Iguanas, Manatees, and Dolphins, oh my! (Ruth's visit!)

My time here in the Florida Keys is slowly coming to an end and I am left with a mix of happy and sad feelings.  I'm happy I got to have this amazing experience living down here and meeting new people, eating amazing food, and being close to the ocean again.  I'm excited to see what lies ahead in my life and looking forward to new adventures but am sad to be leaving behind the new friends I've made and this beautiful place.

I have gotten use to waking up and looking at the canal in the morning while I make my breakfast and get ready for work.  Looking for the iguana that likes to lie on the bush above the canal and trying to find any manatees that might be swimming along. 

My best friend Ruth, her husband, and her daughter came to visit last weekend.  My previous two road trips to the Keys had been with Ruth so I was looking forward to having my partner in crime back with me!  We woke up Saturday morning and slowly got ready for the day, enjoying a relaxing morning when Ruth said "Is that a manatee in your backyard?" and it was!!   We went outside and watched in swim around the neighbor's boat before it came over to us!  It is so exciting to me to watch animals in the natural habitat and these fellows are sooo big that it is just a fun sight to see.

We got ready and headed into Key West for the Seafood Festival.  We spent a few hours walking around the arts booths and eating seafood including some delicious conch fritters and stone crab claws while listening to live music.  We spent some time sitting on the pier in Mallory Square watching the pelicans and enjoying the blue green water in front of us.  You can't come to Key West without walking at least part of Duval Street to see what all the excitement is about and ended up just off of Duval at the Key Lime Pie Company for Key Lime Pie dipped in chocolate which is AMAZING and I highly recommend to anyone who makes their way down here!  We made our way back to Mallory Square for the nightly sunset celebration with street performers and vendors all there to celebrating the sun setting one more day.  Unfortunately, the sunset itself was anything but exciting but just having the energy around us at the pier was fun to be in.

On Sunday we went up to Grassy Key to the Dolphin Research Center.  It is a non-profit research center that focuses its research on dolphins and their wellbeing.  There are currently 27 dolphins in residence there and 3 sea lions.  The dolphins do tricks in a smaller more intimate setting and are in pens in the actual ocean.  There were even a few baby dolphins there!  So cute!  You can pay extra for different interactions with the dolphins anywhere from petting the dolphins to swimming with them and even being a trainer for the day.  Erin and Ruth opted to pet the dolphins which made for a cute photo op.

We had lunch at the Island Fish Company in Marathon and the food there was excellent.  The highlight was the fried key lime pie.  Yep, you read that correctly fried key lime pie.  The pie was warm with a creamy center from the heat of frying it and had whipped cream with cinnamon and sugar topping it and it was Delicious!  I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.

Yesterday was my last day of work and my coworkers and I went out for happy hour and appetizers to celebrate.  We did a mini version of the Duval Crawl having a drink at different bars along the street and I had a great time celebrating with them and soaking up the energy of the night and lots of laughing.  I'm definitely going to miss them when I go.

While my time here is coming to a close very soon, I still have a few exciting things planned for this week and am really looking forward to it!