Travel Blog

Wonderful dinner - bouillabaisse and duck - at Cafe Sole, sitting outside in the high-fenced garden and chatting with Ania, our Polish waitress. (Hania probably one of the few customers who had been to her hometown of Legnica.)

The next morning out for breakfast to Blue Heaven, which was closed, as was La Crepe across the street. A woman doing some work inside told us that the owners were from Brittany, and would make Hania a 100% buckwheat crepe (usually they add a little white flour) if we come back and call one day ahead. In Besame Mucho, Hania admired the dresses and jewelry (for a narrow street, Petronia has a lot to offer) while I bought a Paolo Conte CD.

Had better luck with lunch at the vegetarian Cafe (on Southard just off Duval), which had a gluten-free menu. Hania ordered a salad and a gluten-free beer (nothing like being told you can't have something to make you crave it) which was delicious (and Belgian of course). I had a watermelon salad with feta cheese.

After lunch we walked to The Gardens Hotel, where Kate Miano showed us the new high-tech wine tasting room, the art-filled garden (including the little pool Hemingway reportedly fell into), and the resident turtles' new offspring, the two tiny turtles looking a bit like artwork themselves.

Back on Petronia we paid a visit to Zbyszek Koziol, sitting and painting in the Zbyszek Gallery. Then we got in the car and drove to White Street and the Polish market Pierogies.

It wasn't too far to the Casa Marina (even if you can't stay in grand hotels, you can always stop in for a look) where we admired the palms along the beach and the saris slowly filling the courtyard.

On the way back to our modest motel we stopped at Louie's Backyard and discovered that there is more affordable dining upstairs - wine and tapas - with the same stunning setting overlooking the ocean. Next time, after our buckwheat crepes.

For dinner we walked down Duval to Nine One Five, where I had a kind of Thai (and superior) bouillabaisse, with coconut milk and lemongrass, and Hania had the autumnal risotto. Then we walked back to Petronia - all roads in Key West lead to Petronia - for a nightcap at Better Than Sex Desserts.

In the morning we found a wonderful breakfast place, Harpoon Harry's, a few doors up on Caroline from Pepe's. The latter had more history (opened in 1909), but the former had more locals, a few of whom were greeted with hugs and cries of "Welcome home." We sat in the front, in plush armchairs, reading the Key West Citizen. The lead story reported that, at this year's Fantasy Fest, the police were going to crack down on nudity.