So I’m chaning the name of the series because we’re not on the road any longer.  We’ll be back on the road in time for New Years, which should be interesting since it will take a little longer.  But let’s save that for another time. 

Day 1 in Key West, isn’t actually today, it was Dec 23 (yesterday). My wife and her parents had to run to Miami to visit with some doctors and do some shopping.  That left me and my 21-month old daughter to find a way to occupy ourselves for the day.  I had planned a fun filled day planned with us going by the Butterfly Conservatory, the Ripley’s Museum and possibly the Aquarium.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be.  My daughter wasn’t feeling well the night before and so she slept until after 11 in the morning.  I didn’t want to wake her, but I was afraid that she wouldn’t nap in the afternoon.  Nevertheless, when she got up at 11:15, I dressed her and took her out for lunch.  We visited the "Conch Republic Seafood Company" http://www.conchrepublicseafood.com/ for lunch.  My family and I like going over there.  I particularly like the conch chowder so if you’re in the area, check it out.

Well, that wasn’t as good an idea as I thought.  I figured sharing my conch chowder with my daughter wouldn’t be such a bad idea.  Well, it was.  I’m not supposed to share shellfish with my daughter until it is a little less dangerous of a time.  I wound up spending the afternoon worrying that my daughter was going to have an allergic reaction to the conch.  It really sucked.  I gave her some Benadryl to take care of her runny nose and she wound up sleeping the afternoon away.  No butterfly conservatory.  We’ll have to try another day.

I did visit the Key West Aloe factory over on Simonton street http://keywestaloe.com/ and spent a little money at our favorite glass artist in Key West (http://www.keywestglass.com/).  I highly recommend both locations.  Key West Aloe makes the best Coconut shampoo and Mary O’Shea has the most beautiful glass art.  We have 2 pieces already (a grouper and a turtle), this time I bought my wife (for christmas) one of the postcards (its at the top of http://maryosheasglassgarden.com/id1.html).  We have a "Key West" themed kitchen so this will make a perfect addition ot that.

We never did make it to the places that we wanted to get to.  My daughter is still fighting a fever and some kind of virus, so we just grabbed some dinner and stayed in.  Some quality bonding time for me and my darling little girl.  She is the apple of my eye and some day when she realizes it she’ll walk all over me. 

I’m creating a new list of links that will provide links to the places that I like to frequent or provide some free advertising.  Key West is a good place full of great places to see and great artists that require patronage.  Feel free to follow the links, but if you go to Key West, take the time to visit them.