6 February 2025
Today, our friends, Cathy and Franklin, came to visit. To prepare, we moved some things out of the guest stateroom, e.g. Clark's guitar, and pulled out the sofa into a bed. I moved some art supplies into our stateroom to provide some shelf space for our guests. With the room setup, we took a last minute trip to Publix to get some food supplies, and then we anxiously awaited the arrival of our friends.
Having down to see us from Vero Beach, they arrived just at 3:00. Clark walked them around the marina to give them the complete tour. We don't drink coffee, but our friends do, so we made sure to point out the free coffee provided every morning.
We got everyone situated and ate dinner onboard. As the sun set, we walked to a viewing point and met some boater friends and a new puppy watching the sun go down. (Not sure how to spell the dogs cute name, but it derives from being acquired in the "Keys" I believe.)
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| Robin, Barbara, & "Keezee" |
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| Roger, Del, Robin, "Keezee", and Barbara |
7 February 2025
We decided that a Friday would be a better day for a trip to Key West than a Saturday, so we set off just after 9:00 for a day "in town". On the drive we passed some familiar sights along the way.
The tree "Fred", growing on the old bridge, has survived hurricanes and somehow keeps on thriving. The name of his smaller friend beside him on the bridge is a mixed bag of suggestions. The one I remember is "Wilma" from the Flintstones Cartoon.
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| Tree "Fred" on old bridge with sidekick "Wilma" |
As we passed through the "Lower Keys", off in the distance I could see the blimp called "Fat Albert". Cathy looked up the blimp and read that it will be decommissioned next month. Bye-bye Fat Albert! He has been a land mark for a long time; we were glad we got to see him one last time.
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| "Fat Albert" |
We wound our way through Key West and parked downtown in a parking lot we learned about from our friends Sandy and Bill. After navigating the application to pay for parking on the phone, we walked to today's main attraction - "The Truman House". Throughout the day, Cathy and Ev trailed behind Clark and Franklin who walked faster and sometimes disappeared in the distance as they rounded corners. A few times we thought we had lost them. Then, one of us would spot them - Ev watching for Clark's hat or Cathy recognizing Franklin's shirt in the distance.
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| Ev and Cathy on a street in Key West |
We found it a relatively short walk to "The Truman House" from the parking lot. In the 1940s, with some health problems, Truman's doctor told him he needed to be somewhere in a warm climate. He found Key West suited his prescription for better health perfectly. The place where he stayed was part of a military base. It eventually became his permanent southern residence.
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| Functioning White House between 1946 & 1952 |
After paying the entrance fees, the first item of interest we found was Truman's car.
After a short wait, we met our tour guide, "Greg M", who gave us the lowdown on the history of Truman House.
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| Greg M. |
We strolled through the house as Greg filled us in on points of interest.
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| Small Truman Statue |
We saw two newspapers on display behind glass frames. The first showed the infamous "Dewey Wins" false news report. Greg told interesting stories. For example, he explained that the newspaper got their false impression of the voting results by polling only rich voters who could afford telephones.
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| "Letter to Bess" |
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| Truman's Desk |
Truman liked to drink bourbon and play poker. He drank 2 shots of bourbon every day before breakfast. The poker table shown below was crafted just for him. He gambled for nickels and dimes for fun. As gambling was frowned upon, a circular wooden cover sat beside the poker table to be placed over the table to hide its true purpose. Once in place, the viewer saw only a round table.
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| One-of-a-kind, handmade poker table for Truman |
Truman also liked to smoke cigarettes. Greg told us we could find ashtrays of all sorts throughout the house.
The entertainment room had a piano, video equipment, and a record player allowing for a variety of turntable speeds.
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| Movie projector with " Abbot and Costello" reel |
After our tour of the "Little Whitehouse", we decided to walk down to the water and look for a place to grab lunch. Ev got a bit excited as we walked past a cruise ship in town as it was from the "Holland America" line. Her mother first arrived from England in the states (at Hoboken, NJ) on a ship of that line in 1947 - not the same ship however!
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| Key West along the Gulf |
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| Key West Aquarium (we did not visit here) |
Key West has a large variety of restaurants. We chose to eat somewhere we had enjoyed previously - "Conch Republic Seafood". After our tasty luncheon, we decided to walk to the southernmost point of the United States.
Key West has more than a few chickens and roosters wandering about town
and they don't worry about traffic as they do it.
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| "Why did the chicken(s) cross the road?" |
Ev snapped a few photos along the walk.
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| A fountain tucked away in Key West |
We nearly lost Clark and Franklin walking through this area. As Cathy and Ev stopped to look at the orchids growing on the trees, C & F kept going. Uh oh, which way did they go?? Ev saw Clark waving his hands over his head off in the distance.
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| Orchids on the palm trees |
We passed the place where Jimmy Buffet recorded music
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| Interesting Tree near Lighthouse |
Eventually we made it to the ocean side of Key West where we reached the southernmost point of the United States. We knew there would be a long queue of people waiting to take a picture there. Having done that in the past, we passed on that opportunity and took pictures by the conch-blowing statue instead.
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| Line of folks waiting to take their picture here |
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| Ev & Clark |
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| Cathy and Franklin |
After the photo opp., we walked around the corner to see the beach area.
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| Key West Train coming to pick up folks from the southernmost point |
Ev liked the architecture and coloring of the old mansion shown below that is now a hotel.
Some folks enjoyed the beach. A few actually went into the water.
and the Mojito Bar closest to Cuba.
After the long walk to the southernmost point, we had the equally long trek back towards the car. On the way back, Ev spotted a butterfly conservatory hidden off to one side. We could see the butterflies inside the building clinging to the netting on the outside walls wishing to be outdoors. We thought about going in as someone handed us coupons, but we passed on this opportunity.
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| Franklin posing as a butterfly |
Back on the Gulf side of Key West, we sat on a park bench to rest Ev's aching toes and watched the boats there preparing for the evening's sunset cruises. When we arrived back at the car, we had a decision to make -- pay money for more time or leave downtown Key West and find a restaurant outside of town. Having seen the performances at Mallory Square on prior visits, we opted to leave and dine outside of town at the Hogfish Bar & Grill - a treasure Clark and Ev were introduced to by friends Sandy and Bill.
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| College Student named Kaira Jayde |
After dinner, we decided to walk around to explore the area and see what we could find. We were not disappointed.
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| Boats at dock |
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| Metal Statue made out of ???? |
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| Decorative Alligator |
We found gardens tucked into small spaces near the docks with interesting "objet d'art" hidden all around.
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| Metal Pig |
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| Metal Pony |
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| Conch Shells |
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