A Key West Gathering, Day 5

Otto and I drove down in his Jeep to Key West this morning after a breakfast of Ham Croquettes and Cafe Cubano.

A brief stop at the EAA Aviation Museum resulted in no worthy pics on my part, sorry.  But here's a couple of pics of Seven Mile Bridge as we headed south from Marathon Key:

We got to the Crowne Plaza/La Concha Hotel on Duval street with no issues and really very little in the way of crowds; after all, it's the low season in terms of tourists.

A little bit of exploring and we then reboarded the Jeep and headed over to the Key West airport to meet Lee S. who flew in from northern Virginia today.

We headed back to the hotel, got settled in and soon we were on the streets of Key West headed towards the wharf area where the boat we hope to fish from was located.

That recce completed, we adjourned for a late lunch nearby:

 Large number of Tarpon drawn by the chum created

by the fish cleaning/gutting from the 

returning fishing crews and fishing customers

Lee and Otto

I've known Lee and Otto since the summer of 1981, making it over 38 years that we've been close friends.  They are true friends, and I'm lucky to call them such.

Lunch over with, it was a short walk over to this Cigar Store known to Lee.  He and Otto smoked cigars as all three of us went to get a few beers while awaiting the sunset near Mallory Square.

 Sign at the Cigar Store

Smoking cigars before moving onto the bar next door

The Sunset proved a non-event due to the incoming weather which is making it uncertain for us in terms of being able to go deep sea fishing tomorrow.  The weather decision is 6:30 AM tomorrow, so stay tuned.

We had 8:00 PM dinner reservations at the A & B Restaurant nearby but were seated early due to the low amount of tourists in the area.  Dinner was sumptuous, not inexpensive, but definitely sumptuous and delicious.  I had the Grilled Grouper, preceded by Beef Carpacio (my first) and a Cesar Salad.

Otto and Lee both ordered the same entree: Grouper "Oscar".  We also each ordered fancy drinks, I had the Hava-tini, which was basically a Mojito.

We ate so much we couldn't even think of ordering dessert so we paid and walked out into the cooling evening and back towards the hotel.

Great day, both Otto and I were glad to reunite with Lee and renew our 38 year old friendship.