Tuesday, August 28, 2018

8/28/2018 Stop #21 Bahia Honda St Park: Key West

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 
Tim and Linda Bunyan


IN THE KEYS: We have come from Marathon, Florida, in tiny Curry Hammock State Park to full-service Bahia Honda State Park located on Big Pine Key.  We are going to leave the RV here and drive down 29 miles to the Southernmost of the Keys: Key West!








A heavy equipment crew is moving rocks to shore up along the East side beach as the effects of 
Hurricane Irma 
are still in the process of repair. 
"Looking Out Our Back Door" 
  Just down the street is our waterfront view to the West.

There is our campsite in the background.....waterfront beach playground!
The railway is constructed over with the Old Highway !!  Pedestrian walk now. 

View from our campsite beach of the Old Highway built on top of the railway bridge which originally was Flagler's railway! 














The marina and docks and cafe at Bahia Honda State Park.  Tour boat not running while we were here as the wind force of 28 mph was too strong for a snorkel adventure.


We are driving to Key West on the overseas highway!!!  Flagler's railway remains and is being refurbished for pedestrian use.  The old highway was paved right over the railway! 
Arrive Key West NEW Hwy 1

Stories of old pirates:  This house belonged to a wealthy wrecker Francis Watlington.  He routinely searched the seas for ships that had foundered.  He was rewarded for his efforts as he rescued crew, passengers and cargo. 

Key West Shop

Key West, in the 70's, is the best-kept secret.  Only 2 ways in or out of Key West was by the car traveling the old US 1 highway with its notorious, narrow seven-mile bridge; and the other was Air Sunshine the only airline to service Key West  This place is a reminder of the days of 'old'.  The Last Flight Out.

 Bahama Village, local's neighborhood in Key West

Strolling 'the hood'.
Entrance to The Little White House, Presidential Museum as Harry Trueman visited Key West a dozen times during his presidency.
Entrance to the neighborhood.







Built in 1890 as Navy Quarters and used as a meeting place by Eisenhower and Kennedy.  

President Harry Truman used it as a vacation home.  


Houses across the street; registered as historic sites.














Key West architecture. 


















The U.S. Weather Bureau Station; now a Bed and Breakfast.

Harbor Walk, discovered Shrimp Boat Sound, Jimmy Buffett's recording studio. GS had just recorded here last week.  Appropriate to locate a jet ski dock at the waterfront.

Shrimp Boat Sound Recording Studio - Key West 

Harbor Walk is much as Fisherman's Wharf-SF. 
One of the first restaurants established, (Alonzo's) and remains, on the Wharf at Mallory Square. 
Mallory Square.  In the background is Margaritaville Resort and Marina. 




Margaritaville Resort - Classic!
The only sign of Buffett is the lounge chairs on the patios. 
Monumental civic building from 1891 restored as a museum for the Key West Art & Historical Society.
Art Sculpture on the patio of the Art Museum

Cuban American Key West artist Mario Sanchez, folk art.  This iconic image of a wood-carved, artpiece of a cigar factory now hangs in the Smithsonian American Airt Museum.  

The museum held artifacts of Ernest Hemmingway.  His typewriter and boxing gloves.  
A replica of Ernest Hemmingway's 36' fishing boat, the Pilar, It was acquired in 1934 from Wheeler Shipbuilding in Brooklyn, New York.

Ernest the writer: One of the books he wrote while in Key West: "To Have And Have Not" 

I am 'on my '6' toes'!

Ernest's writing studio.

Ernest Hemmingway's house; cats remain with many an oddity of the polydactyl cat.


 


 

Time for a cup of Cabano!

Cuban Latitute/Attitude sidewalk scene of Hard Rock-Key West.

Pepe's on Caroline Street, oldest eating place in Key West.

Since 1909:  artist rendering of Pepe's.
  Inside, on the walls, other visitors to Pepe's: Buffett and Blues Brothers here.

Bob Dylan was here. 

Tim Bunyan was here !!! 

The check is delivered on this 'mouse trap' tray !! 

Front of rustic joint: Pepe's, serving since 1909 

These sidewalk bar stools decorated with colorful toule skirting, in so many ways, are just so.......cute! 














Chickens ARE allowed on the streets
 of Key West!


In 1915 this was the largest Banyan Tree in the US.

Streets of Key West the Shotgun style house. 

NEXT DAY: 
Lunch at iconic landmark for Floridian-Caribbean cuisine with a funky setting.
BLUE HEAVEN

 

$1.00 Showers; $2.00 to watch. 
We had a kitty-cat lunch guest.  I gave him one of my shrimp and he went away happy to go for a nap! 

Wyland's Whaling Wall Mural in Key West.  We stopped for more at his flagship gallery in Key West.

Flagler's museum; his 1912 dream comes true, Florida East Coast Railroad; over a million visitors per year come to Key West!

The Southernmost Point of Highway 1.  The U.S. Route 1 (the Overseas Highway) from Miami to Key West was completed in 1938.



NIght time Pub Crawl....we got very educated on a Pub Crawl Tour going to 5 different pubs in Key West.  This one is a daquiri bar.....each flavor dispensed (made with real fresh fruit) and topped with choice of alcohol as a topper!!  Tim had a dreamcicle and I had a mudslide.  Other stops at Hard Rock, a nice hurricane with ample shots of rum, Harry's Bar and Rick's Bar (the same owner, named neither), and a final at wharf: Schooners with nice live music.
Here is The Group at the end of the Pub Crawl.....we were a group by the end...
...... Bride Tribe et al. !!! 


Another Day:
Casa Marina Waterfront resort with a private beach.

The front entrance to my favorite site: Casa Marina Resort 
Casa Marina Key West, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, this is where the Parrothead Annual 'Meeting of the Minds' Conference is held. 

Southernmost Point of the Continental US
Southernmost kitty

The Southernmost Point Buoy is an anchored concrete buoy in Key West marking the southernmost point in the continental United States, the lowest latitude land of contiguous North American States.  It is 18' above sea level.  The actual "southernmost point" (the private Ballast Key) is a few blocks to the south.


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