Theres really only one word that will adequately describe the Key West Experience of 2011. That word would be "Wow."
Aside from the usual debauchery that occurs any time there are friends in large groupings, there was a lot of staying out til 5am, and then sleeping til 4pm (mostly from my friends, and less so from me-- my body hates me and wakes me up at 7am regardless of how late ive been out). There was lots of beach trips that started out still drunk and ended quickly on the sand as the hangover hit like a ton of booze-scented bricks. It was spring break for a couple of major colleges, and so there were a ton of 18-21 year olds, most of whom were of the flabby, jiggly, overly-nekkid persuasion. I love being almost 30, and looking better than them. Score one for nerdiness, and only occasional binge drinking.
Duval Street was a mess of beads, sloshed drinks, body paint, nekkid people, screaming and crying college co-eds, stumbling frat boys in variations of a crappy uniform of Abercrombie-knockoffs with flipflops and backwards hats, mounted policemen, and annoyed locals. Oh, and some guy dealing weed on the trunk of a police cruiser while the cop stood on the corner and flirted with some girl. That was kinda funny.
The weather was gorgeous. I took some really beautiful photos. There were lots of laughs, and some irritating people. Overall, it was a fun trip. Ill post some pictures sooner or later.
However, the flights there and back were less than lovely. Most of the problems were due to the fact that Atlanta International is a sh*tty airport. Nothing ever goes according to plan there, and Delta is the worst airline on the planet. I try extremely hard to avoid them, but man, they seem to be the only carriers to the places I go. My flight home from ATL was delayed more than an hour because Delta screwed up some other connecting flights, so more than 30 people on various flights missed their planes home to MA. Instead of letting us go off on time, they held the flight, rebooked all the people who missed their flights onto my plane, and then there were mechanical issues.
Though, Id have glad dealt with a longer delay for mechanical issue if I could have avoided the turbulence all the way from ATL to MA. Im a decent passenger, but for the whole 2 hour trip, I white-knuckled it home and bit off all my fingernails in the process. Holy cow, I have never experienced turbulence like that before, and I hope never to again. Stupid thunderstorms.
