Key West - Part 2

As Scott wrote, for such a small area, there is a lot more to do in Key West than you would think (well, at least what we thought anyway). Truly, there is something for everyone. Scott will complain of the daily “death marches” that I led him on, but our tired feet managed to find some pretty amazing things along the way – some intentionally, and some not. Those are always the best finds.



One of the first things I wanted to do, in true tourist fashion, was to walk down to the “southernmost point” of the USA – a landmark which is stated to be 90 miles away from Cuba. Locals boast that Key West is closer to Cuba than it is to Miami on the Florida mainland. The queue to get pictures taken by this landmark was mindboggling. But there we where, choosing to take the prettier vantage point, from the back of the landmark, thereby avoiding the line-up (we’re practical tourists).

Line-up to take pic with southernmost landmark!

Given this was our first time in The Keys and the fact that we were able to parallel the entire US 1 route by boat, we felt it fitting to celebrate this milestone by taking a picture of the captain by the Mile 0 sign – the origin of US 1 which links The Keys to the mainland.

But you never know what you’ll find along the way. Once considered the official bird of KW, chickens roam freely, as do roosters. Traffic stops regularly for a hen with her clutch of chicks as they attempt to cross the road, pecking for food all the while.

Another amazing find along our “death marches” were the variety and sheer size of the trees. The Kapok tree was perhaps the most impressive, having never seen this variety in our travels.

The crown canopy was equally impressive

When you come to Key West, it is said that there are three things you need to do: go to the southernmost point, see the USCGC Ingham and visit the Ernest Hemingway Museum. We diligently completed the first two on the list, but we were sceptical about this last item on the list. But, this museum was perhaps the most pleasantly surprising visit. Initially built by a famous Key West master wrecker and entrepreneur, Asa Tift, this house and its property were impressive. The house was built with 1 foot thick blocks of coral, assuring the building could withstand the extreme weather of the islands (hurricanes primarily).

Originally on his way further north from Paris, Hemingway was delayed in his travels in Key West. He was awestruck by the beauty and serenity of the islands; he decided to make it his home with his second to fourth wives. He went through them pretty quickly. Hemingway went on to write many of the books and short stories that made him famous, right in this home: A Farewell to Arms, To Have and To Have Not, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Apparently, he wrote in the mornings, fished in the afternoons and caroused in the evenings into the mornings. Might explain the wives!

There are many impressive features of the property, including a separate building which was attached by a gangway from his bedroom to this writing studio surrounded by massive bamboo and giant palm trees. His second wife insisted on replacing each ceiling fan with chandeliers in each room (including the bathrooms), and building a $20 000 swimming pool (at the height of the depression, mind you). The actual property cost $8000! Today, the property shelters 44 cats of the six toed variety, all genetically linked to the original 6 toed cat that was the resident pet. They are everywhere, inside and out. They had several dedicated staff on site and a vet who looked after the cats. The cats had separate cages to sleep in. They also had a cat cemetery. There you go. So we agreed with the tourism brochure as we sat under a canopy of trees on one of the many benches on the property.

You find these 6 toed felines EVERYWHERE!

The Hemingway typewriter - took it to WWII

One of the many nooks and crannies on the property

Urinal in disguise - payback for 2nd wife and the 20K for the pool

Gorgeous property available for weddings too

Naturally, no day is complete without the daily pilgrimage to the westernmost part of any town or city we land in, for the evening homage to the sunset. Key West didn’t disappoint. In fact, Mallory Square holds a celebration of the sunset every night, with all kinds of street performers and vendors coming out to add to the wall of bodies on the pier. That’s my kind of town! Here’s a small sample, but we have to leave something for the next time!

Apparently cruise ships leave all the time from KW

Juggling fire on a unicycle

Now imagine this with "Dance Fever" blasting - seriously!

Till next time!

