Keys, Cayes, where are my keys?

What a weekend so far down here on Duck Key, just north of US 1 from the town of Marathon. While not as warm as I would have liked, it's pretty decent. But even though I was here for a wedding and the weather was 10 degrees cooler than I hoped, those aren't the real stories. Ok, maybe the wedding was pretty big, but this story is a close second.

After arriving on Friday and before unloading the car, we drove to a nearby restaurant, Tom's, and ate some dinner and had a few beers. We returned, unloaded the car and took everything upstairs to the room. DJF as it turns out was in the throws of a cold and I now have it full force on Sunday. Ugh. That's not the big story though. Saturday morning, after going to the bar downstairs and drinking until 2 or so, there was no rush to get moving. I forgot to pack some particular socks though and because of the chillier than anticipated temps, I wanted to drive the car to Marathon and get a pair or two. No biggee.

So I looked for the keys but couldn't find them. DJF was already downstairs, so I told him I couldn't find them. He said he was sure they were in the room somewhere, because he remembered (as did I) him reading the tag on the keys that said "the replacement fee for lost keys is $250". You can see where this is going can't you?

DJF went up and looked through the room. Nothing. I went back up and we both scoured the room. Nothing. I went to car. Not there from what we could see. No where in the parking lot. Not with the valet. Not with the front desk. Nobody has turned in keys. Shit.

The wedding is at 4 and it's 1:00 by this time. I call AAA and they send a guy to get me into the car. Verifying that the keys weren't in the car was the next obvious step in my mind and I didn't want to wait until Sunday. It's 2:00 now and the guy gets the car door open pretty quickly. We search the interior cabin. Nothing. Then I hit the trunk latch.....the trunk doesn't open. There's an anti-theft device to prevent you from opening the trunk with the key. Can't get at it through the back seat either as it's a convertible and they are built differently. Great.

So now I call AAA again. This time we need a locksmith. AAA will pay the first $100, but this guy charges $225, so I have to agree to pay for the $125 before I come out. Sunday all the prices double. I could wait until Monday though. Nah, that would waste a day in the Keys. So he makes a trunk key, which won't start the car but will get us access to the trunk. It's now about 3:30. We open the trunk; no keys. Dammit!!!

The guy says he might be able to get a key to work for the ignition, but he'd have to call Alamo to get the proper info. He calls them, I get on the phone, they are going to charge me $100 to release the code info. Unbelievable. The GOOD news is that if we replace the key, then we won't have to pay the $250. Fine. This key, which AAA will pay another $100 for, will cost me an additional $175 because it's one of the digital/computer type keys. Great. He's not even sure it will work, but he won't charge me if it doesn't. It's 4:05, I gotta go!!!

So I'm at the ceremony (no pictures until I get home since they are on my camera, sorry!) with my phone on vibrate and just as they get to the ring exchange, the locksmith calls. I'm sitting in the last row so I walk away from everyone and tell him in hushed tones that I'll be there in a minute. After the ceremony ended I literally ran to the front to pay the guy and check the key. The key worked and in retrospect, I should have just jumped straight to the ignition key, but there was a good chance the keys were in the trunk and I didn't know he could make an ignition key. Anyway, it was quite the hassle.


On to the pictures. These are mostly from the resort.




Here's the pool at night......


















and during the day.



















Here's a gas fire pit that actually was nice to sit by at night and in the morning when it got into the low 60's and upper 50's.









Another shot of the resort. This is the lagoon further out back.













Another shot of the lagoon from the other direction.















The groom is getting his picture taken here, but he's blending in with the tall grass.










The ceremony was outside but the reception was moved inside because it was a little windy and slightly chillier than hoped.






My table mates: Steve, his wife Mary (who is allergic to glutens) and DJF. During dinner, Mary said she used to always hang out at High Tops, now Harry Caray's. I said it's much better now because High Tops was sort of skanky. She picked up a roll and whipped it at me before I knew what was happening. The rolls were square and one corner just missed hitting my eye flush. WTF?? I didn't say SHE was a skank, I said the place was skanky. I don't think she ever apologized either.......hmmmmm, nope, I don't think she did.



Here's the menu if you can click on it. Good stuff.

More pictures tomorrow!