Today after breakfast we rode over to Fast Buck’s to pay for our couch, which will be delivered Monday and I CAN’T WAIT. Our house will look so much nicer.
As we rode toward Stock Island, we encountered a charity ride going the other direction. They’d started in Miami the day before, camped halfway, and were ending at the White Street Pier down the street from us. That’s a lot more committed than we are.
We crossed to Stock Island and went to the Key West Botanical Garden. They have only native plants there, and I was pretty exited to buy their guide with photos so we can identify the stuff in our yard. It was nice in the shade, but still really meltingly hot in the sun. Technically it’s finally turning to fall here (84 during the day, 78 at night), but it’s hard to tell so far.
The plants, especially the fruit trees, were really cool to see, but I liked the wildlife best. In addition to a billion tiny anole lizards, we saw a black snake and some super-chill Muscovy ducks.
(Those ducks are ugly.)
Not at the botanical garden, but instead walking past my patio while I was out there knitting this morning, this guy:
He was at least three feet long – I heard him because of the swooshing noise he makes dragging his gigantic tail on the ground. He was golden with huge spikes, which means he’s a really old dude. I’m going to be mad if I find him eating my tomatoes, because I’m pretty sure he will.
After the garden, we rode back toward our neighborhood and stopped at Death by Tako, a combination taco shop/backcountry outfitter and guide (in case you didn’t already think Key West was awesome). They had really incredible teriyaki tofu and mushroom tacos, and just started carrying Maui Brewing beer. It’s about 5 blocks from us, so we’ll for sure be back.
We then decided to finish our 10-mile loop by riding down to Mallory Square to see the massive Disney ship in port, did some shopping, and now we’re home for the night. It’s gotten windier all day (biking against that is really hard – we were planning on kayaking, but that’s a no go in this weather), and will probably storm overnight. We’re going to grill and watch hockey and make sure the couch is good and flattened by the time we have to give it away next week.