Posted on 05/31/2014 6:01:24 PM PDT by AbolishCSEU
Wondering if any Freepers have any advice for touring Key West.
Heading there in the weeks, so I’ll be listening in if you don’t mind.
Wear long sleeves in the evening and early night along with copious amounts of DEET.
Sloppy Joe’s. Rent bikes.
Depends on reason for going. Not much to do if family. There are other more family friendly places in Florida. Key West is about drinking. But you can see the Atlantic and see the Gulf.
See all the cats at Hemingway’s house!
Just there. We had a nice time staying at the NAS. (military ID required). Unless you are big into drinking, think about another place.
Was there a couple of years ago... It wasn’t cheap but it was worth it. We paid $240 a hotel. Go para sailing...
If you drop your keys, kick them to Islamorada.
Yeah, don’t go.
ask for Doc... https://www.facebook.com/ChefDistilled
“See all the cats at Hemingway’s house!”
They are pampered little furballs!
Bring money
Yeah. If you stand in the right place, you can watch a piece of eelgrass move from the crappy looking water of the Atlantic into the crappy looking water of the Gulf. And back, if you've time the tides.
My wife and I were there last year.....unless you plan to fish or snorkel or dive, be prepared to do lots of walking....
Several famous bars are there, several local museums highlighting local history....people like Hemingway ...
If you are driving.... The trip down is pretty interesting....
You can see the railroad Flagler build about 100 years ago still standing almost all the down the highway....
We drove from Tampa to there....
We had a quick stop there at the end of a Panama Canal cruise we took (late April, early May). We took a bike tour & got to see the lay of the place. It’s nice & flat for biking, which was nice as I haven’t ridden in years. I keep a log when we travel, so I’ll just post what I wrote (info from our bike guide) & it may give you some ideas...
Our tour was a bike ride (approximately 5 miles) around Key West, where we would pass by, but not go into, the major tourist attractions. We saw the original Margaritaville shop & café, & also where Jimmy Buffett lived while he was still singing for drinks. We also saw his studio. We went by the Customs House, where we were told that Key West was at one time one of the wealthiest cities in the country – its wealth made from ships that wrecked on the reef. (Key West has the third largest reef after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia & the one off Belize.) We saw the lighthouse which is now a museum, & Mel Fisher’s museum. He found the wreck Atocha, & recovered $5M worth of Spanish doubloons & assorted other treasure. We passed by the ‘Little White House’ where Harry Truman (& other presidents) came to relax. And we heard a number of stories about the local goings on. For instance, every evening the locals go to the sea wall & watch the sunset. As it sinks below the ocean, everyone claps. That tradition was started by Tennessee Williams, the novelist.
Tobacco & cigars played a big role in the wealth of the Keys. If cigars were imported, a very high tax was levied. But no such tax was levied on the raw tobacco. Cuban cigar makers (no fools) moved to Key West & imported the tobacco, & made them here instead. One particular cigar maker, who had made a fortune, was enticed to move to Tampa. When he left, he bequeathed his home & property to the community, with the only proviso that it be used for recreational purposes. Now it is a park, called the ‘Bay View Park’, although there is no longer a view of the Bay. Too much building further on.
The best story was the last. Once the highway was built connecting the Keys to the mainland, drug runners started using it. So the Feds put up a road block & started searching EVERY vehicle that moved on it. The mayor got mad as this was a clear violation of Fourth Amendment rights. He went to Washington to complain, but got nowhere. So he told them he was going to secede from the US. When he got back a merry band went to the Post Office & were going to take down the US flag, but someone feared that might be considered treason. So they raised their own flag of the Conch Republic just under the US flag. Now every year they re-enact the battle that never happened. All the ships in the marina parade out into the bay, & the coast guard sends ships out to meet them. There are even bi-planes that drop environmentally friendly toilet paper ‘bombs’ on the coast guard. Sooner or later, everyone comes back to port, where the coast guard ceremonially surrenders to the Conch Republic citizenry by handing them a sword, at which point the citizens hand it back & tell them ‘we’ve defeated you for the past XX years, & DON’T DO IT AGAIN!‘ And they all go off to enjoy another day in paradise.
Last stop: we went to the Key Lime Pie Company for a piece of pie.
It was fun. I think I’d like to go back there & spend some time someday.
Beware the Homo Depot. Lol!
The old US 1 paralleled the tracks for quite a ways. Was stationed down there in the early '50s and made he weekend run to Miami on a three-day liberty. Lotsa fun dodging the fishing sinkers coming through the windshield from the guys fishing off the bridge. They'd swing the rod back to cast and often wouldn't look to see if a car was coming.
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