Leaving The Keys

It was now time to head out of The Keys and towards the Everglades.

Here are a few photos from our journey back.



We stopped just before one of the bridges. Here you can see the new bridge on the left and the old one on the right which is now reserved for walkers & fishermen.

Further on we run parallel with this section of old railway bridge. It was rail on the lower level and road above.

Part of this old bridge has been chopped away to allow tall yachts through

We stopped for lunch in the Bahia Honda State Park. Unfortunately this is the only photo we took there and really doesn't do the park justice at all. The park is a rural key with lovely flat sandy beaches. This particular section was actually really busy, we walked perhaps 1/2mi down from this point and it became really quiet, hardly anybody around. Unfortunately because the area we found was so nice and the sea inviting we forgot to take any more photos ! The sea was really shallow and lovely warm. David noted this was the first time he had ever seen Adrian swim in the ocean in our 11 years. It was a really excellent spot to stop for some lunch and enjoy a few rays.

Then it was back in the car and get going for the remainder of the journey. More bridges, more keys

Ernest Hemingway House

Key West has long attracted artists and artisans who have enjoyed the easy climate and laid-back attitude of the The Keys however, one individual in particular stands out as the most famous resident, writer Ernest Hemingway.

He actually only lived in the town with his second wife from 1931 until 1942 but almost every business claims 'Hemningway ate here' or 'Hemingway drank here', that is except the restaurant Bagatelle which proudly claims 'Hemingway never liked this place'. However, the house Hemingway lived in is now a museum and Key Wests number one tourist attraction so we decided we ought to check it out too.

The home was originally bought for $8,000. After Ernest and his second wife Pauline split up in 1942, Pauline continued to live in the home until 1951 when she sold it and moved away. The person who bought the house in 1951 paid $80,000 and lived in it for a year but were so frustrated by the number of people continually turning up at the door to see Hemingways old home she decided to move out and turn it into an exhibition of his home. Holding onto this piece of real estate might have been a sound business decision too, it is now the only privately owned parcel of property over 1 acre in the whole of Key West town. In a town where tiny 33ft wide lots sell for over $1m she is sat on a very expensive piece of property.

There are numerous cats living on and around the house. They are polydactyl cats and direct descendants of the cats owned by Ernest Hemingway. Some have six or seven digits (rather than the usual four).


Inside the house hangings a portrait of Hemingway, painted while he lived in the house

The kitchen, still preserved in its original format

Many items have been maintained since buying the home including this original little fridge

Upstairs the master bedroom was a lovely bright room with access out onto the wrap around balcony

Even a basic ensuite

The large covered balcony

View of the lighthouse from the balcony

Views across the lush gardens

Adrian on the porch

This is the upstairs of a detached building within the grounds of the main house and is the studio where Hemingway used to write. He wrote about 70% of his lifes work in this studio including For Whom The Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not, A Farewell to Arms, Green Hills of Africa and Death in the Afternoon.

The swimming pool became quite a talking point in the Hemingway House as Pauline used $20,000 of Ernests money to have it built after she found out he was having an affair. Bearing in mind they had only paid $8,000 for the whole house a few years earlier this was a significant extravagance. It was so expensive for the same reason that they don't dig down in the cemetery - the water table is so high it makes the job vastly more difficult than normal.
The building in the background is where Ernests studio was located upstairs.

Flowers in the gardens


David

This is a cat-house built in the garden, built in the style of the house !

Key West Lighthouse

On our first full day in Key West we decided to ascend the lighthouse. Like many structures in Key West this is the second-generation lighthouse which was built in 1849 after a hurricane destroyed the original 1825 built tower in 1846.

The lighthouse keepers clapboard cottage, built in 1887 now houses a small museum of lighthouse memorablia

Having paid the entrance fee to ascend the lighthouse (while in the keepers cottage) we then walked through to the actual lighthouse building and discovered the narrow, steep, winding open-tread spiral staircase leading to the top. The stairs were too narrow to easily pass someone on so you had to try and time your ascent/descent without meeting someone halfway. Much as we didn't like the prospect we were determined to get our $10 worth of visit, so up those stairs we went......

The view from the top is actually pretty good. Of course the lighthouse isn't really that high, just under 90' but it's in a town where there's virtually nothing over two storeys so you still get the impression of being able to see the whole town.

This view is West, along Whitehead Street towards Mallory Square and the marina. You can see the Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship still docked.

Views North West - you can appreciate the vast amount of greenery in the town

The view East. Here you can see the 'house of garbage' in the foreground

Looking down on the Ernest Hemingway house which is across the street from the lighthouse.

Views South East towards the ocean

You're even closer to the airplanes as they come into land when you're up the lighthouse

Plane coming in over the town

David at the top of the lighthouse.

Now we had to try and pluck up the courage to walk DOWN those stairs - tip to anyone thinking of trying who's not good with heights - the down is worse than the up !

Day Two in Key West

Our second full day in Key West we decided to hire bikes. This seemed the easiest and fun way to get around the town, cover more ground and without the hassle of finding somewhere to park and so on.

We headed over to the cemetery - perhaps a slightly unusual spot to spend a holiday but we had read this was a rather unusual cemetery. Because of the exceptionally high watertable in Key West you can't dig down far before you hit water. Therefore, all the 'graves' in the cemetery are above ground.


Some are built into small buildings, usually keeping families together as family plots would do in a traditional cemetery.

This noteworthy headstone from a local renowned hypercondriac......

Then we decided we needed a canine fix so cycled over to the only 'dog beach' in Key West. Unfortunately we discovered the tide was in and when the tide's in - the area of 'beach' is smaller than our backyard ! No pooches to be found here.....

A few blocks along the coast from the dog beach is White Street pier. This was turned into the Key West AIDS Memorial in memory of the huge proportion of the towns population lost during the 1980's and 1990's. These views either direction along the coast from the pier.



The we headed back towards the town centre, passing the 'Southernmost' point on the way. Again, bending the truth slightly since the most southern point is on the naval base in the town. However, this is the most southern point joe-public is actually allowed to get to.

Update......

We stand updated on the strange bird from Key West front......it's a Green Heron. Thanks to Rosemary of Birds Suite 101 for this. Apparently it looks odd because for some reason the bird was sat with its neck fully extended, usually there is very little neck visiable which is why it didn't look like anything we were looking for on the internet !