A Trip South/Key West

Right after Christmas, Caty and I took a short trip to south Florida to add one more national park – Dry Tortugas – to my roster and three to hers – Dry Tortugas, Biscayne and Everglades plus the bonus of Big Cypress National Preserve.

Close-up of My National Park Map

The trip was a great opportunity to enjoy some warm (well, actually hot because Florida was experiencing unseasonable high 80’s) weather instead of the unseasonable cold we were having in Colorado (9 degrees when we flew out). It was also a good chance to add some animal pictures to the album I am building of every animal I have ever photographed. 

American Alligator at Big Cypress National Preserve

I had hoped to see more migratory birds, but Florida’s weird weather this year (9 inches of rain during the normally dry season) had run many of them off. Still, we did get some better bird shots than I got on my last trip to the Everglades and Big Cypress in May 2014.

Purple Gallinule at Everglades National Park

We did a little zigzagging back and forth, so I am going to cover the trip in semi-chronological order by location rather than minute-by-minute commentary. So, although we spent a little time in Biscayne before heading south, I will start with Key West.

Key West sunset

We had arrived at 4:30 a.m. and actually began our trek down to Key West in the late morning. We were heading there not so much to visit the town, but rather as a jumping off point for our trip to Dry Tortugas the next day. Quite frankly, I find it a little too touristy to be a real destination.

When we booked the trip, we purchased airfare before we started looking at accommodations. ACK! I forgot that the week after Christmas can be very expensive and very sold out! It took lots of Internet searching until we found a (somewhat) affordable room at the Grand Guesthouse in Key West. We had to rearrange our schedule to do Dry Tortugas first because nothing was available on New Year’s Eve. The Grand is an old house with small rooms with baths. We had to share a double bed and we found out when we arrived that they were making us switch rooms between night one and night two (they moved the bags for us so we didn’t have to completely repack). It was nice and somewhat convenient, but we really should have looked at the big financial picture before we planned.

Grand Guesthouse; Photo: Booking.com

It turned out to be a good thing that we rearranged because it was crowded and crazy enough while we were there – I don’t think I would have liked New Year’s Eve.

Key West, the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys, a 120-mile coral archipelago that reaches from the eastern tip of Florida's mainland to the east, separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Map: Findrentals.com

Key West itself is is 4 miles long and 1 mile wide, with a total landmass of 4.2 square miles. Duval Street, its famous main street, is a mere 1.1 miles long in its 14-block crossing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. In the late 1950s, many of the large salt ponds on the eastern side were filled in, nearly doubling the original size of the island.

Aerial view; Photo: imagesoftheearth.com

In Pre-Columbian times, the Calusa people inhabited Key West. The first European to visit was Ponce de León in 1521. As Florida became a Spanish territory, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established there. The original Spanish name, Cayo Hueso, means "bone cay (a low island or reef)" because the isle had been used a communal graveyard.

In 1763, when Great Britain took control of Florida, the Spaniards and Native Americans were moved to Cuba. Florida returned to Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement. Informally British and Cuban – and later American – fishermen used the island. In 1815, the Spanish governor of Cuba deeded Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, an officer of the Royal Spanish Navy Artillery posted in Saint Augustine. After Florida was transferred to the United States in 1821, Salas sold Key West twice – to a former governor of South Carolina for a sloop valued at $575 and then to a U.S. businessman John Simonton for $2,000. Simonton, who had bought the island for its deep harbor and strategic location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, gained clear title to the island with the aid of influential friends in Washington. In 1822, the Keys became the property of the United States.

Historic Key West

During the Civil War, even though Florida joined the Confederacy and most locals were sympathetic to the South, Key West remained in Union because of its naval base. Fort Zachary Taylor, constructed from 1845 to 1866, was an important Union outpost.

Fort Zachary Taylor; Photo: Florida State Parks

During the Ten Years' War (an unsuccessful Cuban war for independence in the 1860s and 1870s), many Cubans sought refuge in Key West and, by 1889, Key West was the largest and wealthiest city in Florida. The USS Maine sailed from Key West to Havana, where it blew up and sank in Havana Harbor, igniting the Spanish-American War. Pan American Airlines was founded in Key West, originally to fly visitors to Havana, in 1926. Prior to the Cuban revolution of 1959, there were regular ferry and airplane services between Key West and Havana.

Another Key West sunset shot

Anyway, the trip down was slow, but pretty. We didn’t stop for pictures (figuring we could grab some on the way back), but enjoyed the gorgeous turquoise water and blue sky. We arrived – starving – at about 2:00 p.m. and immediately asked for a lunch recommendation. The clerk told us to go to “Elsie Bonay” just around the corner. Turns out it was El Siboney and it was a fantastic Cuban restaurant. We split ropa vieja (“old clothes”), which is a stewed shredded beef, and plantanos. 

A delicious dinner

We were still in our traveling clothes, so we headed back to the Grand after lunch with a slice of key lime pie and a flan for later. We showered, changed and headed out to see the sights. We walked through town (very crowded and a constant threat of being run over by bicyclists) to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. Our walk took us past Fort Zachary Taylor, the Key West Lighthouse, the Ernest Hemingway House, where the writer lived from 1931 to 1939, and the Harry S. Truman Little White House, where the president spent 175 days of his time in office. 

Key West Lighthouse, built in 1847

We didn’t tour any because it was late in the day and most were closed or closing.

While pretty, it was also brutally hot and humid. So hot, the only thing to remind us that it was winter was some scattered Christmas decorations.

Merry Christmas!

The sunset celebration is crowded and looks like a great opportunity for pickpockets. There was a very weird “cat juggling” show featuring some of the most unhappy-looking cats I have ever seen and lots of open-air bars. We stayed just until the sun dropped below the horizon.

Another Key West sunset shot

We slogged back to the hotel, exhausted from no sleep for over 24 hours, to enjoy the desserts we had left in the fridge. We were disappointed that El Siboney’s key lime pie had meringue (key lime pie is supposed to have whipped cream or no topping), but the pie was yummy and the flan was good. We then crashed so that we could get up early the next day for our trip to Dry Tortugas.

I will cover Dry Tortugas in my next post, but I will close out Key West in this one.

A lovely dinner

The second night we had a lovely dinner at Café Sole, which features an outside patio and French Caribbean food. I had stone crab claws (small, but delicious) and Caty had a steak.

Then, we grabbed some Cuban sandwiches to go at Sandy’s, a walk-up stand across the street from the restaurant. While they were good, they were not great. I just don’t think anyone can get Cuban sandwiches right except restaurants in the Tampa area. It’s the bread. It’s gotta be somewhat crunchy/chewy on the exterior and soft of the inside. Most places outside Tampa have bread more like hoagie rolls. 

We asked Sandy’s about key lime pie, but theirs had meringue too (WTF?)*. So after we dropped the sandwiches at our room, we grabbed the car and I dropped Caty off at Kermit’s Key West Lime Shoppe on Duval Street and circled the block while she bought a slice. Kermit’s was good and authentic, but I think mine is just as good. 

My key lime pie

The crowds made me glad we hadn’t tried to eat anywhere on Duval. And, by the way, key limes originally acme from Spain and are not grown in the Keys anymore after being wiped out by hurricanes.

Pretty sky (yeah, yeah, sunset!)

*It turns out that meringue is actually authentic. Who knew?

Trip date: December 27, 2015-January 3, 2016