The New Thirty And The Keys

"Old friends take a long time to make."

That's the sentiment embroidered on a pillow that was given to me several years ago by my dear friend Melanie. You may remember that in August, she and her husband came along on my surprise birthday cruise to Alaska. This was our second vacation together in eight weeks! Woohoo!

Melanie and I met in Mrs. Grider's kindergarten class in September of 1970. We were both five years old. We became fast friends and now, 35 years later, we still remain very close, despite the fact that she and her husband live several states away from us. We decided that since we were both turning forty this year, we should take a girls' weekend away to celebrate. By the way, if you haven't heard, forty is "The New Thirty". And smile when you say that.

We chose Key West for our vacation destination and boy was it fun! I managed to set up a book signing at the only Borders on Key West, so I did that for a few hours one day while we were there. (one photo of us at Borders is posted above). We flew into Miami on Saturday morning, rented a convertible and drove the three plus hours down to Key West. That leg of the trip was one of my favorite parts, actually, as well as the ride back up at the end of the weekend. Riding in the car, we had a chance to just hang out together, listen to music, see the sights along the highway and enjoy each other's company.

When we arrived in Key West, we were pleased to find that our bed and breakfast was lovely! It is an adorable little quaint place called The Popular House on William Street. Melanie had taken care of finding the place and making the reservations and she chose well! They had several rooms, all were charming and beautiful, and ours was on the top floor overlooking the town. A few of the pictures above show our room, as well as the view from our balcony.

We spent four days in Key West shopping, eating, shopping, drinking, shopping and just enjoying the island. Did I mention we shopped? We ate breakfast each morning outside on the lanai behind the B&B, which was a wonderful way to start the day.

One of our days, we booked an excursion on the sailboat Danger, crewed by the very handsome (and physically fit!) Danny and Haig, as well as Danny's girlfriend Jenny. The excursion included sailing, kayaking to see the mangroves, and snorkeling. The crew served us wine and snacks, and we got to know the other people on the boat, which was a lot of fun.

Back on land, we held our own Key Lime Pie taste test, the winner ended up being The Blond Giraffe. We also ate at a Caroline's on Duval Street, as well as the Half Shell Raw Bar and a Cuban place called El Maison de Pepe on Mallory Square, where I tried my first Key West Mojito. Yum!

Here's the basic recipe for a Mojito, in case you want to make one yourself:

1.5 ounces of light rum (Bacardi says to use their brand of course but any will work)
12 fresh mint leaves
Half of a fresh lime
4 teaspoons of sugar (or 2 Tbls of simple syrup)
Club soda

Muddle the mint leaves and lime in your glass and cover with sugar (or simple syrup). Add ice to the top of the glass. Add the rum and fill the glass with club soda. YUM-O-RIFIC!

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend and we have decided that our girls long weekend away should be an annual event. Got any good suggestions for next year?