Jim and Barbara’s Travel Journal

The Tack tour really started this morning, not counting the meet and greet last night. We didn’t spend much time in Rabat – only the morning before leaving for Fez. We set our alarm for 6:15 AM since our luggage was being picked up at 7:15. This was around six hours earlier than we woke up yesterday. We were both sound asleep when the alarm went off.

We had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was very typical of other breakfast buffets we have had throughout the world (except in the United States). We both had omelettes. We got on our very comfortable coach bus at 8:30 for a brief tour of Rabat.

We first drove through the royal palace complex, but we didn’t get off the bus and didn’t take any pictures. It wasn’t that interesting. Then we stopped at the Mohammed V mausoleum. Mohammed V was the king of Morocco from 1957 to 1961 and is considered the father of modern Morocco. After he died his son Hassan II was king until 1999 when the current king Mohammed VI took over. They are all considered direct descendants of the prophet Mohammed, as are all of their ancestors. The Moroccan government is currently a parliamentary monarchy so the king has limited power.

After visiting the mausoleum we took the bus to the Kasbah. This is an interesting neighborhood with a lot of blue walls. It’s near the ocean and has some very expensive homes.

We walked around there for a while and then got on the bus for the ride to Fez.

After driving for around two hours we stopped at a winery for lunch. Before eating we got a tour of the winery and a lot of wine sampling. The winery looked more like a brewery since the wine was aged in stainless steel tanks rather than wood barrels.

Lunch was very good. It was similar to last night’s dinner, with large quantities of food and many courses. The main course was chicken tangine. They also served three different types of wine, which made me very tired on the remainder of the bus ride to Fez. They gave each person a goody bag of a bottle of homemade olive oil, which was nice but will be kind of a pain to get home.

It took another hour or so to get to Fez. We made a stop before arriving at the hotel to view the Medina from a high lookout. Fez’s Medina is around ten times the size of Rabat’s, which we thought was huge, so navigating it would be very intimidating.

We are staying at the Hotel Sahri, which is very nice. After settling in, at around 7:30 we took the hotel shuttle to the Medina to have dinner. It took around ten minutes to get there. We were planning to have dinner at The Clock Cafe, which was recommended by our tour guide. It should have been easy to find but somehow we missed it so we went a lot further into the Medina than needed. We eventually asked someone who told us to turn around. We then found a sign for it with a piece of paper on the Medina wall saying that it was closed. While we were standing near the restaurant (but still hadn’t seen it) apparently looking confused, someone asked us if we need help. He walked us over to a different restaurant, M Touch, which was very good. We sat on the rooftop, which was three very steep flights up.

I had a camel burger (yes, it’s what it sounds like), which was very tasty. I couldn’t really tell that it was camel meat but then again I don’t know what camel meat is supposed to taste like. Barbara had pasta with saffron, which was good but not great. We had Oreo cheesecake for desert since they were out of their more traditional Moroccan desert, and of course mint tea.

When we left the restaurant around 9:30 the Medina was still a swarm of humanity (and some animals). We easily found our way out of the Medina, which we had been a little worried about, and caught a cab back to the hotel. The cab ride cost $3.00.

We enjoyed today, with its mix of sight seeing, education, and adventure.

I woke up and looked at my watch and saw that it was 12:05. At first I thought it was midnight, but that didn’t make sense since I could see the sun poking through the curtains. We were both very surprised and unhappy to learn that it was already afternoon. It never dawned on us to set an alarm since we didn’t think we would sleep that late. We quickly got ready for the day. We missed the hotel’s buffet breakfast that ended at 10:30 so we walked over to Ty Potes, which is a nearby French Bistro, for breakfast. We both had their brunch menu that had a lot of different items – scrambled eggs, lox, baked potato filled with cheese, etc. We enjoyed the meal.

After breakfast we walked back to the Medina since we heard that some artists had set up shop there, plus we wanted to see the Kasbah. We walked through the Nouzhat Hassan gardens on the way, which was very nice.

We went into the Medina through an entrance on the east side, which put us in a different spot than the west entrance we used yesterday. However, it looked very similar and we didn’t see any artists.

There were stalls with everything you can imagine, including live chickens.

Using Google Maps we worked our way through the Medina to the Kasbah of the Udays, which is an interesting area around a mosque. We didn’t really see much of it since we are touring it tomorrow with the group. We walked through the Andalusian Gardens, which were pretty but not spectacular.

