Key West and the Florida Keys                                             Back
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   I started going to the Fla. Keys in 1962 shortly after I started diving. I was young and had dreams. I couldn't help but find Spanish treasure after all more then half of all the gold & silver taken out of the new world was lost to the sea & most of that off southern Florida.
   The only treasure I ever found was the beauty of that lonely stretch of islands, for at that time it was still lonely. The world hadn't found the keys yet, diving was just becoming a sport.
   On this trip I was going to show the girls and Mary Beth my little piece of Heaven. I'd been coming here for almost forty years and knew these islands like the back of my hand. Ha! It had been almost 6 years since I'd last been to Key West and from the time we left our room till the time we finally hit Miami on our way home I might have seen a dozen or so things that looked familiar. I never realized that things could change that fast.
   We had stayed overnight at the Chesapeake Resort on Islamorada. A place that had been a little fishing/diving camp with a few rooms and a small dock. It had turned into fairly large, upper level resort.
   I woke to the moaning of the girls, "Butch, it's pouring. We might as well go back, I don't feel like walking around Key West in the rain." but I'd been there, done that. So after a short time I convinced everybody, including myself, that 80 miles to the south it wasn't, at this time or would it be anytime that day, raining. Why the sun was shinning bright and we were wasting time even discussing the weather. I ended up being right, by the time we reached long key the clouds had virtually disappeared & it turned out to be a gorgeous day.
   Our first stop was at National Key Deer Refuge, I intended to show the girls Florida Key Deer. They had seen Whitetails but I thought they would fall in love with the tiny Key Deer. Well we had a nice walk anyway. No we didn't 
see any deer. We did see some birds they hadn't seen before, an alligator and a lot of flora, just no deer. So on to Key West.

   Once in Key West we stopped at the Hemmingway House for the tour. The girls were More impressed with all the cats. I think they found every single one. The cats didn't seem to mind, after all a hug is a hug. After giving the cats some love, we went to Sloppy Joe's for a little a bite to eat & a drink or two, or was it three? The girls of course had Shirley Temples. Sloppy Joe's is the famous hangout of Ernest Hemingway 
        Enjoying Shirley Temples. & although it has changed over the years              Butch, where are the Deer?
since his death those changes haven't been large & it is still a great place to relax when the heat of Key West starts to get to you.
   We left Joe's and headed to the southern most point in the Continental U. S., where we ran into one of the regulars who was taking everybody's camera and for a buck taking their photo's. Not really a bad deal, how else (Unless you carry a tripod & have a camera with a timed shutter release.) can you get into your own photo. I didn't bother, this was the girls vacation, but I gave him a dollar anyway just for using "His" spot. Afterwards I realized just how much he was making. Figure 25 to thirty photo's an hour tax free, on a good day. Another guy was dressed in white with white theatrical makeup on his face & hands and was just being a living statue. Not a mime, just a statue. He would change positions every once in awhile & every once in awhile he'd pick up the pile of coins & yes sometimes bills that people had dropped by his feet, at least in Bali the hawker's gave you something in return for your money.
   We did the lighthouse, the shell shop, went to Sunset Pier and headed back to Orlando It had been a great day even if it had started out raining.  .
Some other Photo's I took in the Keys. Here  The San Jose