Key West…

Key West is all about fun in the sun…..with a rum, of course !! (or three !!)

Our hotel in Key West, frequented by bikers..

That about sums it up for most people I think, judging by the amount of business the bars and restaurants do here !!

For the most part this blog is filled with photos we took there of the things we saw and the fun we had, although we did do a little tour of the cultural sites too… Well sort of…!!

The sun down here is brighter than what we have been used to, and the heat is of the type that send one scurrying for shade. It is the middle of summer I guess, so that was to be expected.

We kept the air-con in our room on full blast for most of the day, and walking out of the hot sun into cold room was like entering a freezer in comparison. The hum of air-conditioners in Key West is a constant sound that you soon get used to. Must be a great business to be involved in !!

Downstairs from our room, a group of bikers set up camp and partied right there… Check out the home-made trailer and cooler box !!

Parking at the hotel was sometimes a challenge, especially since we had two vehicles to find space for, but the Big Fella soon sorted that little problem out…

He just can’t help himself sometimes…

Brightly painted homes abound in Key West.

On our first day, we went for a walk to find Hemingway House, the home the author lived in from 1931 to 1939, and which has been declared a National Historic Landmark since 1968.

Hemingway lived here from 1931 to 1939, where he wrote a number of his bestselling novels…

We paid our entrance fee and took a short tour of the house. The old guy leading the tour had such a strong southern drawl of an accent, that all I heard was a drawn out mumbling and the occasional word, mostly when he ended a sentence…

The house was brimming with cats. They could be found on any counter, in any room you walked into; they were in the gift shop, draped on shelves; roaming around in the garden; and any where else you might choose to look… But these are no ordinary cats. They are known as Polydactyl cats, on account of them having more than the average number of toes than a normal cat does.

The house is overrun with six-toed cats…

Hemingway loved his cats and was given his first six-toed cat by a ship’s captain who had brought the kitty down from Boston. Today, there are over 50 descendants of this cat living at Hemingway House !! Upon his death, Hemingway made provision for the cats to be looked after at his home in Key West, and to this day, they are part and parcel of the museum which celebrates the life he lived in Key West…

Because of his love for this type of cat, polydactyl cats are most often referred to as a “Hemingway Cat”…

Another descendent of Hemingway’s six-toed clan…

Ernest Hemingway’s house at Key West… The house had the first swimming pool in Key West, and in the 1930’s, was the only pool for a 100 miles !!

A new take on menopause…

Highway 1 starts here at Mile Zero…

I have a number of Hemingway’s books in my collection at home, and my favourites are his “Green Hills of Africa”, and “True at First Light”. The first of these books were written right here in this house, and was about his game hunting sorties into East Africa. The second was published after his death, as it had not been completed at the time he put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger…

As I stood looking into his study,where his typewriter still stands, I imagined him sitting there, with visions of Africa running through his mind…

We walked along Duval Street, stopping every so often to mingle with the other tourist and check out what was happening in the bars that were open, and where music was being played…

Even the lizards are laid back down here…

Listening to a Cuban band at Sloppy Joe’s… Ernest Hemingway helped to name the bar and was one of it’s most famous patrons…

Apparently, what goes on in the rooftop garden above the Whistle Bar, stays in the roof top garden above the Whistle Bar…

We walked back to our hotel, hopped on the Big Fella and went in search of a beach to swim at. We settled on the one at Fort Zachary Taylor, which is part of a State Reserve. The water was warmer than we would have liked, but better than walking around in the midday heat.

Why did we buy that helmet again…??

The beach at Fort Zachary State Park was the best one we came across.

Nice boat…

Map of the Keys… A graveyard for ship’s and their unwary captains in olden times…

Shiver me foundations !! It sure does, me hearties…!!

had to check this one out to be absolutely sure…

When one just isn’t good enough…!!

Entrance to Mallory Point, a favourite sun-downers spot in Key West…

After a few hours on the beach, we headed down to Mallory Square near the harbour to watch the street performers who congregated there every afternoon…

This huge cruise ship docked a few hundred yards from Mallory Point, which meant that the place was bustling…

What do a Banjo, two wooden spoons and a dog have in common ?? Well they are all part of the most popular act down in the Square…

While the banjo and wooden spoon act was in full swing, the dog strolled around collecting dollar bills and putting them in the bucket…

Patricia hands the dog one of my hard-earned dollar bills…

This old geezer has been doing his tightrope act for years down here…

Once the ship had set sail, the crowd thinned out and we could get a better view of the acts on display.

We saw Fire Dancers (not bad); Jugglers on Ladders (quite good); a Sword Swallower (couldn’t watch and had to helped away); and Tumblers. There were also a variety of guitar players which were more of a nuisance than anything else with their pathetic strumming… Just saying, is all…!!

Sunset over Tank Island, as seen from Mallory Point…

Blue hour over Key West…

So it wasn’t all about fishing and rum, you see…

They don’t seem to like the young man down here…

“Look Honey !! An Irish Yoga T-shirt…”

Like I said, they love their cats down here in Key West…

I did not get the chance to see if the girls there were really that ugly… Patricia thought they wouldn’t and “encouraged” me to leave it at that…!!

These ceramic dancers stand in the gardens of the lighthouse. (Thought I’d throw this one in just to change the scenery a little)

By midnight everybody’s flying at this place…

An interesting take on an old theme… Happens all the time in Key West.

We spent our last night in Key West “out on the town”, or “pub-crawling” as some people unkindly label it…

Sloppy Joe’s by night, even busier than during the day… I guess some people have to work down here…

Another Key West hot spot… Boars and sows most welcome….

After wringing all we could out of the Happy Hour at Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery, we heard a woman close to us loudly proclaim that she was off to Virgilio’s Martini Bar where martini’s cost just $5.00…

Well…we reckoned that those prices suited our wallets just fine, and pooped over there to check it out… The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur…

Patricia and I at the start of my Martini ordeal at Virgilio’s Martini Bar…

The Chocolate Martini… Who knew what a dastardly sneaky drink it was !!

It only takes one of these to get you on your ear… In my case, it was the fourth one that did it !!

We met Jess, a good friend of Andrea, Patricia’s niece… More Small World Moments…

Jess then suggested we go have an ABF (absolutely bloody final) at Captain Tony’s Saloon, which was at the far end of Duval Street and in the exact opposite direction to our hotel… It is at times such as these that I have brain failure, to the point where I agree to almost anything… Almost, I said…!!

Capt. Tony looked much like I felt at that point…

Jess and her friend who coaxed us to drink even more…!! Shame on you girls…!!

We walked back to our hotel after saying something or other to Jess (could have been “goodnight”, but I can’t be sure…) and fell into a dreamless sleep, but not before I had rid myself of a few of those Chocolate Martinis…

Our little sortie to the Florida Keys was over, and in the morning, we would head north to Tampa, where my long lost cousins were waiting…

Key West had been a blast, and although the heat was stifling at times, I would not hesitate to spend some time down here again… But next time me fly in air-conditioned airplane…

©GBWT 2013