Tyler and Sherry Visit Key West

My dear friend Sherry is a classmate of mine from Vet school. Sherry and Tyler are currently residing in Ocala Florida where she is kicking ass at an equine internship. We have been talking about them coming to visit, but with an internship time off is extremely hard to come by. Luckily, she got three days off in a row (YES) and they made the 8 hour drive last weekend.

As luck would have it I am currently not working Friday (poor Rick) so I was able to great them when they got to our house. They arrived just after lunch and I was so excited to see them I may have teared up a bit. After getting them settled, Tyler also had to do some work so Sherry and I got on the bikes and went to Smather's beach to enjoy the sunshine. We spent the afternoon discussing our jobs, what we were going to do next and soaking in the wonderful sunshine. I may have said to Sherry "living in Florida I thought you would be tanner" but that is the life of an intern. After our beach time we went back to gather Tyler and Rick for our evening out. Sherry and Tyler had never been to Key West and they said they wanted a typical K.W adventure. We decided that meant a sunset and Duval Street. Well after waiting 40 min for a cab we missed the sunset but we took them to Mallory Square anyways to catch a glimpse of the performers. Tyler and Sherry also got some good pictures of the sailboats coming back from their sunset sails. After getting a drink from Andy at the Westin we walked past Captain Tony's where people were attempting to throw the quarter into the fish's mouth. I actually have no idea what you get if you accomplish this feat, but it is pretty fun to attempt. You have to stand partially in the street and face away from the fish. You then toss a quarter over your head in an attempt to land it in the fish's mouth. Sidenote: I have accomplished this once, with Phil, Erin and Rick as witnesses. It was during a quiet night around 3 in the morning on my third attempt.. Rick has yet to get this done. John when you are here and we finish your original bday list, the fish is being added to the list. Anyways, back to Tyler and Sherry, after waiting a few minutes watching a woman facing the fish throwing underhand not make it into the fishes mouth we practically pushed Tyler into the street to get his shot at victory. They both only took one shot and neither got it-but I feel like next time they will for sure land it.

Tyler's throwing his quarter

Sherry- don't hit the baby!!! 

We then headed to Rum Barrel for dinner and conversation. At the rum barrel the few drinks we had prior started to blur the situation. This is where Rick and I quietly discussed what else we could have Sherry and Tyler do in order to get a good experience. If I had talked Rick into it we would have taken them to Aqua to take in a drag show but that can be for their next visit to K.W. Leaving Rum Barrel we headed down Duval toward their first task at Virgilios. Along the way we stopped at the world smallest bar for roadies. I had never stopped there before but the service was great and the bartender made fun of my drink of choice. (Coke and fireball courtesy of Annette and Dave). Our walk to Virgilio's was full of us trying to point out things, walking, talking and drinking. I think I said that every single place was my favorite, but I only spoke the truth. At Virgilios we had them climb the wall - then we went to Margaritavill where we had beverages and they may or may not have gotten a souvenir salt shaker (I know nothing). After this we went to the Porch and met up with Dave and Annette. The Porch is a large house turned into a wine and beer bar at the corner of Duval and Caroline. The Porch has a neat atmosphere, but is very small so it becomes crowded pretty quickly. After the Porch we went to Smokin Tuna.because all Sherry wanted was live music.

Like they were born to do wall climbing :) 

At Margaritaville - with a creeper in the background

They were so excited to go to Margaritaville 

I swear the next story only happens to Rick. So we are at Smokin Tuna, where we met up with Joe and Cher at the bar off the dance floor area. Rick is wearing a Hog's Breath T-shirt. I am a few feet away sitting at a table talking to Sherry and Tyler when I look over and see a woman holding up a shirt and talking to Rick. To set the scene a little Rick is right next to the bar with his back to it, Joe and Cher are on his right, Dave and Annette are to his left and the woman holding the shirt is directly across from him. I can hear Cher saying yeah do it Rick that is a nice shirt. So I being the wife, walk over to find out what is going on.. the woman is in the middle of saying "no no all you have to do is take off your shirt and put this one on and it is yours." I take one second to decide what I think Rick should do and yell "YEAH YEAH YEAH TAKE IT OFF!!!" Rick gives me that look like are you serious, to which I again reply you should definitely do this. My shy hot husband drops his head and says okay.. takes off the Hog's Breath Shirt - we all hoot and holler - and puts on the Smokin Tuna shirt. The woman thanks him and leaves to go back to her seat. The rest of the night all Rick said was how tight the new shirt was, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Rick's new awesome T-shirt!!

Although the music was really good at Smokin Tuna with Rusty Lemmon and company singing, we headed over to Sloppys. If you come to K.W it is a bar you must go to at least for a drink. Sloppy's was very very busy and when we got their the dj was playing club music and the dance floor was packed. We were not sure if anyone was going to be performing but alas the band came out. Again let me set this up, the bands name was "Juliano Brothers" (www.julianobrothers.net) and they were a band of three (or four) and they are older gentleman that look like they came from an Italian mafia. They are not small men, but they could play pretty great 80s rock. The next thing I know they are asking if there are bachelorette parties and birthday parties in the bar. Of course there were quite a few and one particular bride got on stage. She was petite, brunette, "innocent" looking girl but the longer she stayed up there the more the crowd got a show. She had her shirt up and her skirt hiked and there were hip thrusting and money flying up on stage. I thought the band members were going to have a heart attack...

Her husband to be is going to have his hands full - but most of the men said that  "he was one lucky guy"

She ended up not showing anything but her bra.. but I think both Tyler and Sherry may have been a little shocked. They have never been to fantasy fest.. After this bride was done with her debut another group of girls from a bachelorette party got on stage to perform - they weren't as fun - Rick did take a video and sent it to my brother and others to taunt them I think. Although this bachelorette party had t-shirts made and at some point they had given a shirt to a guy. He also got on stage after a few minutes and his strip tease was better than the first bride. It was all Magic Mike for a few minutes. After both shows we grabbed a cab and headed home because we still had so much to cram into the short time Tyler and Sherry were with us.

The next morning we went to Harpoon Hairy's for breakfast and walked Tyler and Sherry around the marina. We showed them Jimmy Buffet's recording studio and they got the joy of seeing the gigantic tarpon swimming in the marina. We also walked them down to see Kurt and Kim's boat. After getting a buzz from Kurt's infamous Bahama Mama's I took Sherry to the best sandal place in the country - Keno's. After Keno's we headed home to get ready for Joe's bday party at Higg's beach.

Cher had set up a wonderful Top Gun themed beach party. Complete with printed out Top Gun images and sayings that were used as decorations in the tree and on the food table. Phil was in charge of grilling some delicious burgers and hotdogs. It was a great day..and then volleyball started. We could not use a net because it was harder to get on a court then you would think. So we improvised by setting up our beach chairs, drawing lines in the sand and Phil was in charge of the height of the net. Although if there were any women across from him his net level lowered considerably :) We finally got a net right before sunset and had a really fun game. My next house will have a volleyball court for sure..either by pool, sand, grass, or corn I do not care I will have one. After our four hours of vball we took Tyler and Sherry to get the sand cleaned up and to Hog Fish for dinner and more wonderful conversation. The next morning before they left us we ended their trip at Old Town Bakery.

I hope Tyler and Sherry got a Key West experience they will not forget - we were so happy they came to see us:)

xoxo 
Rick and McKenzie