1-13-07 Key West

We checked out Key West today. It’s about 1 and 1/2 hours from Marathon. First you drive over the Seven Mile bridge where Arnold Schwarzenegger saves Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. It’s absolutely beautiful. The old train bridge that was built to bring tourists (before the road) is still there and people use it to fish. We walked part of it yesterday. There are bridges between each key…restaurants, marinas, tee shirt shops, snorkel and dive shops, RV parks, hotels, and fishing charters all the way. It’s actually a fun drive. Key West itself was one tee shirt shop after another with restaurants in between. Tourists everywhere. I liked our stop at Ernest Hemmingway’s house the best. He’s not one of my favorite authors but evidently Hank’s dad is a fan. Hemmingway led quite a life—a bit sordid. Lived in Key West for about 10 years with his second of 4 wives. Sounds like he put in a lot of bar time getting characters and stories for his books. Lots of 6 toed cats running around the grounds…I gather he raised hundreds of them and these were direct descendants.