{4 Year Anniversary}: Key West

If you're new to my blog, it might surprise you that before I became pregnant, I talked about things other than being pregnant and then being a mom. I talked about things like marriage and love.

I'm taking a time out from "mommy blogging" today to say Happy Anniversary to my husband. We are celebrating 4 years of marriage today!

We got married on Memorial Day weekend in 2011 - May 28, to be exact. We didn't plan it this way, but having our anniversary fall on/near Memorial Day has worked out well for us, as we've made it tradition to celebrate our anniversary not with gifts, but with trips!

Our first year we went to Santa Barbara. Next to Savannah and last year to Puerto Rico (I was 10 weeks preggo for that trip). This year, we went to Key West.


We weren't sure what this year's anniversary would look like due to Liam's arrival. But after much debate and conversation as we decided our destination. we felt that in the end, bring Liam would be too much for everyone. For starters, I'd have to travel with him alone to meet Bryan in Florida. Second, Florida is hot, and at 5 months old, our little one isn't "supposed" to really be in the sun much. Not to mention he was sweating his cute little buns off at a recent Cubs game and I felt so miserable, I didn't want him to be hot for a whole 5 days. Third, being that he's still a young babe and we're just coming out of a nasty sleep regression, we didn't want to A) completely mess up the schedule that's been working for us or B) be confined to our hotel in order to keep to said schedule.

Plus, sometimes it's nice to have time together without the baby. Like, really nice.

I was so sad, scared, anxious, guilty and ALL OF THE FEELS before we left, but getting out the door was the hardest part. We left him with Gigi (my mom) and we trust her, and any family member, to no end. Since we don't live in the same state as our families, they jump at the chance to watch him. Once we were together in Florida, of course we missed him. But we knew we'd made the right choice in leaving him with Gigi and aimed not to spend our whole vacation focused on missing our babe.

Where we stayed: Sheraton Suites Key West and The Westin Key West Resort & Marina. (Thank you, Starwood Points!) We splurged with points staying at The Westin, and I will say that it was not worth the points used. A nice hotel, but in retrospect, the Sheraton was just as nice.

What we did: On Friday, we drove down to Key West from Miami. We got settled at our hotel, then spent some time by the pool having drinks before showering and heading to Duval Street for (more) drinks and dinner.

If you've never been to Key West, Duval Street is basically like Bourbon Street, River Street or Beale Street - it's just bar after bar after shop after restaurant after bar. And you can have "to go" drinks! So we spent much of our vacation spending time visiting the many hidden gems on Duval! Bryan had a list of places we wanted to go, so we spread them out over our time on the Island.

Smallest Bar in Key West: Literally just has a counter to order drinks, and one stool. 

 The Original Margaritaville

Key West is also known for the Sunset Celebration in Mallory Square, so we went down there every night to watch the Sunset. So lively with street performers and entertainment like live music!

On Saturday, we rented bikes from the hotel and biked our way around the Island. We stopped at Casa Marina, posh hotel (it's a Waldorf property) where Bryan stayed on a business trip and had drinks/watched the rich folk interact. We also stopped at the Southernmost Point of the USA! Super cool, but really it's just a photo opp.

Gorgeous pool view from Casa Marina

Next we biked to Fort Zachary Taylor and hit up a beach down there. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and head to dinner on the water!

 After dinner, we went to a dessert bar called "Better Than Sex." It was so cool! They had tablets where you could find your drink of choice based on what you liked. They put a chocolate rim of your choosing on your cocktail. See the example below. Their actual desserts were amazing, too. HIGHLY recommend if you are down in The Keys!

On Sunday, we were supposed to get up early to go snorkeling on a boat tour, but we were too tired and just wanted to sleep in! (We were without baby, remember!) So we spent the first part of the day by the pool and just relaxed, then we showered and headed back down to Duval to hit some of the spots we hadn't been yet.

 We went to two different wine bars (above) that were both awesome!

Sunday night, it was back to the Sunset Celebration and out for more food and drinks! So really, we spent most of the trip int he sunshine, drinking and eating. Not too bad, you know?

It was so nice to be excited to come home, too. Normally at the end of vacay, you're bummed, but now we have our sweet boy to come home to. Before we left, it was super hard to make the decision to leave him behind, but we know it was the best choice. Plus we came back as better, refreshed parents.

How was your Memorial Day?

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