Key West, Florida
Our last port of call was Key West, Florida. We had plenty of time to spend at Key West so 
we took our time in the morning, and gradually made our way off the ship toward the town. We had already decided we definitely wanted to walk down to the southernmost point of the continental US! So Kevin used his trusty iPhone (which he FINALLY got to use again, poor baby had to be without it for an entire two days!) to navigate. We hopped on a road which would take us straight to the marker. Along the way we passed by mile zero of interstate 1! Awesome! I knew it existed on the island, but I didn't know where. We passed by an awesome post office and a huge Kapok Tree that had a sign under it stating that Key West was the end of the rainbow...and route 1. Some of the houses along that road were just gorgeous. I had never been out of the downtown area, except for I did go on one of those train tours the first time I was in Key West, but that was like...5 years ago. We finally got to the Southernmost Point and there were a bunch of people there taking pictures. I clicked a quick shot of the marker before someone else stepped in my shot and didn't feel like waiting around so Kevin and I could get a picture with it. There was more of the island to explore!
We went a block over from the street we went up, and went back toward town on Duval Street. We ran into Dave and Sue on our way back! They were another of the couples we sat with at dinner. We told them where we just were and that it wasn't too far back if they wanted to go, and went on our different ways. They pointed to a art gallery they had just been in that had different pieces of the old Hollywood Sign and they were painted with different stars on them. Really cool. Naturally we went in the gallery to see them, there was some amazing painting in there, and crazy 3D looking images. I forget what it is called, but if you're ever in Key West and see a gallery on a corner, go in!
Then we found Irish Kevin's, which every time I came to Key West...like two other times...I took a picture of it for him, and in December I got him a shot glass, so naturally he needed to see it and I wanted a picture of him with it! At first we didn't see it, but on Kevin's GPS it said it was right by us. If it had been a black snake, it would have bit us! (I don't understand that saying...) Anyway, as you can see we got the picture!
I asked Kevin where Ernest Hemingway's house was, I thought we could go by and peer at it without going in. It was, of course, a mile back in the direction we had just come from. 
Oh well, we have time, lets go back! So we did, and I saw a sign that it was only $12 to go in. That's not bad! (On the ship for the same thing, it was around $50!) We go to pay, and they were having a special for Spring Breakers -- show your Student IDs and you'd get in for $6! Sweet! I was so excited to go in. (Mainly because of the cats, I don't think I've read one of Ernest Hemingway's books, but I might have to now) We get to the house and they are about to have a tour. Awesome.
I highly recommend the tour, you get to learn so much about Ernest, the house, and his wives. I did learn quite a bit! On the tour we got to see where he wrote a lot of his books:
From his porch you could see the lighthouse sticking up above the trees. Our tour guide told us that he bought the house so that after he had been out drinking and forgot where he lived, he could just follow where the lighthouse was, and then he could find his house that way!
One of my favorite stories had to do with a sequence of events due to a pool...
The Hemingways looked into getting a pool, however, because the island is made out of hard coral rock, the pool would have to be carved out and couldn't be blasted out. It would cost a lot of money to do that, and Ernest decided against it. Well, Pauline (his wife) really wanted that pool, and when Ernest went out of town with a women who had been "interviewing" him, Pauline put that pool in. When Ernest got back and saw that pool, and knew how much it cost, he pulled out a penny from his pocket and told her that was their last penny!
She took that penny and stuck it in the concrete. After they got divorced and Ernest Hemingway ran off with that interviewer, she could always say she got his last penny.
This is our tour guide with what seems like a pretty fountain. There is a bar in town called Sloppy Joes, which Ernest loved to go to.
It found out that it was moving locations and asked the owner if he could have the urinal. He took that urinal and put it right next to Pauline's precious pool. She demanded he move it, and he said he would when she moved her pool. So she tried to make it look nice with spanish tile. Then one of the groundsmen put that big spanish vase up there and made it into a fountain, and you'd never know the difference. The cats of the house like to use it as a water bowl, except for Archibald who only will drink from the water fountain.
Speaking of the cats, and Archibald who is the cat in the upper left corner on the master bed:
I enjoyed seeing the cats! They were all so adorable. Only about half of the 45 cats on the property have the six toes. I saw a lot more than above, but those were some of my favorites. It was a hot day, and I'm sure most of them were hiding and sleeping in the shade. There were a couple that let us pet them. Kevin was excited to be touching a cat that was directly a descendant of Snowball, Ernest's original six toed cat.
After the Hemingway House, we went back to town to visit the Key West Lime Shoppe. I wanted to show Kevin how Tom Green had once been there for the Tonight Show, and I have always gone there every time I've been to Key West (four times now), so naturally we had to go. Kevin got some Key West Lime Pie and we sat out by the fishes. He was amazed how big their gold fish were! And I still am, even though I've seen them many times now. Then we went over to the Key West Winery to try some of their unique wines. They have wine that is made out of anything put grapes...grapefruit, oranges, strawberries, bananas,etc. We got some Hurricane wine which was a blend of many different fruits, it is REALLY good. Kevin also got a Key Lime Wine from the Key West Lime Shoppe.
Then we trotted back off to the ship for some lunch, and probably a nap.
~Taylor~
Comments (1)
Taylor,
Enjoying reading your cruise adventures. Hemmingway's house sounds like a place I'd like to visit someday...just for the stories of his crazy antics. Keep the stories coming. =B
Posted by Brent Watts | March 23, 2009 10:28 AM