Key West - Part 1

Seven days in Key West went by in a flash - there is alot to do every day.  First and foremost - Key West is a hot spot of activity.  We arrived on a Saturday and the place was jumping - the marina pool and bar were overflowing with young and old having a good time.  The town was full of St. Patty's Day revelers who were decked out in green shirts and hats roaming the street from bar to bar on various "crawls".  We chaulked it all up to the mood of the day and expected that Sunday would return to a more "normal" state.  We were wrong - it just kept rolling - day after day of crowds and people out to have a good time. 

Being somewhat more subdued, we went on the museum tours - a suprising number of them.  Starting with the "Little Whitehouse" where President Truman spent over 150 days on vacation during and after his tenure as president.  You could tell that Key West is proud of its association with the 6th most beloved US President.  Interestingly, when Truman left office, he enjoyed the lowest approval rating of any president before or since - 22%.  His assertion was that he was elected to lead and he would - his judgement would be rendered some 25+ years later.  Prophetic words indeed.

The "Little Whitehouse" was an unoccupied Fleet Admiral's Home in Key West that was made available to Truman to help him recover from an illness after the WWII postwar discussions.  This was at a time when if you had the condition of "overwork" doctors would prescribe rest in a soft warm climate - now those were the days!  Truman enjoyed it so much he would spend all his vacation time in Key West where he would work with his trusted advisors.

Then off to the Ingham - the US Coast Guard's more decorated vessel.  It served convoy duty during WWII and over her 75 years of service she and her crews were decorated twice with Presidential Citations.  For my part it was an interesting study in the design of utility on the open ocean.  Everything was purposeful and designed with function in mind.  The only place where some stylistic design crept in was in the officer's and the Captain's quarters and mess which were lavish by comparision to the general crew and included their own custom china and silver place-ettings.  In all I would say that fully 85% of the interior volume of the ship was dedicated to mechanical and food preparation.


Ingham in Profile



Bridge Deck - Only One Chair for the CO



Officer's Mess



3 Small Racks for Crew - No I Don't Fit!



Then off to Fort Zacharey Taylor - an 19th Century fort built in 21 years and put in service in 1845 and named for President Taylor.  This post never saw action during the Spanish American War, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, or The Cuban Missile Crisis.  However, in each instance it was outfitted and maintained as an active post for the military to control the waters around the US and access to the Gulf of Mexico.  It's location in Key West sits right on the dividing line between the Atlantic and the Gulf.

Originaly Three Levels and 140 Cannons

Original Cannonade



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WWII Fortifications to left and Original Construction to Right



 The fort is still surrounded by an active US Naval base where they train Navy Seals and maintain an active port and security.  This same port is used by visiting navys (Canada Pictured Below) and by modern day Cruise Ships.  A reminder that our freedom comes at a price - vigilance.



Canadian Ship Docked at the US Naval Yard



Thar Be Treasure There!

Then on to the Key West Lighthouse Museum.  There are 7 major light houses - 6 along the reef line on the ocean side of Hawks Channel and the main lighthouse in Key West itself.  These lighthouses were all comissioned in the mid to late 1800's to reduce the number of ship wrecks along the coast.  The wrecks were the single largest source of income for Key West at the time as "Wreckers" would race to the site of a sinking to be declared "Wreck Master" to recieve the larger share of the spoils.  In fact, Key West was the first location for an official Wreckers Court where a judge would preside over a claim and adjudicate the maritime law around allocations and division of the spoils when a ship floundered on the reef.

Key West Lighthouse

With the addition of the lighthouses, the source of income gradually decreased and was brought to an end in the early 1900's.  That said, some of the early wrecks still provide opportunities for treasure hunters and there is an active industry in Key West for treasure seekers.  In fact, the last major find was the 3rd on the same vessel - the Isaac Allerton.  First wrecked in 1856 it was awarded the single largest settlement valued then at over $85,000 (more than a million in todays dollars).  It was rediscovered in 1985 when new technology made it possible to discover many other finds not possible in the 1800's - the wreck was thought to have been thoroughly explored.  In 2010 another treasure hunter found another $500 Million in uncut Emeralds - this case is now in front of the courts to decide on the allocations.  The Allerton is by far the most valuable of treasure ships ever found - each time!

