Offshoreonly.com - First Trip to Key West

You driving, flying, or boating down? That's gonna be a helluva trip at just over a week. Might want to bring a spare liver!

Food and drink? You'll figure it out once you're there pretty quick. But for food we always like to hit Half Shell Raw Bar at some point to get some tasty Stone Crab (we can't get it on the west coast). My Blue Heaven off of Duval is a great breakfast spot but it's usually packed and there's a wait. Carolines on Duval has good food breakfast, lunch and dinner. Downstairs at the A&B Lobster house next door to the Conch Republic (where the FPC headquarters / Poker Run Village is), has the absolute best buffalo fried shrimp I've ever had in my life and this thing called like a key lime cheese cake martini (I know, I know, sounds weird but trust me...Get one and it'll turn into 5!). Upstairs at the A&B Lobster house is a traditional high end steak house. Great steaks and oysters. Difficult to get sushi in KW but if you're craving some, the Thai Cuisine & Sushi on Green St off of Duval actually has some pretty good sushi. The Conch Shack (stand) on Duvall in front of Hogs Breath has great Conch fritters and Bacon wrapped hot dogs. At some point you're bound to end up standing in front of Ricks Tree Bar / Naked Bar (we'll get into that in a minute), do yourself a favor and order a pizza from Angelina's Pizza (most on here probably have eaten there a bunch of times and don't even know that's the name of the place LOL), across the street from Sloppy Joes, INSANELY good, simple pizza. Just tasty goodness. And, don't forget to get a hotdog at one of the various Hotdog carts that roll out around midnight on the weekends after you've had 100 drinks. Nothing's better....Except maybe some pizza from Angelina's! ;) There's really a ton of great places to eat but that covers the gist and a variety I think.

As far as drink....You could most likely drink at a different bar every hour you're in Key West and never hit the same one twice. And funny thing about bars in KW, every bar I've ever been to there has been awesome for different reasons. But most likely, it's due to having been drinking all day and night with great friends in an awesome location surrounded by a hobby we're all passionate about. But I really like the various bars along the north end of Duvall like Sloppy Joes and Irish Kevins with the stages and usually great live bands playing and the crowd singing along to "sweet caroline" or other ballads. Those are the givens you have to visit, like the Naked Bar (yes, clothing's optional and yes, it's usually the people you don't want to see naked with out their clothes on). Ricks Tree bar is where you'll see EVERYONE at some point during the street party on Friday night. Hogs Breath is a cool hang-out, I like to swing by for some day drinking there. Louie' Backyard bar at the South end of Duvall is a great spot to catch the sunset and have a cocktail right on the water. Fat Tuesdays on Duvall is great to get a slushy / rum colada during the day to cool off and listen to some good (non-live) music. Once the poker run gets rollin, sitting at the Conch Republic next to Poker Run Village is cool to watch all the Poker Run participants roll in and out and party on their boats. Place also attracts huge crowds checking out the boats. And don't forget, since you're in Key West to swing by the 801 Bar (at 801 Duval), it's a drag bar and has a great show upstairs plus the little bar downstairs upfront is a quintessential divey bar where a lot of locals hang. Good music (LOUD dance music) usually pumping out of the stereo, strong drinks and decent prices...Just don't go back into the back bar behind the curtain :eek: I'm a big fan of the fact you can stroll around, especially on Duvall and the liquor stores and some of the bars sell beer out of ice cold buckets right on the street for a couple bucks and then you can keep on strolling. Now, mind you, open containers there are technically illegal but they do not enforce it. Go figure. :D In the end, you'll be there for a week, go explore and find the little bars in the back alleys and streets off the beaten path. I've been to quiet a few that I can't remember where the hell they're at but had a spectacular time!

If you think you can swing it, Thursday the 7th FPC's biggest group will be making their way down to KW from Miami. They stop at Gilberts Tiki Bar in Key Largo at the top of the keys around 11.30. It's always worth it to stop in and hang out for lunch and see the gobs of awesome boats tied up together. It's about a 2 hour drive from KW but again, the drive is beautiful. Thursday night is the OSO / Speed On The Water party at the Sand Bar and I gotta say, it's become one of the "can't miss" events. The Sand Bar is behind Sloppy Joes off of Duval. Greg, Matt and Jason have really made this event a staple for the weekend and it brings EVERYONE together in one place (which, is a good and a bad thing since the event has outgrown the grounds, but I hear they're working on hat this year ;) ). Friday night is the street party with all the race boats lining up on Duval. Literally Thousands of people converge on Duval to look at the boats, hang out with friends, talk to racers and of course, abide in some adult beverages. Every year at that time, I think to myself, "this must be every person on the whole island here right now!". Saturday is usually the impromptu boat run out to the sand bar with many of the poker runners. Saturday night is Stu's big party at Poker Run Village next to Conch which is always a fun time to hang out and see everyone. There's also always break out lunch runs various days like the Mystic and Outerlimits owners runs. Oh, and there's races hahaha....There's that too. ;) find the race schedule online and cruise down to Mallory Square or one of the restaurants at the north end of the island like the pier house to watch the boats scream by so close to you, you'd think you could reach out and touch them. It is pretty freakin' cool.

Ok, I think I've covered most of it for you LOL hopefully it helps. We'll be there Wed around 7. Hope to see you down there!

Tank