After leaving the gardens we walked along the water. The ocean is in the background.

Given our late start to the day we decided we had better head back to the hotel since it was already around 4:00 and our Tauck meet and greet dinner started at 6:00. On the way back we walked through the Medina again, and stumbled across a small shop (they are all small shops) selling some artwork that we liked. We bought some artwork for us and the kids. Here is me with the shop owner we bought it from, who is a friend of the artist.

We got back to the hotel around 4:45, where I am writing this.

After a short rest we met our Tauck tour guide and fellow travelers at the meet and greet dinner at the piano bar in the hotel. There are thirty people in the group. There are a surprising number of midwesterners on the trip. At some point I will list first names and where they live, as I have in past journals. As in most Tauck tours the travelers are interesting and well travelled. One couple has been on over thirty Tauck tours.

The food at dinner was very tasty and presented beautifully, and there was an incredible quantity. Shown below is just one of the many courses shown – lamb tagine. We sat at round tables of ten, and we got to know the people at our table.

After dinner we packed and went to sleep. We leave Rabat tomorrow and they pick up our luggage at 7:15 AM, so we need to wake up six hours earlier than we did today.

We slept on the plane most of the way from Paris to Rabat, which was good since we hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last 24 hours or so. Getting through Moroccan customs was very quick and easy, and a driver from Tauck met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel, which is La Tour Hassan. There were nine other people on our tour getting picked up. While we were checking in at the hotel the electricity in the whole hotel went off, and stayed off for around an hour. If this had happened five minutes later we might have gotten stuck in the elevator. We walked the four flights to our room and unpacked. Welcome to Africa.

By then it was around 3:30 and we were hungry but didn’t want a big meal so we walked over to a nearby Palestinian restaurant, Sufra, for some soup and falafel.

It was very good although the pumpkin soup, which I ordered, was much better than the lentil soup, which Barbara ordered. Being the good husband that I am we switched soups halfway through.

We then walked over to Muhammad V Boulevard, which is one of the main streets in Rabat. There was some mildly interesting architecture there but we heard that it is illegal to take pictures of government buildings and we didn’t want to wind up wasting away in a Moroccan prison, so we didn’t take any pictures.

After walking a while the street abruptly transitioned from an elegant boulevard to a sprawling, bustling old city marketplace – the Medina.

We walked through the Medina for a long time, getting lost a few times. Fortunately Google Maps works well in Morocco so we were able to find our way out. Otherwise we might still be there.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a cafe for some mint tea, which is a Moroccan specialty.

The tea was good, made just with mint leaves, and it was an interesting experience.

Someone shining shoes was walking around the cafe and the man next to us had his shoes shined while he was drinking his tea. I think he was just trying to help the guy out.

We got back to the hotel around 7:00 and were both very tired from the time change, lack of sleep, and long walk. I think I fell asleep around 8:30. Barbara lasted a little longer.

The weather today perfect sightseeing weather – it was in the sixties and mostly sunny. Today was a very good start to the trip.

I am writing this in the Paris airport. We are having croissants at Pret A Manger, which seemed like an appropriate thing to do in Paris.

We flew from Chicago O’Hare to New York JFK to Paris Charles DeGaulle to Rabat, Morocco. We really didn’t want to take three flights but after spending hours searching for flights that was the only way I could find to get there without needing to stay overnight somewhere. Getting to Morocco is difficult even though it’s not that far. It’s in Africa (the northwest corner) but very close to Spain. We flew Delta (or a partner) all the way. We had never flown Delta before but it seems like a good airline.

So far things have gone smoothly – actually better than smoothly. Here is a long explanation. We booked coach since we didn’t have enough miles to fly business class, and flying business class in both directions would have cost us an extra $12,000 or so. We booked the flight a year ago, but a couple of months ago Delta kicked us out of our seats on the flight to Paris because they accidentally double booked them. We had been in two seats together at an aisle and window and they moved us to the middle of the plane. I spent hours on the phone talking to agents and supervisors, and explaining that Barbara had a compromised immune system and needed to sit as far from other passengers as possible. They put a medical note in our record and kept telling me they would fix it at JFK. However, at JFK there were no aisle and window seats available. Fortunately a supervisor there got involved and put us in business class for free, which was great. Our seats folded flat for sleeping, plus we got warm nuts, wine, a nice dinner, and a hot towel. The downside was that there was so much room that even though we were in seats next to each other we still felt far apart (not a good thing on Valentines Day). Also, we were far from any windows so it was weird not being able to see outside.

