Hubby and I spent Halloween weekend in Key West to experience Fantasy Fest, a totally not-for-kids, drinking-adults-behaving-badly kind of occasion. The kids Googled it after discovering that they were not going and may have been a little amused and/or horrified that their parental units were going to Fantasy Fest, but, well, we’re adults and they’re not and this was not a family weekend/teenager type of thing. ; )

Our private abode for the weekend at the Duval Inn.

We were off. After driving almost four hours down the mostly two-lane Overseas Highway, we arrived at the inn that we had reserved months in advance and that was really cute and convenient walking distance to everything. Score!

Friday afternoon started off innocently enough as we headed to the parade with extra large Solo cups of tasty home-brewed beer to enjoy while we watched Snarky Santa emcee the endless procession of costumed (or barely costumed) Fantasy Fest fanatics.

Words escape me.

Friday night dress-up

After a quick refill of our Solo cups at our Inn, we headed to our old favorite, Kelly’s (as in Kelly McGillis from “Top Gun” fame) and found ourselves at the bar of her really cool outdoor restaurant, with solo acoustic guitarist crooning from under the Banyan trees. We drank our way through Happy Hour and beyond and made lots of new friends along the way, including Susie and David. Sometimes you just instantly click with people and we instantly clicked with Susie and David, locals who sell Rolex watches at the jewelry store near Mallory Square. I also made friends with the woman on the next bar stool who was dressed as an angel…and her little angelic dog, too. Fun! The night joyfully wore on till the wee hours. We had way too much to drink on our adventure from pub to bar to street vendors. It was carefree and wonderful!

Saturday started with brunch at Sara Beth’s, a super French-like place located in an old but meticulously fabulous conch-style house with an air-conditioned, indoor dining room or seating in the tropical garden. We opted for the A/C and had a delicious meal, complete with my very own pitcher of fresh-brewed iced tea! Perfect. The rest of the day we wandered around, admired Susie and David’s Rolexes, and made our way to the Boathouse Bar and Grill,

My view from my bar stool perch.

set alongside the boats in the harbor and home to many options of good beer and four very capable bartenders. We felt at home in the salty air and, over a beer or two, decided that we should copy their decoration of nautical flags painted on six-inch square blocks and decorate our own patio and dock just like that! It was a productive day!

Aaargh!

That evening was the piece de resistance, the main event, the 3wishes.com Fantasy Fest Parade. With Solo cups filled to the brim and our pirate costumes in place,we headed out to watch the floats and the people and the action. The floats were over-the-top and impressive and included a variety of themes: Sex (of course), Rocky Horror Picture Show, cowboys, aliens, fitness, unicorns, galaxies, Mexican cantina, Uptown Funk. You name it, it was happening and it was fabulous and fun to watch. Just as fun as watching the parade was watching the dressed up hoards of people wandering the streets and the bars. Anything went. Anything. We traveled from bar to bar to bar, ate skewered chicken from a street vendor at midnight, watched costumed, drunken souls try to stay put on a mechanical bull (hilarious), watched a crazy woman subject herself to a machine that turned her upside down and around and around (ew – sickening). The craziness went on through the night but we made it back to our inn at a relatively reasonable time. ha ha ha

On Sunday morning, the party was over. We packed up our still damp-with-sweat pirate costumes and walked to our car which was parked in a crowded lot that had been assigned to our inn (many, many blocks away), sandwiched sort of sideways between an empty boat trailer and another car, and hoped for the best that our car had survived the weekend. We had never checked up on it, but come Sunday morning, the car was where we had left it on Friday afternoon, shining in the sun, and had not obtained any new scratches or dried up drunken bodily fluids and was ready for the drive home.

And off we went, beer replaced by coffee and tea in our Solo cups, minds leaving Fantasy Fest and looking toward reality, heading home on a glorious Sunday morning with a beautiful scenic drive along the ocean and plans to return to Fantasy Fest next year – without the kids, of course. ; )

What was extra lovely about the weekend: It was amazing to watch the Key West police department protect their paradise. They were friendly, told silly jokes between floats passing by, let people quickly sneak past the barriers to get to the other side (in between floats). One parade watcher, dressed up as a crab, crossed the street sideways, knees bent outwards, when the police officer opened the barrier for him. Hilarious. His sidling drew lots of laughter from police and parade watchers alike. The police were smiling, they caught beaded necklaces mid-air as they were thrown from the floats and tossed to us onlookers, accommodated the crowd as much as possible, and joined in the fun. At the same time, they were sharp, professional and on top of their watchful game. The police pride was palpable. It was lovely.