We are on our first vacation in over seven months. Barbara went through some pretty nasty chemotherapy over the summer, and now feels strong enough to start traveling again.
Key West is a perfect place to rediscover our travel legs. It is very relaxing and stress-free here. We had a direct flight from O’Hare to the Key West airport, and a quick ten-minute cab ride from the airport to our hotel. We are staying at the Marriott Beachside Resort, which has exceeded our expectations. Our room is huge.

This is our living room, as taken from our balcony overlooking the ocean.
Not shown is our very large bedroom, a powder room, a room with a washer and dryer, and most of the full kitchen. It is like living in a really nice condo, except that someone makes our bed and cleans up the bathroom in the morning.
The hotel is on the other side of the island from the downtown area. The location is a perfect compromise since it is quiet and beautiful at the hotel and only a fifteen minute shuttle ride to the bustling downtown area. The free hotel shuttle runs every hour.
We got to the hotel around 2:00 today. After checking in we actually had a little trouble finding our room since we had to go outside and everything is spread out a lot, plus the sign pointing to our building points in the wrong direction.
After unpacking we ate lunch at the pool-side restaurant, Bluebar, which was lovely. We both had a mahi mahi sandwich.
We then walked along the ocean to a nearby Publix to buy a few things so we could eat breakfast in our room. It was around a fifteen walk. The walk wasn’t that pleasant because it was along the main road (Roosevelt Blvd) and there was a lot of traffic so it was kind of noisy. Also, we were walking into a fairly strong wind on the way back.
When we got back to our hotel we hung out on our balcony until it was time for dinner. We took the 6:00 shuttle and got to Sarabeth’s around 6:15. We ate outside and enjoyed our dinner. We both had yellow tail snapper.

After dinner we walked around Duval Street (the main drag) for a while and then caught the 8:00 shuttle back to the hotel, where we watched the Democratic debate. The candidates debating were Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren. We like Klobuchar but it is unlikely she will get the nomination.
The weather today was beautiful. It was around 80 degrees and sunny. Even the evenings are great – it never gets out of the seventies.
Jim and Barbara's Travel Journal 