My wife and I just got back from our first trip to South Florida. We hit Ft. Laurderdale (family relative with waterfront home), Miami (Hotel Faena), Islamorada (Casa Morada) and Key West (The Marker). This weekend was the weekend before Fantasy Fest in KW and things were definitely warming up. The hot temps and high humidity seemed to help. We mostly partied in KW day and night so don't have much in the way of restaurant or tourist site reviews.
We were craving a nice restaurant meal on Saturday so we had a quick dinner at A&E Lobster house. I had an excellent surf & turf with 8oz. filet and a florida lobster tail. My wife had an amazing seafood au gratin that was thankfully not too thick. No app or desert as we wanted to get out to Duval street and we were full anyway.
Friday night on Duval was pretty tame as there were some children there in the early evening. As the night wore on, it got a little crazier. We were comfortable wearing small bathing suits (speedo type for me, bikini for her) but there were very few people wearing anything close to that. As a result we got a lot of attention in the form of high fives, fist bumps and requests for pictures (which we granted). There were not very many costumes around. We also went back to the Garden of Eden after having been there for several hours that afternoon. We loved the Garden of Eden and spent a lot of time there during our visit. Friday's dinner consisted of hot dogs from a cart across the street from Garden of Eden. We went back to the hotel at 2am.
Saturday we had breakfast at Blue Heaven and then walked the southern end of Duval and had pizza by a very rough ocean. We then walked to the Bourbon Street Bar for a drink and we swan in their pool. They had a very good male singer and we would have stayed longer but our attire wasn't quite right for the crowd. We then stopped by Fat Tuesday to see the raucous scene there - a large bridal group doing some serious dancing and shaking. I was shocked and dismayed to see two parents with their 4-5 year old child - sitting at a high top table at the edge of the room, laughing hysterically at the goings on. One drink there and then back to our hotel to take a dip in the pool. Next we went to Garden of Eden to lay out on their lounge chairs. They have only about 6 chairs in the middle of the seating area next to the bar. The perimeter of the area contains built-in wood benches that are quite comfortable. The loungers were vacant when we arrived but there was a small crowd at the bar and on the benches. So we gathered our courage, set our towels (which we brought) on two of the chairs and got naked. The crowd at the bar varied from 25% to 60% nude from visit to visit and moment to moment. Many of the clothed visitors came by for a quick drink to see the naked people. So we felt like we were providing a service to them. Later another couple joined us on two more chairs and I was happy about that - strength in numbers you know.
We also went to the tiny beach at the end of Simonton Street and sat on the upright chairs from Lagerheads Beach Bar. They wanted $10 each for their loungers and we were only staying for one drink. That little beach and bar are pretty cool and chill considering they are a block or two from Mallory Square.
Saturday night on Duval was a lot more intense than Friday, but still nothing like next weekend will be. We saw some great costumes and there were other skimpily dressed revelers like us. We wore our matching jungle print thongs. I also wore some little stickers as pasties for my nipples (reminder - I'm a guy). I had been doing this all day on the street and got great responses from people. I got the idea from a female mannequin wearing them in a storefront. Saturday night we got even more picture requests and shout-outs. I'd bet if we had worn the same outfits next weekend for the actual parade we would have been hardly noticed. We again got back to our hotel about 2am.
The Marker is a great location for attending Fantasy Fest. Four blocks off Duval and on the same street as Garden of Eden.
The trip was everything we hoped for and I expect we'll be back again in the near future. In Miami we spent time at Haulover Beach and I will write about that separately for no other reason I'm tired of writing.
Last edited by HappyNude; 10/21/2019 12:53 PM.
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