One of the three pilots had trouble getting to the airport (they didn’t expound on that – maybe a flat tire?) so we took off an hour late after waiting for an alternate pilot to show up. However, we had 140 mile per hour tailwinds so we landed on time. The in-flight time was less than six hours.

Barbara has worn surgical masks on all of the flights (except the one in business class since we were far from other passengers). It doesn’t seem to bother her. She has also been very diligent in sanitizing the area around her.

This is probably more information than you want but I have a lot of time on my hands, plus I want to make sure this works. We are now on the plane to Rabat, Morocco. It is 10:00 AM in Paris, which is 3:00 AM in Chicago. We probably got around two hour sleep last night. I don’t feel tired now but Barbara does. Hopefully we will get some sleep on the flight to Rabat.

Our next trip will be to Morocco. We will be on the Tauck “Magic of Morocco” tour. We leave February 14th and return February 25th. On previous trips I created a separate blog site for each trip. Starting with Key West and Morocco, I will use this same blog for all future trips. To receive e-mails whenever a new post is published, click on the “Follow” button. To see the journals from previous trips, click on “Previous trips” in the top menu. Stay tuned for postings from Morocco.

This was our third time in Key West, and we would definitely come back. It is a fun, relaxing and scenic place. There are also interesting site-seeing places here, such as the Hemingway House and Truman White House. We had seen them before so didn’t go back there on this trip.

Our hotel was great. We used Bonvoy points for the room, and then paid $150 per night extra to upgrade to a Presidential Suite, which was worth it. We are Gold Elite Bonvoy members, and you need to be Platinum members to get free breakfast, which takes 50 stays per year, so we will never reach that level. According to the manager here, 70% of the people staying here have Platinum or higher status.

Other than commercial fishing, tourism is the only industry here. There are a huge number of restaurants here, and most of them seem to be very busy. As expected, the seafood here is very fresh and tasty. There are also a huge number of tourist and clothing stores.

Key West has a very Caribbean flavor to it. It reminds us of a lot of places we have stopped on Caribbean cruises. The homes are all Caribbean style, there are a lot of roosters walking around. and there’s even a Diamonds International store.

It’s only a fifteen minute drive from one end of the key to the other. We know because we made the trip at least once a day. It’s very easy to get around without a car, which is nice. For those who do have cars, the preferred model is a convertible Mustang.

In summary, Key West is a great place to visit if you want a combination of relaxation, activity, no stress, and winter warmth. It is even more attractive now that there are direct flights from Chicago.

Notes from Barbara for our next trip here:

• Try the restaurant Little Pearl – great reviews & heard people talking about it.

• Try some of the restaurants near A&B Lobster (the Harbor Walk) – lots of cute places on the water.

• Go to the aquarium – we haven’t done that yet.

• Uber back from the grocery store on the first day.

• Bring a few baggies from home.

• Having breakfast in our unit worked great.

• Buy swimming noodles at Walgreens for the pool.

• Nicer walks are in the neighborhoods than near the hotel.

• Heard the Sheraton has been rehabbed – could check it out too.

• Nothing to buy for the grandkids in Key West – all junk – think about buying something at home for a gift before we go.

• We used points for our room at the Marriott & paid to upgrade to a suite – well worth it. Unit was huge & we really enjoyed it.

• We lucked out this time with beautiful weather but be prepared for rain.

• We enjoy Key West & hopefully will come back again.

It was slightly cooler and windier today, and overcast for most of the day. We had talked about going for a bike ride this morning, but decided not to because of the wind. Also, Barbara was not that excited about the idea, which is probably the real reason we didn’t do it. Even though the weather wasn’t quite as nice as previous days, it was still a nice day, especially compared to the big snow storm going on in Chicago. We had breakfast in the room (I finished my last blueberry muffin) and then went down to read by the pool.

We didn’t get in our bathing suits because we knew we were not going swimming. We actually sat facing the ocean rather than around the pool.

