Today was one of our planned rest days. We were in no hurry to climb out of bed, because breakfast didn't start until 8:30 am.


We have spent so many nights living in budget motels and eating meals concocted from the shelves of supermarkets that we thought it time to spoil ourselves a little just for one day. Our first priority was to book ourselves into Latitudes Restaurant, which is located on Sunset Key, a 10 minute ferry ride from Key West. A phone call had that quickly arranged.

We then headed off to Duval Street and the many tour booking booths behind Mallory Square. Here we bought tickets for the hop-on, hop-off trolley bus tour of the island, and took off immediately for a full lap of the island with nonstop commentary from the driver. It was an interesting tour that included stops at Ernest Hemmingway's house, the southernmost point of the US, the marker for US 1 Mile 0 and some of the many shopping hot spots and markets.

We picked up our boarding pass for the Sunset Key ferry, and took in some sculpture at the art gallery.

Our next priority was to get out on the ocean. The sailing boat we wanted to book only operates sunset tours at this time of the year, so we went for the default option, a glass-bottom boat cruise out to the USA's only coral reef.

It was interesting to see the fish and coral drifting a few feet below our vessel, but having done a lot of diving in Australia in our younger days, we have to say we have been spoilt...

Our cruise took us past a large cruise boat that had docked overnight.

After our boat returned, we headed back to our B&B for a drink and a splash in the pool before getting dressed up for dinner, We caught our ferry out to the restaurant about 25 minutes before sunset.

We dined outdoors at a table on the beach as the sun set across the water. The view was wonderful, the food exquisite, the wine delightful. It was a perfect evening.

As we waited for the ferry back, we could see fish swimming around thanks to the lights under the dock. A little further out we could see the long slender outlines of barracudas lurking in the darker waters.

As we rode back on the ferry a distant thunderstorm put on a show of lightning for us.

This was a stunnig day and a wonderful evening.