Key West! #5 :-)

Thinking back to our vacations of the past, Key West with the dogs has to be in the top 5! 8 hours from Tampa and 4 hours or so from Miami, the trip alone is pretty cool. US 1 is a great scenic road down through the Florida keys and ending at Key West. The dogs loved the ride down…..

We rented a little cottage named “Porchside Paradise.” It was a cool place with the bed up in a small, comfy loft. We were right next to Duval street and all the action.

Check it out here –

http://www.vacationrentalskeywest.com/porchside_paradise.htm

We took the dogs on several walks a day through the neighborhoods close by and saw all kinds of crazy Key West stuff. Lots of chickens and lots of cool Key West homes! The best part was the huge fenced in dog park out by Smathers Beach that was about a mile away from the house. We would get up early before it was too hot and head down there for an hour of running around with the local dogs.

The cool thing is that, if you take your own bikes or rent, you just park your car once and leave it until you are heading home. Everything you need is right around Duval Street. Tons of cool Bed and Breakfasts, hotels, resorts, shopping and grocery stores. Our favorite place to eat, a pretty cool restaurant set back off of Duval down a little alley, is called Opera. It is a great Italian place perfect for a romantic dinner. http://operarestaurant.com/

We also booked an afternoon ride on an old-time sail boat that was down from Boston. That was a lot of fun and the crew was great. Oh yeah, check out Finnegan’s Wake Irish Pub over by the Yacht Basin off of James Street. Everyone had a blast and the ride home a week later was quiet! The dogs couldn’t keep their eyes open…