Good Sailing
After a week in Punta Gorda, we headed south for warmer weather. It was cold at night and very cold out to sea and we want warmth. We got underway at about 5am. I say “we”, but once the anchor was up Grete went back to bed and the kids didn’t wake up until well after sunrise.
Right outside Charlotte Harbor, there was a crazy confluence of waves that made it a bit of a rodeo ride for 30 minutes or so. Fira and Grete made it through alright, but Dublin had to have a special moment with the puke bucket.
After that though, we had decent wind for well over half of our journey and clear skies. It was cold all the way down but once the sun came up in Key West it started getting warm and we haven’t really been cold since :)
Key West Tourism
We did quite a bit of walking, as we always do. We visited the West Martello Tower and Key West Garden Club. It’s a super cool spot with lots of orchids and other exotic plants that grow quite easily down here. It’s also a great spot for anyone traveling on the cheap since it is by donation only so you can pay what you can afford – a very rare feature in this, rather pricey, town.
Another spot we hit that we didn’t go to last time through was the Ernest Hemingway House. It is the #1 tourist attraction in the city. The guided tour was very informative and made me wish, for the 100th time, that I was a fan of his writing. Maybe when I’m older or something, who knows.
I think the real reason that we went is because Grete wanted to see the polydactyl cats. There are 57 of them on the property and they are federally protected. There paws are very strange indeed.
One repeat spot we went to was the Key West Cemetery. We went on our last trip but after about 5 minutes Dublin had a major meltdown and we had to go back to the boat. This time we made it to over 30 of the 60 gravestones from the self guided tour map. Here is a picture of Fira at the stone of “Shine” Forbes, a sparring partner of Ernest Hengway’s.
The Key West Aquarium is really, really small and more than a bit overpriced. We went though and the staff were amazing. We were just about the only people there and they did their presentations (one of which was just to us) as though the world were listening. They also spent 1 on 1 time with both of our kids at the touch tank explaining everything. Quality over quantity every time. We got to feed some Nurse sharks, although Grete didn’t want to, here’s Dublin.
We had our first swim of this trip and boy was the water cold. Grete got in a nice aqua jog around the boat and we all had a pretty good time.
Other things we did were go to the farmer’s market, the library, the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, and tons of tiny little neighborhoods all over town.
It was a great visit with perfect weather all week and now it’s time for us to head north to Miami to prepare for the crossing to the Bahamas.