Key West

Well, well, well. We finally got to downtown Key West. We parked at Truman Annex and walked the town. For anyone planning to visit, Truman Annex offers free parking at the Coast Guard Cutter Ingram museum area. It is also near the entrance to Ft Taylor. Parking in Key West is at a premium and the pay lots charge $20 a day.

Our visit started at Ft. Zachery Taylor State Park. Zachery Taylor was our twelfth president and one of the few that died in office. Half way through his first term as I recall. No, not from personal experience, the park literature. Anyway, he died while the fort was under construction and it was dedicated to him.  The fort was built to protect our southern borders and was used as a base in the fight against pirates at first, then the Spanish American War and the two World Wars. It was decommissioned in 1947. It is amazing, though, just how much of the Key West area is military property. We could cut the national debt in half by selling all this property to developers. Seriously, look at a map sometime. I am thankful for the chance to use the facilities on this trip, though. Thanks America for the opportunity.

We walked south from the fort to Mile Marker Zero, the southern most point in the contiguous 48 states. Tourists were lined up fifty deep to get a picture next to the marker so we abstained. We just butted in and got a picture of the marker itself during a brief shift change.

Many of the older homes are now inns, but quite attractive, as are the older hotels. We walked through residential/inn neighborhoods as we headed north on Duval to the Butterfly Conservancy. What a neat place. Once you have your ticket (everything in Key West costs $12 to visit) you enter the butterfly equivalent of an aviary. It was an amazing atrium filled with foliage and hundreds of butterflies of every color. It was a very pleasant experience to walk through the area with so many fluttering creatures flitting about. You exit through the obligatory gift shop, of course, and Barbara did not make it though unscathed. If I were to ever live here full-time I would want the wallet-vac maintenance contract.

We walked the length of Duval Street. Lots of shops selling the usual stuff, and bars of course. Plenty of bars. This has to be right in there with New Orleans as a party destination; maybe even more so. In New Orleans you also have music and a unique cuisine. Here they are just bars. We did find a particularly good ice cream shop, though. And, there is an interesting hammock shop.

We did visit the scene of an earlier crime. Like the No Name Pub, alcohol was involved during the last visit.

Barbara will post some better pictures, but she unfortunately broke her camera today. That will slow down the multimedia aspects of our dialogue a bit. Hopefully we will be able to get it repaired when we get back home because it is a great point and shoot camera.

Tomorrow we will get back on the water. It is just too convenient to not take advantage.