Byrd and Mindy come to town!!

So only a few days after I arrived in town, one of my good friends from SC came down for a visit. Byrd, and his wife Mindy, were great company and we had a great time! Here is a picture of the three of us at "the top"...even though he has been coming to Key West for years, Byrd had never been to the top of the La Concha building. The La Concha is the highest point on the island, a whopping 7 stories high. It has the best views of the island, especially the sunsets. There is a bar up there caled "the top", for obvious reasons. They have a great drink called the Key West Lemonade, which we all had. The rest of the building is actually a Crowne Plaza hotel, and because of this, a lot of visitors to the island think the top is for guests of the hotel only. Well here is one of the few local's tips I can offer so far: The top of the la concha is public after 3PM. To get up there, walk into the starbucks on duval street, then walk out the back door into the hotel. The elevator is right there. It is so much more relaxing, not to mention a better view than Mallory Square. Byrd, am I right?

And what do you do in Key West if you're visiting? EAT! And drink too...we went around and found all the best happy hour specials, and some great food. My favorite happy hour so far is Two Friends patio restaurant. From 4-7, they have $2 beer, $3 wine, and half price all appetizers. We had buffalo wings, conch fritters, smoked mahi dip, and steamed shrimp. That and 2 rounds of drinks came to $35 or so. Wow!!

On the way into town, they stopped at Bobalu's, which is a famous restaurant down here about 15 miles outside of Key West. They were shocked to find that they opened a new Bobalu's in town, right next to the Green Parrot! We went there and had some yuenglings and a pizza with grilled shrimp, garlic, and red peppers on it. Delicious!

Another great thing about Key West is the coffee! Starbucks is completely obsolete down here. There is a big cuban community on the island, and they bring with them cuban coffee, which I had mentioned briefly in previous posts. We went to the Cuban Coffee Queen, which is a small cafe near the waterfront, right behind half shell raw bar, for those of you who come visit. There are 2 major coffee drinks that any visitor needs to know:

1) Cafe Con Leche: spanish for "coffee with milk", made with equal parts strong cuban coffee, and steamed 2% milk. When ordering you say "con leche, 2 sugar". Absolutely delicious! I'm actually sipping a con leche as I write this.

2) Buchi: a cuban espresso shot. This drink will put hair on your chest! Served in a small cup, just like american espresso, with 2 main differences. One, buchi is not bitter like a lot of espresso, it just tastes like very very strong coffee. Two, buchi is very sweet, they brew it with cane sugar, and it is the perfect blend of strong and sweet.

Now, to talk about something other than food. I had an excellent meeting at the high school with the athletic director, Mr. Fraga. He was very helpful, and pointed me toward all of the right people to talk to for teaching next year, and he wants me to start helping out with the wrestling program now. I'm going back up there at 5:30 to met the wrestling coach. It sounds like they have a great program. They have made it to states many times recently. The problem with wrestling in the south is that there are no feeder programs, that is, there is no wrestling programs before the high school level. What the coach here does, is after high school wrestling season is over (end of february), he runs a youth program at the wrestling gym, so even his freshmen wrestlers have a huge edge when they start competing in high school, especiall in a state where programs like that generally don't exist. In New Jersey when I was growing up, you could sign up for youth wresting starting at 5 years old! This is why a lot of the big-time MMA fighters today come from the northeast USA. They just have such a better wrestling background up there. Anyways, Mr. Fraga mentioned that his son is involved in the program, so he would be there tonight, and invited me to come by, as the coach is overwhelmed with the amount of kids in the program and is looking for people to help out. I can't wait! Rolling around on the mats a little will give me incentive to get back into shape!

So the school career options are looking up, now I just need to figure out how to survive in Key West until august. Tommorrow I have an interview at a very popular bar outside of town for a bartending job. Its a bit of a drive, but the place is always busy when I go by, and its a good way to finally get some local experience here. Sure, I'd have to drive up the keys a little bit, but its a gorgeous drive! I'd rather drive 25 minutes in the keys than on the Jersey Turnpike, or I-20 in Columbia. We'll see what happens. Tomorrow's blog entry will be "Bartender's Bash 2010", and there will be great stories and pictures! Check back then!

Matt