Margaritaville!

We are in Key West, and boy does it live up to its reputation as a drunken party town! We arrived yesterday evening, and walked to the "hot" street, Duval St. So many open-air bars with live music, T-shirt shops, bars, souvenir shops, bars, and yes, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville bar (and T-shirt shop).

Today Bert and I took a bike ride all around not only Key West, but also Stock Island. You should know that Bert's last name is Stock, and "his" island is the very next island on your way back toward Miami. Then we came back and rode around the entire key and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day and wide beaches and homes and history.

At the end of the day, we walked along the wide pier near the cruise ships, and there were lots of performers working for tips. This fellow was interesting, mostly because with all that hardware, he was gently singing the Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

We toured Ernest Hemingway's home, and seemingly the most interesting part for our guide and the group were the 44 cats who live there. They are all descendants of a six-toed cat from 60 yrs ago that the family brought in, and let them propagate. About half are born with the six toes. Anyway, the owners cater to those felines, and they can sleep anywhere and do anything. They all have movie-star names, or other famous people.

And here are their ancestors, in the Cat Cemetery. We saw Frank Sinatra's grave, Marilyn Monroe's, Merna Loy's, Bette Davis', ...you get the idea.

We also toured the lighthouse, first built in 1847. We climbed the 88 steps and took pictures in all directions including the next one...

This picture shows the two cruise ships in the distance. The main party street is off to the right a bit, and runs right to those ships. Today there were two different ships in port from the two when we arrived yesterday. Man, does this place get a ton of tourists from those huge ships! They are by far the tallest structures on any horizon.

Here's the sign post at the end of Hwy 1. It was quite an achievement to build first a railroad and then a highway across the Keys to Key West.

This marker was a popular photo stop for tourists. There was a long line to be able to have your photo taken next to it. Cuba, at 90 miles away, is closer than Miami!

I was shocked to see chickens running around the Key everywhere. Ya hear cock-a-doodling all over the place, any neighborhood, any beach.

Here I am posing on the wide sandy beaches on the Atlantic side. The Gulf side has the marinas and harbors, while the Atlantic side has the beaches. Regardless which side, there are shallow reefs stretching way out to sea, and a boater has only a few marked channels where you can get into the islands.

We rode to the airport too, and this mural was painted on the wall there. They are proud of their feelings of independence, as the Conch Republic. They have a Conch Rep flag too. I saw a funny bumper sticker saying, "We seceded where all others failed."

Here's a picture of our Gulf nemesis, the cherry bomb. It's what we call the endless crab and lobster trap buoys that we must constantly avoid hitting when we have cruised in the Gulf. We traveled about 80 miles from Shark River to Key West, out where we could see nothing but water in all directions, yet the entire way we were dodging these cherry bombs. Janet joked that they are dinner waiting to happen, but no, we didn't pull one up and swipe the catch.

Here's a picture of the sunset from our anchorage in Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park. Later that night, I could hear manatees passing by the boat because I could hear their breathing. Cool! And the stars were spectacular.

On Sunday morning I did some maintenance in the bilge. We then headed out into the open Gulf after another one of Bert's signature breakfasts. He makes egg scrambles, omelets, pancakes, hot cereal, and other tasty creations.

It was a 50-mile jaunt to Little Shark River. There is NO civilization anywhere near it, so it was special...even if we had zero cell phone and Internet service for 28 hours. I really do not like being out of communication...with certain friends...with a certain friend...

As soon as we anchored, Bert and I launched the dinghy and took a long adventure into the park. It was a maze of waterways, and one could easily get lost. We kept hoping we'd see a gator, but didn't. What we did see were hundreds of birds, a raccoon, and swampy little offshoots to explore. This is a picture of one of those inlets.

Another one. It was sorta spooky, being miles from anyone. We shut off the engine and it was peaceful, with various bird calls and the sound of their poop hitting the water (from their perches in the trees).

See how it truly looks like a swamp? Branches coming down and everything. We explored about five of these inlets. No gators. Bert said the only Gators in Florida must be those at the university in Gainesville.

Here we are speeding on back to our anchorage, with swamp all around. Fun.

Now, Bert and I have one more day here in Key West. Then he departs and Lee Smith arrives. We will need to reach Daytona Beach by February 17.