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The Keys |
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| The next morning, Tuesday, we left early for a fairly short
distance (but as it
turned out a fairly lengthy time) day, and drove along the causeway
initially across the everglades, and then along the spit of land linking the
mainland to the chain of islands of the Keys at Key Largo (which was Rock
Harbor until 1948, when it was changed to cash in on the publicity from the
movie Key Largo – which was shot in California). The islands are generally
quite narrow, with the Gulf on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The road
along the keys is about 100 miles long, and locations are referred to by mile
marker. Much of the road is lined with strip development. We first stopped at Pennekamp
Coral Reef State Park, which has nice museum of a reef and reef fish, but
the beach itself was not much and getting too hot for Joyce. We bought books on
Florida trees for Joyce, (at a laid back book shop) and sunblock for Peter in
Key Largo. |
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Then we stopped at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center. They had lots of herons, pelicans, some hawks, ospreys, cormorants, and resident cats and dogs plus all three types of mangroves (black, white and red). We passed along narrow walkways to view some of the large cages and had to run the gauntlet of large aggresive pelicans. A hand bag was very useful in warding off those large beaks. | |
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Parallel to the road are the remains of the original railway, the Florida East Coast, built by Flagler in the 1920s, and later wrecked by a hurricane in 1935. The structures, which survived the hurricane, were converted to carry a road. These old narrow road bridges are now fishing piers, or remain as inaccessible isolated sections. Our Quality Inn was near t,he entrance to Key West, and had lots of people, frequently rather boiled in appearance, sitting around the swimming pool in the sun. The motel was expensive. |
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| A moored Hobiecat is a good perch for fishing, but not advisable if you want to keep it clean! |  |
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Key West |
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We spent Wednesday in Key West. We left the motel early in the morning, and because of the late night life style in Key West this meant we could cruise around the city sightseeing before there were any pedestrians or traffic. We drove past the house of a World Bank retiree. This is in the old part of the city and the houses are on vary narrow lots (about 20 feet?) surrounded by flowering shrubs, and lush palm trees. Most houses are surrounded by walls. We viewed the Southernmost point in the US, where we arrived at the same time as a semi trailer from Edmonton!, which was delivering steel and glass for a dome being constructed. We also visited the Truman Winter White House (a nice place to spend the winter) right on the end of Key West Island, the harbor with the 130 ft. schooner ‘Western Union’ (surprisingly launched only as far back as 1939 to maintain communication cables), and where some other large sailing boats and catamarans are moored.
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| The Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park was pleasant with a nice beach and crowds of pelicans perched on the rocks just off the shore. The fort bordered the ocean when it was completed in 1866. In 1947 the army turned the fort over to the navy, which for some reason placed a lot of fill around it so it is now landlocked. In 1968, excavation and rehabilitation began and it is now a state park. |  |
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