excellent." Then we walked a little more, slowly, like we were trying to stretch the island itself so it wouldn't end. But eventually… it had to. Goodbye, Key West. Goodbye, free-range chickens and shockingly potent coffee.
The Long Road Out of Paradise
Here's the thing about driving back from Key West: you picture scenic expanses of turquoise water, but you mostly get 45 mph, strip malls, bait shops, giant fiberglass sea animals, and stretches of road that look the same for 50 miles. Add construction, rush hour, and the psychological weight of leaving paradise, and the drive feels loooong. Note to future us: we fly next time. ✈️ We finally rolled into Fort Lauderdale, dropped the rental, and made our way to the airport hotel — a sharp downshift from H2O Suites. Functional. Bare bones. The kind of place where the furniture looks tired from holding too many suitcases. No food onsite, but a Denny's across the parking lot: veggie burger solid, fries hot, expectations exceeded. After a long day, even Denny's felt like a soft landing. (Dry zone, though, so the beers stayed in Key West.) On the drive north we finished almost all of the Matt Haig audiobook — a good story, and a calm way to close out the road trip. Tomorrow begins the homeward path.