Back in America and, a few days in, still suffering from an odd mix of culture shock and deja vu. Here was the last set of panorama shots I took in West End.
We really love this place. Something tells me we’ll be back…
Back in America and, a few days in, still suffering from an odd mix of culture shock and deja vu. Here was the last set of panorama shots I took in West End.
We really love this place. Something tells me we’ll be back…
Even though the rain was worsening, we had the rental car so we did one more short exploration up the road to Havana Beach Club where we met Jack, a chef from South Carolina who Ray had friended on Facebook while we were still in Belize (he’s the one we were originally trying to find in French Harbor), as well as Doug, one of the owners, and friendly staffers Tasha and Cesar. Very nice folks!
The club is out of the way but it’s a beautiful beach once you get there, even in the rain. Would like to go back on a brighter day for horseback riding in the surf (if not this trip, then maybe the next one).
Yesterday we rented a car and headed out for another explore: this time beyond French Harbor (see our previous explore, here), to Frenchy’s 44 Restaurant / Little French Key.
Frenchy’s 44 Restaurant is the restaurant/office which is the point of access for the small island of Little French Key, which is mostly an upscale shore excursion destination for cruise ship passengers, though it’s also open to locals and non-cruise tourists. They offer several different packages, from a basic day-at-the-beach to max-amenities.
We had spoken with Larissa, who owns both properties with her husband Kaveh, and she had invited us to visit. While we were waiting for her, her staff was very welcoming and gave us free rein to wander around, so of course I went exploring with my iPhone.
It would have been nice if the weather had cooperated but it was a mostly rainy day, so you’ll just have to imagine how great these views would look if it was sunny. But even on a rainy day, the scenes in front of us were so photo-worthy that I took over 100 pictures – on a very brief visit. And anyway, I’m not sure even sunny-day photos could do the real thing justice, because this place is AMAZING.
Here’s the view from the office steps, before entering the waterfront bar:
The decor was an eclectic mix of all kinds of interesting chic/rustic things (many from the owners’ personal collection) and there was a festive tropical holiday feel going, with a decked-out Christmas tree, red bows on palm fronds, etc. Love the chandeliers too.
These unique chairs were all over the place – very comfortable.
Here’s one for the Gator fans back in Florida.
Here’s a view toward Little French Key, much closer in that it seemed on the map.
And here’s a couple of views of the bar area.
I got on a tear with a bunch of photos of these boats from the pier. Here’s some of the best ones, from what I call my Cleat Series (ha ha).
We also noticed this little strip of land with a realtor sign on and decided it might be just about the size of the private island we could afford to buy, ha ha.
Despite all these pictures, we didn’t wait long for Larissa. She turned out to be both lovely and gracious and greeted us warmly. After chatting for a bit, she suggested that we take a boat ride over to the island and have a look around while she attended to some business.
You can imagine that she didn’t have to ask us twice, and in short order we headed out with our boat captain, Alex.
Sorry for the split posting, but I have to finish sorting and optimizing ALOT more photos before I can write Part 2. Back soon! 🙂