Life with the Rusch's: Summer Lovin (sort of)

well, it's not summer yet, but Seth and I had a good taste of it.... and it was wonderful! what a relaxing few days! on wednesday we dropped the kids off at Grammy and Grampy's and headed to the cities. We had dinner at La Cucaracha's in St Paul ( my favorite mexican restaurant of all time) then we stayed at Derek and Lisa's house and headed to the airport at 430 am. we boarded on time and were supposed to take off at 6am but after plowing the runway and de icing twice each, we didn't take off until 8! we barely made our connection in Miami and ran across the hole terminal. then it was too cloudy in Key West so we circled around twice and then had to head back to Miami to get more fuel. about 10-15 people got off the plane and decided to take the 3 hr drive in a rental car instead! we were back in the air in about 15 minutes and another 20 min back to key west and we had arrived! it was a little misty the first day but mid 70's. We stayed at the Sheraton which is on the other side of the island from most of the action, but had a beautiful beach right across the street.

with our hectic traveling we hadn't gotten to eat at all so we just ate at the hotel bar the first night. and it was probably my favorite meal! Seth loved the conch fritters and I had some awesome corn and clam chowder and then a catch of the day sandwich. (so good I had to get it again on our last day)

the next day we walked to a local cuban coffee shop for breakfast and went to a museum in a civil war fort on the way back to the hotel then headed to the old town in the afternoon. we explored and shopped and bar hopped a bit.

the next morning we walked from our hotel to old town and ate breakfast at The Six Toed Cat. which was pretty good. my 17yr old sandals finally met their demise and I picked up a new pair and did some other shopping and went to a shipwreck museum. we hit the pool in the afternoon and then took the shuttle back to old town to go to the sunset festival at Mallory square. (like 1000 people go there every night to watch the sunset and there were plenty of artsts and street performers on hand as well and ate dinner at a cuban restaurant with a band and people salsa dancing by our table.

the next morning we watched the sunrise at the beach across the street. pretty cool. then breakfast at harpoon harry's - crabcake bennedict and seafood omlet. went to a local bookstore and then back to the beach for swimming. we had dinner at a taco place and headed back to the room since downtown was kind of busy due to the Superbowl.

Monday we had breakfast at a different cuban coffee place and went for a long walk and attempted to find a few geocaches (only got one) and walked back with my feet in the ocean. and then back to reality. less eventful journey back but still long. we didn't make it back until 1am so we waited until this morning to pick up kids. it sure was good to see them again!

and now for the pictures...