The first week of February, our good friends were planning on getting married in Key West (as we did, nearly 30 years ago) and we were invited to join them, so after rounding up our usual awesome “animal care team” (my mom and brother and a great friend and neighbor – a former vet tech and current owner of 6 rope and trail horses – how’d we luck out so good?!) and readying our farm and house animals best we could after the prior week’s crazy Texas ice storm – from which we received several inches of ice and sleet – we were REALLY looking forward to a nice tropical getaway…
Well, Florida had other plans and offered the coldest air in the form of an arctic front from the north, since 2010! But we figured 50s and 60s were better than ice and temps in the teens, so off we went!
Neither of us prefer flying, and since we wanted to take the opportunity to see some other spots in Florida we haven’t yet, we drove! And very glad we did, because we had the gamut of clothing and shoes that totally covered us from freezing temps to 60’s, piled high in the cavernous volume of my Yukon’s trunk! Our route took us from north Texas to Mobile, Alabama on night one. Night two, we spent in Jupiter, Florida (just north of the Palm Beach area). Nights three and four were in Key West, then we met our best friends (RVers) in Clearwater Beach. Clearwater to Pensacola, Florida on our last night, then we hoofed it home the 11 hours from Pensacola to our area of north Texas – phew!
Here’s a review of the great food, drinks and fun spots we enjoyed in the places we stayed – and a couple things we learned/would do differently next time. I made a couple of vids also, links to those provided.
We are so glad to get to see those neat places – and, if it weren’t for our great friends and family here holding down the fort at home, it would not have been possible!
- The crazy-unusual weather Florida was experiencing worked against us this trip, especially experiencing the beaches of Jupiter and Clearwater. I think this would have been greatly improved with normal temps. Here’s an example of a local we spotted in Jupiter for context…while we – coming off temps in the teens and twenties during the day, ice and sleet, were feeling pretty good in sweatshirts, jeans and tennies…this lady was wrapped up in a full length puffer coat and boots (we were thinking must’ve been a “local” and not used to these kind of dips) – she must’ve been REALLY feelin the pain!
- We’re used to visiting Florida in the summertime, when days are longer. East coast sunsets are earlier always, but especially in winter – therefore, we didn’t have much time, upon arriving at our east coast landing spots – to explore before dark. We’d keep that in mind next time, and stay longer at each destination to accommodate for that.
If you enjoy a more “urban” bougie/upscale atmosphere, Jupiter sure fits that bill. In Jupiter, we visited Guanabanas for dinner, a cool all-outdoor tiki bar with really good, upscale menu options. Loved it – I started with a coconut mojito, and a big ole shrimp cocktail and delish salad for dinner. Ronnie had a house marg and an Aloha burger – with swiss, teriyaki sauce and a fresh sliced pineapple on a hawaiian roll and Old Bay seasoned kettle chips. We were too stuffed for dessert.
First thing the next morning, we walked (only part of, sadly, the rest was under construction) the awesome 2 mileJupiter Riverwalk boardwalk. The part that took us directly from our hotel (the Best Western Intracoastal, right there on the Riverwalk) to the Yacht Club marina next door was under construction, so we tried the opposite direction, which winds behind cute condos and villas and leads to a wildlife refuge area. Pretty and quiet walk. If I lived in Jupiter, I’d be walking that beautiful walk every day!
We had another day’s worth of driving to make it to Key West before it got dark, so we quick-explored DuBois Park – a gorgeous public park with a swimming area, places to kayak, a huge concrete fishing pier to walk out on – I’m sure its populated with fisherman when the wind isn’t blowing 25 mph and freezing, haha! We did see some folks shelling with big nets on the shoreline, they were bringing up an awful lot of shells in the surf that was extremely choppy. There is also a very bougie shopping/restaurant area called Harborside Place that we would’ve probably visited (walked to by the Riverwalk) if we were staying longer. I’d be up for visiting Jupiter again, under more normal Florida-weather conditions – seems like it’d be an incredible place to retire – everything’s beautifully landscaped there – even Walgreens and Taco Bells! – and there is a LOT of everything, super-accessible.
On our way into the Keys, we arrived in the upper keys around lunchtime and stopped in Key Largo at Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill restaurant on the bay for lunch (there are a thousand different incredible places to eat, but we were starving and Ronnie loved the Jimmy Johnson era Dallas Cowboys, so there ya go). It offers great views of the water, but of course, was windy and chilly so we didn’t spend much time outside – it had nice big windows for a nice view though. I got clam chowder and a side salad and Ronnie had a fisherman’s pizza with scallops, clams and lobster. It was surprisingly good! No dessert, we wanted to get on down the road to our destination before sunset.
We arrived in Key West and met up with our soon-to-be-married friends and they treated the whole wedding party to an AMAZING dinner at Martin’s Steak and Seafood – a kind of non-descript looking place right on Duvall Street – but inside was one delicious fancy dinner! Ronnie enjoyed an old fashioned and I just had a glass of Pinot Noir – we both got the filet mignon and mashed potatoes. Superb.
Next morning, Ronnie and I explored Duvall Street (anew, its changed some in 30 years) and popped into the various fun shops and enjoyed the yummiest breakfast at Banana Cafe. Ronnie got the American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, and potatoes I think), while I feasted with my eyes first and my stomach next on some really excellent eggs benedict.
