Knights Key - Key West - Day 36

Happy Birthday to our son Jeff today!!!

Up and out early today because we want to see all we can of Key West. It took just over an hour to drive there. We are camped just on the north east side of the Seven Mile Bridge. The reality is to travel to Key West on the only Hwy, Hwy 1, you cross 42 bridges. The largest of these is the Seven Mile Bridge of course. Key West is much bigger than I thought and really just looks like any other city except there is a lot of water and Palm trees. Our first stop was the Southernmost Buoy Point. I hate to say it, but  it smelled very bad there. When we parked and got out it reeked of urine, then up by the buoy it smelled like rotting seaweed. There was a huge line to wait for your turn to take a photo with the buoy, I didn't want to wait so I took one of the back. Google will supply the front view! I was in need of a restroom by then and we went to the Conch Republic and Seafood Company where we planned to eat later. We were able to secure parking very close by, it was a good location and we increased our parking time and stayed in the same spot after eating. We saw them come in and unload a large catch of Yellow Fin, how Jeff would have enjoyed that! When we went in to eat the hostess asked if we had papers for Tony (they are technically NOT allowed to ask that). We smiled  as she lead us to a table. We had never had Conch (pronounced "konk") before and it pretty much tasted like Calamari. The stuffed mushrooms were fantastic! John had ribs and I had fish tacos, which were a little disappointing. John loved the ribs. 

Old Town Trolley Tours was our next adventure after lunch. We walked just a little ways and found the booth, got a ticket, and waited just 10-15 minutes to board this version of a hop on, hop off. No one questioned us about Tony, he did have his vest on. We saw many things. Ernest Hemingway Home was one of the things I wanted to possibly visit. I changed my mind when I found out 40 or more cats live there. I think either Tony, John, or I might have a breakdown if we tried to do that! I really can't imagine! We saw it from the trolley even though it has a somewhat crude brick wall around it we still had pretty good views. La Concha Hotel is another writer's spot. Tennessee Williams lived on the penthouse floor of this hotel to write Streetcar Named Desire. 

We saw the Harry Truman Little White House and we were told several past presidents stayed there as well. I also didn't realize there were so many Civil War sites in the Keys, then you can also read about the Conch Republic. There are Conch Republic flags everywhere you turn. There is a large Navy presence here in Key West (Key West Naval Air Station) I didn't realize that either. We were told that SEALS also do underwater training here, but I found no information to substantiate that statement. I thought all of that was done in San Diego now. 

There are a lot of random sites like Tropic Theater with a statue of Marilyn Monroe, and other statues of unknown people (to me) around town.

We thought our last stop of  the day was Mallory Square but after getting out there and looking around we decided to hop back on and take the trolley to the stop where we got on. When we were almost there we saw the most fun looking Kermit's Key West Lime Pie Shoppe. So THAT was really our last stop of the day. It has been on the  Food Network! Oh boy, what a fun place. Can you believe they even make dog treats? They gave Tony 2! Kermit, who waved to us as we went by on the bus, had to show us the Portuguese Water Dog he just bought. It is a puppy and will be shipped in soon. What a  friendly and fun place. We bought a few things and had a piece of pie in the garden cafe area. 

Now it really was time to head to our vehicle, parked just across the street as our parking time was almost up! On the way back we had a deluge of rain but it. didn't last long. But such a change, we were quite warm when we left in the morning, then HOT, then RAIN!