31 December 2010: Key West, Florida

We got up a little earlier than we have been getting up (around 9am :)) and went down for the free breakfast. After more of the same, we decided to forgo the morning's run as my SCUBA fins from yesterday had done a number on my ankles (as in, some cuts, located right where my running shoe hits my ankle, that were very ouchy whenever they were touched) and running would be quite painful. So, we opted to walk up to Smathers Beach rather than catching the shuttle (it is about a 2.5mi walk). We did so without any problems and then camped out on some lounge chairs for a number of hours, reading (the new book is Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, which is decent but is not going to give any new insight into this type of topic for someone who has been living it for the past few years; if, however, you're still confused about open source, mass collaboration efforts, crowdsourcing, web service mashups, and other similar topics, it's a great introduction for you), getting some sun, and relaxing on our last full day of vacation.

For lunch, I ended up getting a taco (light lunch, since we were planning for a big dinner) from one of the street food trucks and it was fantastically good. We also discovered that not only did one of the street food trucks have unsweetened iced tea, but two of them did, which is great to know when the first one runs out since you've been buying it all week. :) In case you're new to reading about us traveling, one thing that Cin and I share is a passion for really good, fresh, unsweetened, iced tea. There really is no more perfect beverage in the world. So it is very refreshing that they had this here. My respect for the food served off street food trucks grows with every experience.

We catch the shuttle back (to maximize our beach time) and cleaned up for dinner. Once ready, we boarded the shuttle back to Duvall Street and walked through the old Key West Marina to find our dinner location, Prime 951 Steakhouse (here is their webpage and here is their TripAdvisor page).We arrived early, around 5.30pm for our 6.00pm dinner reservation and they did not look open yet, so we strolled through the marina again before arriving back right at our reservation time. We did find a really cool looking, very small, palm tree nearby.

This place looks very similar to any Ruth's Chris Steakhouse you may have been too...it's fancy and nice, with good decorations on the wall, but it is closed-in and you do not get any views of the wonderful marina from the dining room. The drink selection here is excellent; Cin got a cucumber martini (two, actually) that was very unique and delicious, and I chose an Anchor Steam off their somewhat-limited, but still decent, beer selection. Cin got "The Stack," a tomato/mozzarella caprese salad and I had the Caesar, both of which were quite good. For dinner, Cin got the filet mignon and I got the special, an 8oz buffalo filet (sorry, Anne). This one was a little pricey ($49 for 8oz, as opposed to $39 for the 10oz beef filet), but it did come with mashed potatoes, which I was able to trade for asparagus, unlike the rest of the dishes where all sides were a la carte. We ended up sharing the asparagus and an order of hash browns. The salads were fantastic. The steaks were very tasty but could have been seasoned a bit more (the buffalo steak was VERY tender and quite delicious). The sides were nothing remarkable (steamed asparagus is so less tasty than when it is grilled...). The service was really, really, good. So, if you're looking for a good steakhouse with very good food and excellent service, check out Prime 951. Here is what The Stack looks like...

After dinner, we got the shuttle back to the hotel and changed our clothes before heading back to Duvall, once again, for the New Years Eve celebrations. We picked up some beers from Captain Tony's and then walked down Duvall Street (it was closed to traffic as there as a zillion people, most of which are drunk, on the street during NYE). We saw a whole bunch of crazy looking people (the people watching on Duvall Street is crazy fun on a normal day; New Years Eve is just insanity) and then walked in front of the Bourbon Street Pub where they do a drag show every year and drop a big high-heeled shoe at the stroke of midnight. Passing through here was crazy as everyone is watching the show; it is OK as long as everyone is cooperative but once you get one person shoving or pushing, it can rapidly deteriorate. We made it through OK, but opted to walk around the block on the way back.

We headed back to the top of Duvall, got some more beers from Captain Tony's, and then found a good standing spot outside Sloppy Joe's, where we waited until midnight and the conch shell drop.

We stood next to a couple folks, one of whom had a bare chest with the Batman symbol painted on. He gave me his Happy New Year hat; I'm not about to turn down Batman giving me his hat! After the midnight celebration, we walked back to the shuttle bus and got on right away. Again, the Doubletree shuttle service is wonderful and made the evening. We got back to the hotel and went to bed, exhausted.

What a perfect way to welcome in 2011!