Key West, Florida
Things are slowing down this week so I finally have the time to talk about our Key West adventure.
As we drove off the mainland and on to The Keys last Thursday, I have to admit I was unimpressed at first. The Upper Keys look like any beach town on the coast of the USA. It isn’t until you get down to about Islamorada that things start turning into what you’d imagine The Keys to be.
The first thing I noticed is the water is this unbelievably sharp blue-green color. Because the color is so rich, one almost suspects Florida is dyeing the water.
By the time we arrived, dinner was around the corner. So, the first thing we did was hit Mallory Square, where they hold the Sunset Celebration each night.
Friday we got up and headed into town for lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s place, Margaritaville. Pretty obvious that Jimmy’s gone completely corporate, as this place is clearly a tourist trap. We had the obligatory “cheeseburger in paradise” for lunch. I’d have to say it was…meh, pretty average. I wrote off the whole experience as something to do once just to say you did it.
Next stop was Ernest Hemingway’s home. I’m much more a fan of the man than the writing, as his real-life stories are much more interesting than anything he made up for his books. The tour guide was reading from a memorized script (including the jokes), so the tour was a bit dry. But here are some fun facts I remember:
+ Hemingway wrote half of his works in Key West, and all in the span of just nine years.
+ Pauline (his wife at the time) was a former editor of Vogue and thus was more interested in style than function. To that end, she had all the ceiling fans in the house replaced with ugly chandeliers, making the house incredibly hot during the summers.
+ They were both cat nuts, and thus the grounds are now home to about 60 cats - all descendants from Hemingway’s original six-toed cat.
+ The house, built in 1851 by Asa Tift, a marine architect and salvage wrecker, has never flooded or suffered significant hurricane damage. That’s because it is built out of solid limestone blocks and was sited on a hill 16 feet above sea level - the highest point in Key West.
After Hemingway’s house, we putzed around Duval street - the main strip of Key West - killing time until our sunset cruise on the Liberty Clipper.
The cruise, on a 125-foot schooner, goes out into the Atlantic, just off the southeastern coast of Key West, so you can watch the sunset unobstructed. (At one point the captain announced that we were now closer to Cuba than the closest Walmart.)
Here is a picture taken from the ship:
Mason and Max had an awesome time. Mason in particular loved the ocean.
On Saturday, we made the journey to the marker indicating the southernmost point of the continental United States, which we found out later is one of many white lies.
First, Key West is not part of the continental United States, but is an island off the continental United States. Second, the southernmost point on Key West is actually the Naval base behind the buoy. And third, it is 98 miles to Cuba, not 90 miles, which is written on the buoy.
Next stop was Sarabeth’s for brunch. This place was, hands down, the best restaurant we ate at.
The final stop was Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe for the key lime pie voted “best tasting” by the Food Network. It was pretty darned good pie.
We had to break off our Key West adventure on Saturday so we could head back up to Key Largo for swimming with the dolphins last Sunday (more on that in a future post). But we are just north of Key West now, in Sugarloaf Key, until Saturday. So I’m sure we’ll make one more trip into Key West before leaving.