Barbara looked for a lunch restaurant on Yelp while we rode the shuttle into town. We decided to go to Two Friends, which is on Front Street near, but not overlooking, the water. I liked it more than Barbara. I had the Key West Sampler, which was unshelled shrimp, fried mahi mahi, conch fritters, and garlic mashed potatoes. Barbara had tuna salad.

Key West seemed much more crowded today than previous days, which is saying something since it has been very crowded. We were wondering if it was because it was Saturday or that maybe a cruise ship (or two) had arrived. We decided to go where the cruise ships dock to find out if there were ships here but stumbled upon this other area, the Harbor Path, that we had not known about. It was a very large area adjacent to the harbor with a large number of shops and restaurants. The next time we are in Key West we will definitely try out one of the restaurants. I bought a wood turtle to add to my collection. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures there.

We then walked over to Ocean Wellness and Spa Salon, where we got a one hour couples massage, which was very relaxing and enjoyable. We didn’t take any pictures there either since we were not wearing clothes. We then caught the 4:00 shuttle back to the hotel. We had 6:30 dinner reservations but decided to change it to 7:30 so we had a little more time to relax before dinner.

We are now on the shuttle on the way to Bliss Key West for dinner. I will be sure to take a picture there.

We are now on the shuttle on the way back to the hotel. Here is the picture I promised. It is a selfie because the waitresses were so busy we would have felt guilty asking them to take it.

From Barbara: We had dinner at Bliss Restaurant. We each had their “famous” Sangria. Jim had red & I had white. We had the guacamole appetizer which was very good. Jim had Grandma’s Shrimp and I had the yellow tail snapper. My dish was excellent. Jim liked his dinner but liked mine better. For dessert we shared coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce and berries. This is a small Colombian restaurant with no outdoor seating. There were two waitresses and they were virtually running to get everyone served. The food was excellent & we enjoyed our last dinner in Key West.

As we walked back to the shuttle we saw huge crowds spilling onto Duval Street in front of Margaritaviile. It turns out that Jimmy Buffet was in the restaurant. I assume he was playing but we couldn’t get close enough to tell.

This was our last day here. We fly home tomorrow afternoon. We have really enjoyed this vacation. I am not ready to go home.

We switched things around a little today. We had breakfast in our room again, but then went down to the pool in the morning rather than waiting until the afternoon. The weather was sunny and hot – great pool weather. Actually, for the first time since we have been here there were some clouds floating by that occasionally blocked the sun.

After swimming and reading by the pool we showered and took the shuttle to the Southernmost Point, which is where the Butterfly Nature Conservatory is. We had lunch before going to the conservatory. We were deciding between Southernmost Beach Cafe and Seaside Cafe. There were birds flying around the entrance to Southernmost Beach Cafe, so to avoid being attacked we went to Seaside Cafe.

We had an outside table several feet from the water, which was cool (I think we have eaten every meal other than breakfast outside).

We had their specialty, which is Lobster Pizza. It was good for cheese pizza. We could not taste the little bit of lobster that was on the pizza. We would not order it again.

We then went to the The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, which was just across the street from the restaurant. We first watched a movie about butterflies, which was very interesting. They are really fascinating, especially their metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. We then walked among the butterflies, which Barbara was actually okay with.

Butterflies are very gentle. There were also a lot of very small birds and two large pink flamingos.

The conservatory was pretty small so it only took around 15 or 20 minutes to get through it, and that was taking it leisurely. They have a huge gift shop, where we bought a Monarch mobile for our porch.

We took the shuttle back to the hotel, where we rested for a short time, and then took the shuttle back to the Southernmost Point area for our dinner at Louis Backyard.  

From Barbara: We started by sharing a salad with walnuts, blue cheese & apples.  We both enjoyed it.  Jim had seared tuna, sticky rice & bok choy.  I had salmon with a mustard sauce, black eyed peas & green beans.  We both enjoyed our dinners.  We shared key lime pie with berries for dessert.  We liked it but have had better.  The restaurant is right on the ocean & we could hear the waves as we ate.  It was lovely.

When we left the restaurant it was drizzling, but it started raining hard during the five minute walk to the shuttle stop. Fortunately we had taken an umbrella with us. Our timing was horrible since it stopped raining shortly after we got to the shuttle stop.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We have really enjoyed this vacation. It was just what the doctor ordered (metaphorically). It has been very relaxing, the weather has been fabulous (except for ten minutes tonight), our hotel was wonderful, and it has been great getting away from the daily routine and just being together.

