The Last of Key West
I was surprised by Key West. While I had tried not to have any specific expectations, deep inside I had imagined board walks lined with sidewalk cafes, cute tourist shops, lots of beach-goers and sidewalk musicians. I had visions of strolling the beachfront shops in search of the perfect pair of shorts and a gauzy dress or two and sipping drinks with umbrellas in-between shops while overlooking the gently lapping waves kissing the beach. I'm sure Michael would have preferred to skip the shops; he's a MAN (laughing) but he's an awesome husband and I know he would have gone with me anyway, so he is there in this vision, holding my hand and smiling lovingly into my eyes. I had visualized the homes of Key West to be upscale contemporary homes because, after all, it's probably expensive to live on an island at the southernmost point in the whole country.
The reality was - well - much different. Michael had told me previously that there aren't many beaches in the Keys. There are a couple in Key West. The funny thing is that there are no boardwalks overlooking them. No shopping, dining, or sidewalk musicians. One beach we visited is beautiful, but adjacent to historic Fort Zachary Taylor, built in the 1800s and now open for tourists and the Coast Guard ship, USCGC Ingham which is also a museum.
The beaches in Key West are not soft, powdery beaches as they were on the Emerald Coast. They are mostly ground shell and harsh on soft, tender feet. Sand is brought in from the Bahamas twice a year to some of them.
The other beaches we saw were Smathers Beach and South Beach. These were also not the centers of tourism that I had visualized. One good thing is that they weren’t overcrowded, but then again, it IS January. The beaches do make nice photo backdrops with sailboats and tall ships gliding around in the background and the smell of portable grills cooking up hot dogs. If you want to sit in the sand, snuggle up with your sweetheart and watch a sunset painted with deep hues of orange, rose and apricot, these beaches are a perfect destination.
The town of Key West had an interesting blend of elements. Out of place and certainly an oddity here are chickens running loose all over the town, reminiscent of a third-world island. I guess if you need an alarm clock and something for dinner… I simply had to snap a quick picture of one crossing the road and post it on Facebook. Why DOES the chicken cross the road? In Key West, probably to get away from some annoying tourist who wants to take its picture. I must have looked hungry. Surely chickens are aware they aren’t on the top of the food chain.
There are pockets of touristy shops and restaurants. Here, they aren’t anywhere near the beaches. As far as I am concerned, this could have been any town with its own touristy area. The shops and homes were built in the early 1900s, some with Victorian accents, each in white with varying shades of coastal pastel colors. Few if any of the homes are the big money contemporaries I had envisioned. They are tightly packed old wood sided homes. The business districts are made from these same styled old buildings, laced seamlessly in with the homes. There are bars galore, with Jimmy Buffett style music drifting out through the doors and open windows along with dive shops and shops with gauzy dresses. We didn’t do any street walking here. That will have to wait for next year when we can get Michael healed up so he can enjoy those rum punch drinks with me.
There are a few other things tabled until next year, also. These involve the rich historical element of Key West. I want to mention them here because anyone interested in visiting Key West might find them interesting. The above mentioned Coast Guard ship USCGC Ingham is high on my visiting wish list.
Also there is the Key West lighthouse. I have that inexplicable attraction to lighthouses so I need to go back and climb this one. There is something about it that is clearly magnetic to me. Perhaps it’s the ancient tree next to it. I can see children swinging from its branches in centuries past while their parents painted the lighthouse or trimmed the wick for the light or hauled kerosene in. I’m fascinated at how it is too far inland because the sea has given up its real estate to the lighthouse over the ages.
Next there is the house across the street from the lighthouse. It is the historic home of Earnest Hemingway. I can only imagine how Mr. Hemingway had had an ocean-front home in his day and how he had probably spent evenings on the upper deck smoking an aromatic cigar and watching the sea become luminescent as the sun turned in for the day under the cover of the horizon. Click HERE for pictures and more information.
The final destination I will mention that is on my must-see list is that special place in Key West to which President Harry S. Truman made 11 trips during the period between 1946 and 1952. It was his winter white house and is referred to as the Harry S. Truman “Little White House.” He always visited between November and March. There was a tremendous amount of presidential business conducted on the lush lawn of this special home. Click HERE to check out a little more information on the Little White House.
In addition to exploring Key West, we did take one day to dive and spear fish. We made two dives and saw one ship wreck. The water was cool enough that wet suits were definitely warranted. The seas were calm enough that day and the water was fairly clear so we could see fairly well. On the first dive there was a giant sea turtle sleeping sweetly underneath a rock. I could have reached out and touched him. How exciting! Of course, I didn’t want to scare him by actually doing that. Michael saw a moray eel above us and tried to point it out to me but I had an attack of brain density and didn’t know what he was pointing to. <blush> The ship wreck was cool to see. I didn’t go inside but I did swim all around the outside. I could almost feel the panic and fear the crew may have felt as their ship took on water and finally succumbed to the sea. The second dive was a shallow reef dive. Michael and our dive master had their spear guns and some lobster hunting equipment. We brought in one nice snapper and about 5 lobsters. That night, we got to eat the freshest of the fresh seafood! Yummy!
I have to say, though, that despite reasonably calm seas I got sick twice. It was all I could do on the second dive not to throw up while diving. My heart is heavy because all my life I have had fantasies of living on boats, having a romantic rural seaside cottage, diving every day and sailing the blue water. I was a lifeguard as a teenager and a water child from the moment I learned how to swim. I loved to swim in Lake Amistad as a teen, practicing distance swimming and following the bottom out and down to pick rocks up and try to swim to the surface with 30 lbs of rock under my arm. I always have been in and around water as much as I could everywhere I have lived from Grapevine Lake and others in Texas, lakes in Rockford, Illinois to the St. Lawrence Seaway in New York. It is a big damper to have been sea-sick pretty much every time I have been on a boat in the last 5 years. I have tried the drugs for motion sickness and they made me nauseous and sleepy. There is one more thing I can try; the pressure point wristbands that are touted to relieve motion sickness. I don’t see how they can work, though, if the problem is degradation of the cilia in the ears. This is a normal part of aging. The problem could be congested sinuses, which I have chronically. If that is the issue, perhaps I can find a way to clear them before diving. I don’t know. I am not finished trying. It makes me wonder if I will ever be able to take a cruise.
Today is my son’s birthday and I wish so deeply that I could share it with him. Chris, if you are reading this, know how much I love you and miss you on this special day. 20 years old and no longer a teenager. I’m proud of you, Son.
To Trent and Brenda, congratulations on finding out that your expected little bundle of joy is going to be a GIRL making me a grandmother of three little girls. I laugh now. I have said for years that God gave me boys because I wouldn't have known what to do with girls. It looks like I'm going to be finding out!
For now, we are back in Key Largo taking it easy. I think that our plan for the foreseeable future is to be on the "nonplan" plan. Michael had an MRI yesterday. Please, let's all pray that the result is that he is getting better.
