Sunday Brunch at Bistro 245 in the Westin

We love the Sunday Brunch in the Westin in Key West in Bistro 245. We always reserve a table outside with the beautiful sea view.

The brunch consists of a large seafood selection, many meats to choose from, a superb dessert choice and even bottomless mimosas. The food and drinks are amazing and the view is stunning.

Here's pics of some of the plates my family enjoyed.

As an aside, my sister visited the Butterfly museum in Key West. It looks great - click here to read all about it, if you are interested!

Back home to a great new Restaurant on Leeson Street!

I arrived home from Key West (watch out for some more blogs about my holiday over the next while) on Friday and have so far seemed to have very little jet lag!

On Friday night we had an early night with dinner at 6pm in Dillingers and then a drink outside O'Brien's.  It was a lovely evening so we popped in and got Bones and took him for a walk along the canal before we stopped off at the pub for a wee drink.

Then on Saturday night we attempted to get in to the new Restaurant "Forest & Marcy" that only opened a week or so ago. We got to the restaurant at 7pm and it was already completely full (it seats 25) but we gave our phone number and they said they would ring us if a space popped up. At 8.30pm (while in O'Brien's on our second drink) we got the call to say we could come around that there was a place for us. Happy Days!

Just as we began to look at the menu, I told Ciaran that the meal was my treat as we were celebrating his recent exam success. We then decided to have the Tasting menu (it was a celebration after all!) but also chose to start with an additional plate of cheese (by the end of the meal we were so full so maybe the cheese was not a good idea!). 

Here's photos of the food we enjoyed - I loved the lime tart to finish......it brought me back to Key West!.  All of the food was so unique and delicious tasting and as we left we wondered was it better than our favourite Ranelagh restaurant which is Brioche! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest & Marcy is the sister restaurant of Forest Avenue which we are booked in to in August(!) - I think it could be the hip little sister!!

Hemingway House Key West

I visited the Hemingway House on Whitehead Street in Key West the other day. It's a great tour of a remarkably well preserved house. Hemingway spent about a decade on and off in Key West and wrote "To have and to have not" while living here.

Pictured is Hemingway's room where he wrote every day.

Hemingway owned a polydactyl cat and descendants of this cat currently live in the house. Many have 6 or 7 toes. 

 You can see the cats have made themselves quite comfortable!!

The house has a lovely airy veranda wrapping itself all the way around the upstairs.

If you ever visit Key West, the Hemingway House is a must see.......and if you plan on getting married in Key West you can always consider the Hemingway House as a venue!

Green Scene in KW

One of my favourite things to do on holidays is to bike around. On this trip to Key West, I bought a bike as it is cheaper than renting for the 3 weeks.

Here I am cycling to dinner on my cream & green bike wearing my coordinating Lily Pulitzer dress.

 Before dinner in 7 Fish we stopped in for a cocktail at Square One - where I coordinated my green Banana Republic bracelet with my cocktail!!

Speaking of green, Key West is possible the only place where you can have a drink in the Chart Room Bar with a lady wearing an emerald around her neck that she found when on one of her diving trips with Mel Fisher. Incredible!

Mel Fisher had the saying "Today is the day" which makes me believe in the impossible.  Who would think that a teacher from Alabama could learn to scuba dive and give up teaching to go diving in Key West on the wreck of the Atocha and find an emerald?  Just like that!

That was certainly the day!!!

USA Vacay!

I'm on holidays!

We left a dreary Ireland Saturday two weeks ago and my parents and I made our way to Miami. We flew through Atlanta and it took us about 9 hours to arrive in Miami where I had booked us in to the Miami Airport Hotel which is in concourse E - it's incredibly handy not having to leave the airport.

The next morning we were up early to get on the road to Key West. I had rented a Dodge SUV.  We needed it for the boot space as we each had a large suit case and a carry on.

On the way down we stopped in Cracker Barrel in Florida City for breakfast and then continued on our way.

When we arrived in KW we did a shop for essentials......I got red party cups!

I also found this tasty non-alcoholic Baileys coffee creamer for my morning coffee - we don't have this in Ireland. 

 

My parents have rented a fabulous cute conchy cottage that will be perfect for our family to holiday in - my sisters arrive at the weekend.

One of the first things we did was sort ourselves out with bikes - Ciaran, Dad and myself all bought a bike in Kmart. I am here for over 3 weeks so it makes sense.  

Keep an eye on this blog....my tales from my holiday to follow...... :-) 

The Plough and the Stars in the Abbey

Last Friday I went to The Plough and the Stars in the Abbey Theatre as a guest of my twin sister Amy. 
Thank you Amy - what a wonderful night!

It was a special event where we were treated to wine & delicious canapes and a tour of the back areas of the theatre before the play.

Yes they have the typical lighted theatre mirror in hair & makeup!

When The Plough and the Stars was first performed in The Abbey back in the 1920's there was riots.  After seeing the play I can understand why. It is terribly moving and sentiment towards the Easter Rising must have been very raw at this time.

I had a really enjoyable night and caught the bus home about 10.30pm as I was in work the next day. However, I got off the bus at Doheny & Nesbits and met my husband for the rest of the walk home which was lovely and reminded me why I love living so close to Dublin City and how it is a great safe walkable city - quite possibly the best little city in the world to live in!!

What's going on...

So you'll be glad to hear that my passport has been processed.

I received it promptly about 10 working days after I sent it in. I then went on the ESTA visa site last night and applied for my visa which was pretty much instantly approved.  Love the last line on the approval page where you get welcomed to the USA and are told to have a great trip!

In other news Amy and I went skating the other night. We had decided a while back to try roller derby and Amy was on the look out for a team that we could join in with. She saw on Facebook that the Boomtown Rollers were having "fresh meat" try outs on Tuesday nights so she messaged them to say we would be there.

Honestly I was petrified!! Even more so when we pulled up to the skate rink and saw all the girls with their skates and helmets at the door. I was so intimidated that I nearly hoped Amy would suggest we should turn around!!!

I needn't have been worried.....they were sooo nice!!! And unbelievably helpful. One guy helped us out the minute we got out on the rink and showed us lots of useful ways of falling without hurting ourselves - which as you can imagine was most useful! As we skated around, other experienced skaters asked how we were doing and gave us other hints....."bend your knees!!"

And the best thing was that at the end of the session there was even cake!! One of the girls had made little gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes. Totally delish!

We are going back for more next Tuesday.....that's more skate action, not more cake......well hopefully cake too!  ;-)

I am off work today so I went to Rathmines to chill out with a cup of coffee and a read of a book.  After I finished the book I dropped it back to Rathmines Library and borrowed 2 more. 

I also got a new battery for my Michael Kors watch which stopped about a month ago. I'm glad to have it back on my wrist 

I then went to Dunnes and picked up the ingredients for meatballs and got them in my slow cooker - enough to feed us for the next few days which is convenient.

And now I'm going to go and get ready for an event in the Abbey Theatre this evening.  Amy snagged tickets to the final night of The Plough and the Stars with canapes and drinks beforehand....and afterwards we get to meet the cast!  I will report on this in a future blog......watch this space!