Chickens and Cats

Usually Sharon and I agree about our travel experiences, but not so about the Keys. I love them, she does not. Why the difference?

In part it’s the weather. According to the locals, we are here during the first summer heat wave, that means temps have gone up along with humidity and she does not take well to that. Me? I don’t like the humidity much but I can live with it and I just love the casual laid-back vibe. It’s a totally different approach to life and one that I find attractive maybe not forever, but definitely after six weeks of fairly intensive touring. I’m thinking of it as the vacation within the vacation. A ridiculous concept, but there it is.

Wednesday was our first day here. Now, because we don’t know much about things, we are not staying in Key West. Rather we located ourselves in Islamorada, about mid-way between Key Largo and Key West. But all of what’s going on seems to be going on in Key West, so that means about 160 miles a day “commute.” And that may be part of Sharon’s problem.

Anyways, Wednesday we walked the old town and visited the Hemingway house. So those are the images you see here. All told we walked more than five miles in temperatures approaching 90º with about equal humidity. By the time we headed home after dinner at Blue Heaven it was after 9:00 and we did not get back before 10:30. A long day for two old folks.

Driving down from Islamorada to Key West for the first time we were struck with the stunning beauty of it all

Not to worry, Rosa has on sunscreen

I had to punch out 1200 mm ofpartly digital telephoto to capture it, but that's it. That's the boat I want

A random, but charming, house in Key West

The Hemingway House

Our tour guide

A Hemingway cat. Most of them are descended from Snow White, the Hemingway's polydactyl cat

They train the cats to follow the tours, though the one behind the pillows was otherwise engaged

Sharon makes friends

Hemingway's studio, atop the carriage house

And it had a cat, too

Note the themed shelter (cat house?)

And then there are the chickens. The story is that they came as survivors of a shipwreck. Today they are given the run of the town. There is no place they are unwelcome, their pedestrian right of way is much more respected than that of tourists

Nice piece of adaptive reuse and preservation by Walgreens

Random houses

And commercial buildings

Capt. Tony's Bar, Hemingway's Sloppy Joe's, his favorite hangout bar in town. It provided cold drink and respite from the late afternoon heat.

Dinner was at Blue Heaven, highly recommended

The plan for Thursday was the glass bottomed boat and whatever else came our way, maybe the Key West White House used by a number of presidents, maybe some gardens. We’ll see.