We rode the bikes around winding roads last night for a good while. I enjoyed looking at all the different houses. My favorites were the really colorful ones in blues and pink pastels with white trim and a loud color door, with lots of tropical flora and fauna in the yard to the point the house is barely distinguishable. There were many homes for sale, which made me envy the people who might buy them and live this lifestyle of total relaxation with few cares in the world. What do these people do for a living? What have they done in life to trade it all in for this? Are they old? Are they young? How do you achieve a Key West lifestyle?
Our bike ride led us all the way back to the end of Highway One… or the beginning depending on if your cup is half full or not. We posed there for photos with our bikes amazed that this highway stretches all the way to my house and beyond.
We did make our way to the Cuban restaurant that Billy, the pool bar guy recommended and it was exactly the kind of place I like to go to when traveling… seeing and tasting from the local’s perspective. On the corner of Margaret and Catherine Streets (I love that all the street names are names…) is a one story brick home-turned-business with maybe 3 parking spots out front. It is very out of the way for the tourist crowd, but a nice change of pace from the bustling Duval street. The restaurant’s name is El Siboney and purports itself to be a family friendly Cuban restaurant offering the best in authentic Cuban dishes on budget. It was filled with mostly locals… little old ladies, Latin families (I assume Cuban) and perhaps 3 tourist families. I had the grilled pork tenderloin (for some reason, pork says Cuban to me) and mom had the mahi. Each dish was served with black beans, yellow rice and fried plantains. Mom enjoyed her mahi, not having ordered that fish in a number of years which made her question why? We guessed the spices on her fish to be cumin and paprika. My pork loin was served butterflied and was far too large to eat in one sitting. With some lime squeezed over it, it was tender, juicy and flavorful. While I enjoyed my pork, I wish I had called ahead to order the paella which has lobster and shrimp in it, but takes over an hour to make. The best part of the meal was in the end though, a small bowl of rice pudding. As a rice pudding fanatic, I can honestly say this was the best I’ve ever had. Creamy with overpowering vanilla flavor and large grains of rice. The staff at this restaurant was friendly, attentive and fast, but don’t go there for the ambiance. A trip to this hole in the wall is strictly for the magnificent food, not for a dining experience.
After dinner, we biked back to the room and then drove out to the Big K to buy a scrabble game. Garden Hotel has a number of board games, but not our mainstay of scrabble. We decided we would leave the game for them. Mom and I began playing the game out on the brick patio outside our room, preferring the wood porch with the ceiling fan and cushy chairs save the fact the fan was broken… so we settled on the café table outside. A few turns into the game, in which I achieved multiple tiles of every vowel on the planet, the lightening began. A few minutes later, we felt the big drops of rain begin coming down. A few drops later, we realized this was going to be quite the storm and relocated to the fanless porch where we finished the game and mom beat me by about 30 points, although I came up from behind and went out first with the word God and ad in one with my D. We then had fun making a scrabble picto-card with all kinds of words from drag queen, cat cat cat, to key lime pie. We did quite well, leaving only the V’s and O’s. The board sat out overnight in the rain and is still in tact on the porch.
A Jacuzzi tub with bath salts and a couple chapters later, I was sound asleep, to be woken at 7:30 by my iPhone’s cricket alarm clock for yoga with Misha.
I debated getting up, but decided it would be a very pleasant way to start my day. There were 4 other people in the class and we did it outside by the bird cage and fish pond. As yoga should, it opened up my airways and gave me a great stretch so early in the morning. It wasn’t strenuous, but I did feel the heat of some of the poses so after the class, feeling invigorated, I dove into the pool to cool off instead of a shower.
Now, I wait for mom at the breakfast table and will read for a bit with my tea.
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