We left Florida City on Sunday 24 February for the drive down the Florida Keys via the 127 miles of the Overseas Highway to Key West. Had a few stops on the way down, including Sunday Brunch at the Key Colony Inn which was a great buffet setup, including omelettes made to order. The drive down the keys wasn't as spectacular as I had expected, the road went through more built up areas and other places where you don't get to appreciate the beauty of the place. It probably deserves more time to explore the areas on the way through than what we had available to us. The turquoise waters were a great sight to let you know that you were in the tropics. Seven Mile Bridge was also interesting.
We had booked into the Best Western Hibiscus which turned out to be much nicer than the online photos indicated. A very tropical resort with the cleanest pool we encountered in all our US travels. Added to the tropical 30+ Celsius weather, Key West quickly became our favourite place on our Florida Road Trip. We were pretty much at the southern end of the Key so that evening we wandered up Duval Street that evening, checking out the shops etc down to Mallory Square to watch the sunset.
On Monday 25 February, we started by walking down to Ernest Hemingway's Key West House at 907 Whitehead Street. Hemingway lived and worked here from 1931 to 1939. Was very interesting to see. The house was very open with lots of windows to allow the breeze through, although these days air conditioning would make it more livable! There are also lots of cats around the house / museum which the kids got to pat and feed during our tour. Hemingway was known for his love of polydactyl cats, although there's some debate as to whether he actually had cats on Key West or just on Cuba. The shop there also benefited from our visit!
We then wandered down to the marker marking the 'southernmost point in the continental United States accessible by civilians', dipped our feet in the Gulf of Mexico and found a cafe to have a coffee overlooking the beach. The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the pool, something we haven't found much time to stop and do during this road trip!
We again spent the evening wandering up Duval Street and the shops before watching the sunset again. After watching the sunset, we wandered the markets along Mallory Square. Olivia and Kieren were keen to watch one of the street performers. They settled on watching two jugglers. Of course they had to be right up the front which in turn led to the performers choosing Olivia to join them. She had a great time, the performers questioned Donna's parenting skills in allowing her to go up there, esp when Olivia handed them a large knife blade first! Olivia also walked away with $6 for her efforts, plus congratulations from several crowd members after the show and as we walked up Duval Street later. This included a balloon hat from one lady! Photos online at: http://picasaweb.google.com/malcolmdonna/OliviaSStreetPerformanceDebut.
Malcolm
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