Key West- part 2

After lunch, we walked downtown to the Shipwreck Museum. The museum is full of nothing but things recovered from shipwrecks around the island. It's amazing to see how well preserved things can be, even after being on the bottom of the ocean. On top of the museum was a 3 story observation deck, where you could look out over all of Key West. We were really excited to go up to the top, but it was really windy and we chickened out halfway up.

 

 

Once we had seen the Shipwreck Museum, we walked across the street to the Key West Aquarium. Inside there was a big petting tank, where you can pet horseshoe crabs, sea stars, urchins, and other anemones.

There is also a huge tank full of rays. One of the trainers came out a did a feeding show with the rays, and they all swarmed up to the side where she was standing. Unfortunately, that was also the side where I was standing. Their wings came up over the side of the tank and splashed me, and once I was done screaming, all the kids had a good laugh. When the trainer moved on to feed the tank full of sharks, I stayed far away!

 

 

 

 

We went outside to see the rest of the animals, and as soon as we came around the corner, this is what we saw:

 

 

 

A giant lizard. With bright red lips. Scary at first, but as soon as you saw the bowl of strawberry tops in front of him, it was pretty funny! All of the animals and fish were fun to see, and I'm glad we went.

 

Key West- part 1

We got up bright and early the next morning and headed out to see the sights. Our first stop was Ernest Hemingway's house. The outside of the house is really cute, with the wrap around deck and huge shuttered windows. Inside there was also a case that holds all of his books, many of them original copies.  

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the main house, is another 2 story house. Upstairs is his office, where he did much of his writing. And downstairs is the pool house, with bathrooms and showers for swimming. 

 

 

The property itself is pretty big, and it's really beautiful outside. It's all surrounded by trees, and we even found a few banana trees. There is a walking path all around, with several little nooks with benches. There are also custom-made cat houses everywhere and dozens of cats. They were pretty friendly, but also just seemed really tired of being seen.

 

After we left the Hemingway House, we hopped on a trolley that tours the island and stops at all the historical places. We were lucky enough to get the last 2 spots of the bus, and it was a super fun ride. Once we made it to our seats all the way in the back, I could hear the tour guide talking in his microphone, so I started looking around to see where he was. I looked everywhere and still couldn't find him. Then suddenly it occurred to me that the person talking was also the person driving. Silly me... it was "Ms. Vee" talking the whole time, and her long beautiful blond hair had thrown me off! Honestly though, s/he was the best tour guide ever! Lots of history and funny stories.

 

 

We rode all around the island and finally got off at the Southernmost Point, which is the farthest south you can go in the continental US before getting to Cuba.

 

After the Southernmost Point, we walked back to our hotel and had lunch before setting out on our next set of adventures.

Florida Trip- Day 1



Cahl and I left Vegas March 19 on a red- eye to Miami. We got there around 8am, got our car, and headed down toward the Keys. We stopped on the way at a place called Coral Castle. It's a really cool place built in the early 1900s, entirely by one little dude. It was kind of amazing to see what one man can do with enough determination and innovation.



 

 

 

(this is a life sized photo of him- he was only 5' 1)

Once we left the Coral Castle, we drove down through the Keys. We stopped at a cute little swap meet, which was half inside/ half outside. I love swap meets and flea markets, so that was a lot of fun. There was this GIANT lobster outside...

We also stopped on the way at a state park, which was really beautiful, but we didn't make it very far down the nature trail due to my irrational fear of lizards.

 

Driving through the Keys is really really beautiful. The color of the water never ceased to amaze me, and I took dozens of photos of it, along with some of the smaller islands.

 

After we got down to Key West, we checked into our bed and breakfast The Casablanca, and walked around down town. Parking in Key West is pretty difficult, and once you find a parking spot you don't want to give it up. Once we got there, we walked almost everywhere we went. We just hung out and had dinner that first night. It was nice and relaxed and fun. We ate at 2 Friends Patio Restaurant and it was really good. I would highly recommend conch fritters to anyone who has the opportunity. They were different, but really yummy with Key Lime mustard.