Key West

The Battle Goat family tackled Key West in August of 2024.

Our mission? Catch a mahi-mahi

We flew directly into Key West airport and the views on the flight were insane.

We started the trip with tons of food, mainly oysters, which were great everywhere but our personal favorites were from Half Shell Raw Bar. They had a great happy hour and it was a big space, with two bars, and tons of seating so we sat in a few different areas (since we kept going back).

We tried conch fritters, mahi-mahi nachos, and key lime pie. Key West is known for these things so they were basically served everywhere we went. We wanted to try as much authentic, local food as we could and we definitely ended up making this a food trip. Everything was just so good.

Since we were surrounded by water, the Gulf on one side and the Atlantic on the other, we had to get out on a few boats. We took a catamaran out to the coral reef for some snorkeling (and open mimosa bar). The weather was a bit stormy but we braved the choppy weather and got out there. We saw tons of fish and a sting ray. A few people saw a shark off the back of the boat too but we wanted absolutely no part of that.

Key West is the place to drink and walk and drink some more. We took a shuttle from our resort to the boardwalk along the Gulf side of the island and walked everywhere from there. We stopped into tons of bars and restaurants, sampling drinks and menu items, before we moved on to the next place. Everything we tried was great. Most bars have their own happy hour and we were advised by many locals to check the times of all the happy hours at the bars we like and time the happy hours accordingly. Some start as early as noon and some end as late as 9pm. So if you time it right, your whole afternoon/evening can be ordered from a happy hour menu.

We did some sightseeing too, as some of us are married to literary nerds, we stopped into Ernest Hemingway's house and bar. The man was a veteran and a big fisherman, so much of his house included photographs and depictions of him in those roles which was really interesting. Be prepared for some cats though, the things are everywhere. Also important to note that at Papa Pilar's Distillery, we happened to end up there on a day where they offered a military discount which was sweet (though you'd have to check that ahead of time, we went on a Friday).

Now for the fishing! We were put off a few days because of the bad weather, but we were finally able to get out. The waters in Key West are beautiful and the day we went out was pretty calm and the sun was shining bright. The captain and first mate we went out with were great and we were able to land a few king mackerel and a barracuda, which we had to toss back since they reportedly don't taste great. We didn't land a mahi-mahi, but that just gives us an excuse to go back again. The fishing was awesome and we weren't even there during the peak fishing season. We were able to take the king mackerel with us but were flying home so we weren't quite sure how to get it home but we figured out a pretty simple solution. We went to a nearby grocery store, bought a small Coleman cooler, 2 blue ice packs, dry ice, duct tape, and a marker. We put the fish and ice packs in our hotel room fridge with the dry ice on top of it so that it'd freeze. On the day we left, we discarded the dry ice and packed the now frozen fish and ice packs into the cooler, duct taped it shut, and wrote out name and address on the top in with a permanent marker. When we got to the airport, we checked the cooler and they were not even slightly surprised to hear there was fish it in. (They did double check that it was just fish and an ice pack, no dry ice.)

All in all, the trip was incredible and we'll definitely be going back. If you end up there, reach out for a list of the bars and restaurants we tried and enjoyed and we'll send it your way. Our #1 recommendation though is to start your mornings with Coffee Queen. We went to one of their stands most mornings (check for a sticker!) but our last morning we ordered it to be delivered to our resort, which was super convenient.

If you head there, as always, be sure to look all over for our Battle Goat stickers! If you find one, take a picture and post it on Instagram and tag us, and we'll reach out for a sweet gift.

BE THE GOAT!