After fueling up, I shopped around a little more while Ronnie’s buddies swung by for him on a golf cart and the guys went to checkout the local marina and some boats. Everything on Duvall was easily-walkable from our resort (our friends found us an open room at Southernmost Hotel at the last minute, which was in just the most perfect location ever – if we were to ever go to Key West again, we’d definitely choose Southernmost for its relaxed, luxurious vibe, private beach, DJ-attended pool, awesome hammocks around the property, and amazing views!
In the afternoon, we walked the 4 miles up to Smathers Beach on a great paved (for the most part, we had to gps our way on some neighborhood streets) sidewalk. Not really a “beach” town, Key West has numerous, but small, private and public beaches. Smathers is a larger beach, with plenty of palm trees to lounge under and escape the sun under normal warm conditions.
The water was frigid, so we were not swimmers this trip and didn’t really see anyone swimming. On our return trip, we stopped at Louie’s Backyard. It’s sort of tucked back in between a couple of other buildings, so you have to look for it, and we discovered it was surprisingly kind of fancy – us pulling up after our long walk all sweaty and in shorts and sweatshirts (a recurring theme for us, turns out, with the cold everywhere we went, haha!) – surrounding us were lovely fresh-smelling people in golf shirts and business-casual attire.
We had the yummiest lunch – Ronnie got the fish tacos with chipotle-sour cream drizzle and I had the hot chicken salad. But possibly better than both of the entrees, the bread and butter…awesome! And the showstopper…the best key lime pie of my lifetime! No green food coloring, gigantic pouf of merengue (although I’m not against gigantic poufs of merengue)…but a creamy, perfectly sweet-tart custard with a sensible blob of homemade whipped cream, fresh juicy berries and a yummy drizzle of raspberry sauce – mmm!
Our friends were married on a nearby pier that night, it was simple and elegant and fun and perfect – and the wedding dinner (surprise!) was back at Louie’s Backyard! And it was excellent again – Ronnie got a swordfish steak with a fried-risotto side and said it was fantastic, and I got the bacon-wrapped scallop app – fantastic.
Before we leave the Key West food/drink discussion behind, I have to shout out The Rum Bar, on Duvall Street. Tiny little bar, big fun! I saw that they had a delicious sounding toasted coconut rum, so I asked if the bartender would craft me a mojito with it (instead of Titos) and it was EXCELLENT. Our friends’ wedding party friends were superfun with great energy that added to the trip for everyone – and it was just such a great time!
Leaving Key West was sad, but we were trying to beat sunset again, in our travel up to Clearwater Beach – an 8 hour drive for us that day – and that slow-going 35/45/55 speed limit out of the Keys is quite ROUGH on the way home – put in your favorite podcast! We were excited to meet up with our best friends from Texas, who are RVing their way around the states and found themselves in the Tampa/Clearwater area during that same week. - Noticeable to us were the ecological differences between the manicured, tropical bougie-ness of the east coast of Florida, and the more “naturey” west/gulf coast – we thought that was an interesting and enjoyable contrast! Unexpectedly fun was the drive through Alligator Alley (the highway that cuts across the lower peninsula of south Florida, atop the Everglades) – we saw so many alligators, even in the cooler temps – lounging on the sides of the banks of the canal that runs parallel to the highway. If we had time, we’d definitely have wanted to visit Everglades National Park – so cool there!
Our dinner landing-spot with our friends was Seaguini, delicious Italian & seafood in the upscale Opal Sands Resort on Clearwater Beach. Unfortunately, we saw NONE of Clearwater Beach or the sunset, because it was COLD with extreme (35 mph+) winds. On the beach, that means your face is getting sandblasted! Ronnie got a short-rib dish over mashed potatoes and gravy with carrots and I had a fabulous penne ala vodka sauce. It had baby broccolini in it and it was so good, I’m recreating it this very night at home! Stay tuned for that recipe, if I can recreate it successfully.
The last leg of our trip was preceded by a quick stop at the most beautiful fun place – Fanning Springs State Park north of Clearwater a couple of hours. It was SO COOL to see the manatees that had come up the rivers to the loads of natural springs there for the warmth of their waters (a constant 72 degrees in most coastal springs). There are many Springs parks but our friends recommended this one because it was way less populated with people stirring up the water on paddleboards and kayaks in search of the manatees. They were right, it was one of the most fun things we did on our Florida trip! Here’s the TikTok I made of our experience there.
Our Pensacola stay was super brief, as we wanted to just get back on the road and back home to the gang soon as possible. We ate dinner at Bavaria, Pensacola’s downtown German restaurant that also features an Italian Pizzeria in the back, it was really good and a fun lively atmosphere. We stayed the night in a lovely boutique hotel right on the bay, an easy distance to lively and walkable (but under construction) downtown Pensacola.
We arrived home a monstrous 11 hours later and enjoyed tending to the whole of the barn gang who were waiting anxiously for their late-ish dinner. All was good in the ‘hood and we are more than grateful to be enjoying NO ICE and SLEET anymore back at the farm – in fact, 80’s are in the forecast for this week – what a blessing for February! Man, the added challenges of ice and frigid temps just makes farm work ten thousand times harder, don’t know how northerners do it every year, but they do…!
Everyday at the 4J 
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