We had a great day down in Key West today, and although it was too cloudy to see the green flash at sunset, it was memorable. We took the 8:20 am bus down from Marathon-- 50 miles at a cost of $6.00 round trip for 2 senior adults—we cannot beat that price doing it by boat.
This is our very first time here and getting orientated via the Conch Tour Train is definitely the way to go. What a colorful history this island has had—a 1622 Spanish galleon sinking off shore with a multi-million dollar treasure that was discovered in l985; a relaxed President Truman in a Hawaiian shirt, smoking a cigar and playing poker vacationing here in the “Little White House”; 3 Civil War forts; a colorful former Mayor Sunny waterskiing 90 miles to Cuba before the Castro Rebellion to illustrate the need for a continued Navy station presence; Ernest Hemmingway writing his great novels here from 1931-1941 and holding forth at Smokey Joe’s watering hole; the town’s history of salvaging the booty, and secondly the crew, from shipwrecked vessels off the treacherous coral reefs which helped establish it as the wealthiest city in America in 1850; and its boom to bust cycle in sponging, cigar-making and fishing which reduced it to 80% unemployment in 1935 only to resurface again with tourism helped greatly by its media-grabbing declaration of Key West as the Conch Republic after the border patrol shut down Highway 1 in 1982. The real treasure of Key West is these free-spirited people who will push the limits on just about everything.
Key West is packaged beautifully with blue green water surrounding land with 12 colors of bougainvillea, over 30 varieties of palm trees and unique architectural homes crafted by ship carpenters who built houses like furniture and boats with wooden pegs and tongue and groove boards. It is a place where chickens and roosters run freely, where graves are above ground due to the hard coral ground and the whole town prays annually at the St. Mary’s Grotto so that hurricanes will continue to avoid a direct hit here. It is said that the termites hold hands during hurricanes so that the island does not blow away.
We loved Duvall Street and had lunch at Fogerty’s while listening to “Elvis” across the street at Whistle Bar, but sought a quieter place at Fort Taylor State Park with its great views and it is the most southerly point of our travels. Key West has 133 bars which were all full for Super Bowl Sunday. Go Steelers.
This is our very first time here and getting orientated via the Conch Tour Train is definitely the way to go. What a colorful history this island has had—a 1622 Spanish galleon sinking off shore with a multi-million dollar treasure that was discovered in l985; a relaxed President Truman in a Hawaiian shirt, smoking a cigar and playing poker vacationing here in the “Little White House”; 3 Civil War forts; a colorful former Mayor Sunny waterskiing 90 miles to Cuba before the Castro Rebellion to illustrate the need for a continued Navy station presence; Ernest Hemmingway writing his great novels here from 1931-1941 and holding forth at Smokey Joe’s watering hole; the town’s history of salvaging the booty, and secondly the crew, from shipwrecked vessels off the treacherous coral reefs which helped establish it as the wealthiest city in America in 1850; and its boom to bust cycle in sponging, cigar-making and fishing which reduced it to 80% unemployment in 1935 only to resurface again with tourism helped greatly by its media-grabbing declaration of Key West as the Conch Republic after the border patrol shut down Highway 1 in 1982. The real treasure of Key West is these free-spirited people who will push the limits on just about everything.
Key West is packaged beautifully with blue green water surrounding land with 12 colors of bougainvillea, over 30 varieties of palm trees and unique architectural homes crafted by ship carpenters who built houses like furniture and boats with wooden pegs and tongue and groove boards. It is a place where chickens and roosters run freely, where graves are above ground due to the hard coral ground and the whole town prays annually at the St. Mary’s Grotto so that hurricanes will continue to avoid a direct hit here. It is said that the termites hold hands during hurricanes so that the island does not blow away.
We loved Duvall Street and had lunch at Fogerty’s while listening to “Elvis” across the street at Whistle Bar, but sought a quieter place at Fort Taylor State Park with its great views and it is the most southerly point of our travels. Key West has 133 bars which were all full for Super Bowl Sunday. Go Steelers.