The story of the Florida Key's lighthouses is entwined with the culture of the community and history.

Key West has more to offer than you might think - a lot more than just beaches and beer.

But it offers B&B in spades if you like that too!!!

Getting Caught Up

Getting access to WiFi has been a little hit and miss so we have been unable to keep our progress up to date - sorry for those following along.  However, we have made a lot of progress in the last week or so.

To catch everyone up, we had a bit of a slow start for this vacation as I came off a very busy period at the office and a little low on energy resulting in a cold that took the wind out of my sails as I was preparing the boat for our trip. 

With the boat cleaned top to bottom and a few unexpected items dealt with, we were off to Stuart as our first port of call on the Friday last week.  Stuart is a nice little town with restaruants, a boardwalk and a picturesque marina in the heart of town.

Stuart - The New Roosevelt Bridge

Yse it's moving - love a thrill!

Stuart Sailfish Capital of FLA

After some discussion and weather watching we decided to leave the Bahamas for another trip in the future.  We did not want to get caught in the Bahamas without  an easy trip back and with difficulty predicting weather weeks out.  With that decision made, we made the first of a few long runs to head to the Florida Keys.  Our first stop was Lake Boca in Boca Ratan - a quiet little anchorage about 40 KM north of Fort Lauderdale.

The next morning we left early to get through Fort Lauderdale and Miami with Boca Chita as our final destination for the day.  Boca Chita is a little state park we have enjoyed in the past with our niece and nephew, Boo and Kyle. 

Boca Chita Sunset

Revi in Boca Chita

We then headed over to Tavernier Key (in the "middle Keys") where as chance would have it we enjoyed a very small world moment.  After we got settled in, I was working under that dash on the flybridge installing a new radar switch when I heard a little knock on the side of the boat.  It was Al C who was a friend and cruising buddy of the previous owner Cliff P.  Al was full of stories about Revi from years gone by and the fun they had cruising the Great Lakes.  Even more remarkably, one of the little jobs I was hoping to do was replace the air conditioning thermostat in the saloon and he had one in hand.  We chatted and installed the new one first thing Thursday AM.  We're back to 3 operational AC units - good timing too as things are starting to heat up.  Lucky lad am I!!

Wink!

Thomas the Tug in Miami

In our last stop of this catch up post is in Marathon, Boot Key where we did a little relaxing, enjoying the pool and happy hour for the last two days.  In fact happy hour was one of the rare inexpensive treats while boating.  You get them time to time, but not often!  We enjoyed 6 Conc Fritters, 4 Honey Garlic Wings, 6 peel and eat shrimp, a pint of beer and a glass of water for $10, taxes and tip in!

Tomorrow we are off to Key West for a week of touring and fun in a 5 star marina in the heart of the city. 

More to come!!

Cheers!!

On The Blog Again!

As we use this blog both to keep up with family and friends as well as chart our little adventures - it's time to start blogging again!

We spent the last two days on the road to FLA 16 hours the first day and 11 hours today - that was a serious drive! However we are here none the worse for wear and looking forward to getting Revi set up over the next couple of days and back in the water.

However, an adventure can happen any day and yesterday was certainly a day! After we had finished our marathon drive we decided to stop at the first hotel we found in this case a "Super 8". Let me tell you the name is very misleading - there was nothing "super" about it. Looked decent enough in the lobby but the fact that you had to get buzzed in at night was a tip off we missed. The room had a noisy AC unit, a squeaky bed and a tiny mostly clean bathroom. However, that much one could have anticipated - the hooker turning tricks in the room beside us and banging the wall hard enough to shake our bed every hour was an unexpected treat. For a while there I thought I would have to kick in on the service fee being so close to the action!

Did I mention it was raining steadily? Well it was pouring outside and just dripping in the room! Too tired to kick up a fuss we just threw a garbage can under the spot and went back to sleep. At least I did - Sue was a little too pissed off to sleep well so she decided to tune in the loud AC unit and put the hooker moans and dripping noises out of her mind.

Tonight we stay at a Holiday Inn!

Let the adventure continue!