We had breakfast in our hotel room again. I had a blueberry muffin and Barbara had Cheerios. It’s not too exciting but we really don’t want to eat out three meals a day.

We caught the 11:00 shuttle, but took it to the second stop this time, which is the Southernmost Point. This is the southernmost point of the continental United States. We waited in a line for around 15 minutes to take the following picture (we asked the people in back of us in the line to take it):

We then walked around the area a little bit.

After walking around the Southernmost Point area for a while we walked into town, which was around a twenty minute walk, where we actually met some friends from Buffalo Grove at Caroline’s restaurant. Even before they knew we were going to be there they had arranged to take a three hour boat ride from Ft. Meyers to Key West, so it worked out that we got to see them, which was fun.

Around the table clockwise starting with the red shirt: Bruce and Lynne Glickson, Sal and Jane Sidoti, Barbara and Jim Levie, Kitty Loewy, and Terry Steczo.

Barbara had the fried fish sandwich which she enjoyed.  I had the grilled mahi mahi sandwich (they call it a dolphin sandwich, but I prefer to call it mahi mahi, even though the dolphin fish has no relationship to Flipper, who was a mammal). The sandwich was ok, not great.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and hung out at the pool. We didn’t get to the pool until around 4:00, which was around the time we had left the pool the day before, so we didn’t get much sun since the sun set behind the hotel building around 4:30. Barbara and I both went in the water, but Barbara stayed in much longer than me.

We left the pool around 5:15, showered, and caught the 6:00 shuttle into town. This was the only night that we didn’t have a dinner reservation, so we used Yelp to help find a restaurant, and settled on Blackfin, which is on Duval but toward the end of the main drag. The restaurant was very empty, so we were a little hesitant to eat there, but we decided to give it a try. We made a good choice.

From Barbara: Dinner at Blackfin was wonderful. They have a lovely outdoor patio behind the restaurant where we ate. Jim had the tile fish (flakey whitefish) with a mango salsa, mashed potatoes & green beans. Barbara had the Wagyu burger with smoked gouda cheese and a side of green beans. We both loved our meals.

On the way back to the shuttle we stopped at Wicked Lick for chocolate ice cream, and we both thought it had very little flavor and was not creamy. We will not go there again.

We took the 8:20 shuttle back to the hotel, where we finished watching the second season of The Kominsky Method.

We had a nice relaxing day today. We had a light breakfast in our room, then took a long walk down Roosevelt Blvd.

We walked as far as the Sheraton Hotel, which was around a three mile walk, and then decided to take an Uber into town rather than turning around and walking back to the hotel. We had lobster rolls at DJs Crab Shack, which is a little dive on Duval Street. They were excellent.

We then caught the hotel shuttle back to the hotel, and hung around the pool for a couple of hours. I went swimming, but Barbara did not.

In the picture above, I am not a two fisted drinker. Those are the ends of swimming noodles we bought in town.

After cleaning up and having a little snack we took the shuttle back into town. We walked over to Mallory Square, which is the place to be to watch the sunset. There are a lot of street vendors and performers there, and of course the sun. The sun set at 5:59 PM.

The picture above was taken at 5:58 PM.

We had dinner at A&B Lobster, which is a fancy (i.e. expensive) restaurant overlooking the water. We ate at a table next to a small wedding party. The bride kept leaving the table with a girlfriend and sneaking off to the bar (not a good sign).

Here is a review of the food from our food critic:

We couldn’t figure out what to order so decided to order two different soups & entrees so that we could taste each one.  We ordered lobster bisque & clam chowder & liked the clam chowder better.  For our entree we ordered butter poached lobster tail & lobster thermidor & liked the butter poached lobster better.  We sat outside on a balcony overlooking the ocean & it was lovely.

After dinner we walked back to Duval Street where we were unsuccessful in buying gifts for our grandchildren. Key West must be the t-shirt capital of the world, but we didn’t want t-shirts.

We then took the shuttle back to the hotel where we watched some television (I guess that’s a Boomer description of what we did – we watched The Kominsky Method on Netflix on our iPad).

We walked a total of 7 miles today. It was another great day with perfect weather and perfect company.