On the island of Key West, it is possible to have your picture made beside a giant brightly painted buoy marking the southernmost point of the continental United States, ninety miles from Cuba. Of course, the island is a part of Florida, but you wouldn’t know that from the message on the airport terminal entrance. The sign proclaims, “Welcome to the Conch Republic.” That was my first clue to how unusual this island is.
I have been to Key West twice with my family. The first time was in May 2019. The heat of the first day led me to question my sanity. After that, I acclimated a bit, and the air conditioning won the battle with the heat in our rental. The second time was the week before Christmas of 2021. We were all freshly vaccinated and embarking on our first post-COVID venture. On both occasions, the island offered a combination of fun things to do mixed with relaxation.
The first trip was my first outing in my new home state of Florida after moving during the late summer of 2018. My move from out of state was challenging. It took longer than I would have expected to get settled. Nevertheless, Key West seemed like the perfect low-stress vacation, and it was. If I were writing a travel brochure, I might describe it as tropical, exotic, and quirky. Maybe kinky is a better word. This did not deter hoards of families with youngsters in tow. I assume they weren’t out after dark when the bars of all flavors swung into action.
We went deep-sea fishing and to the Hemingway Home and Museum. The main tourist corridor, Duval Street, was an odd stew of mid-range art galleries, souvenir shops, Margaritaville, bars, and more bars. Oh, and chickens wandering the busiest streets. The sunset at Mallory Square was as beautiful as billed in the ads. Its carnival-like atmosphere was light-hearted, with jugglers on unicycles and steel drum bands. During the week, my kids snorkeled, and we explored the beaches, enjoying the iguanas as they sunned.
Out of all that, it was the fishing and Hemingway that stayed with me.
Water activities aren’t my favorite thing. Nevertheless, I agreed to go deep-sea fishing with the family. There’s a first time for everything. The day was beautiful, the Dramamine worked, and the guide was impressive. Being out in the Atlantic five or so miles from shore was eerie. There were no reference points. No land in sight. The guide had depth finders to locate the old shipwrecks on the ocean floor. Fish like to hang out around the wreckage, creating relatively easy picking. Is it like a neighborhood bar for them? I was the cameraman with my Canon single reflex snapping trophy photos of red snappers, amberjacks, yellowtails, and two beautiful mahi-mahi with beaming kids. They were like children again. One of the mahi-mahi was nearly 40 pounds. The fish was maybe four feet long, gleaming teal blue with a long, tall fin fanned out like a ruffle across the top. An amazing animal. So, what did we do with those fish? We ate them.
After we returned to shore, the staff expertly fileted and bagged most of the fish, packing them in ice. Some were shared with the guide. The dockside restaurant cooked your fresh catch for a small fee. We gave them snapper and mahi. It was heavenly, primarily because of the circumstances, though the food was excellent with a Caribbean flair. There was something about sitting there, anticipating the meal, starving after the six-hour excursion, being out in the sun all day, gently rocking on the ocean. Now we were in the shade with a gentle breeze as the light changed to dusk, and the party lights overhead began to glow. Everyone was in a good mood, my daughters, my daughter’s friend, my brother, and me. We laughed, told fish stories, ate too much, and relaxed. I still picture it, all of us sitting at the round table, six feet from the water, passing family-style dishes with a large platter in the center of the freshest, best-prepared fish I have ever eaten. Everything seemed perfect. It felt full. It felt joyous. The happiness was penetrating in a way it hadn’t for some time. It became a moment to savor and resurrect from time to time.
My other experience with a lasting impact was the Ernest Hemingway home in Key West. It was a prominent Spanish Colonial estate where he completed Farewell to Arms. The Hemingway Home, converted into a museum, was full of artifacts and photos documenting his writing and adventurous lifestyle. My daughters’ primary reason for visiting was to see the six-toed cats. There were 40 to 50 cats inside and out, with caretakers just for the cats. The original six-toed cat, Snow White, was given to Hemingway by a ship’s Captain in the 1930’s. Some of these cats are descendants.
Before our visit, I had read precisely two Hemingway books, The Old Man and the Sea and The Green Hills of Africa. In Key West, I began to sense the connection of this larger-than-life man’s adventures to the soul of his writing. That understanding was bolstered through the museum displays. Inside, a framed picture of a flyer for Max Perkins: Editor of Genius and the subsequent movie bill caught my eye. Max Perkins of Charles Scribner’s Sons served as editor for Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and many others. After returning home, I bought the Max Perkins: Editor of Genius book and next read Everyone Behaves Badly, which was about Hemingway’s time in Paris. Then I was off on an extended Hemingway reading binge.
We took a second Key West trip in late 2021. Going the week before Christmas was a different experience in some ways, yet Key West had the same attractions as it did on the first trip. We only stayed three nights. The most significant difference was the weather. We had a couple of days with a few hours of rain. Though it was still warm during the day, the temperature cooled at night. Light jackets were in order.
On our first night on the island, we headed straight to Sloppy Joe’s to continue my all-things Hemingway binge. We arrived early in the evening. The place was crowded, but we found seats within a few minutes. A good cover band played a mix of rock, ballads, and country songs. The food was basic bar food. I even ordered a drink that was called the Hemingway. The best thing about the evening was looking at some of the memorabilia and picturing Hemingway sitting at the bar or nearby table. The restaurant had moved a block or two from its original site during Hemingway’s time on the island. In 1939, Hemingway left a trunk full of belongings, including photos and writings, at the Sloppy Joe’s location I was sitting in. This was as he was leaving Key West when his second marriage failed. He never returned for them. They stayed at Sloppy Joe’s until 1962, when Mary Hemingway, his last wife, sent them to a family friend, Toby Bruce. It remained unviewed in the Bruce family’s possession until Bruce’s son sold the valuable historical materials to Penn State University in October 2021.[i]
On the second day, we visited the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory to walk among the hundreds of butterflies that sometimes rest on your clothing. The two flamingoes that also live there stole the show. That night we went to the Conch Republic Seafood Company for dinner on the harbor. The seafood and Caribbean cooking were great. The marina had cartoon sea animal Christmas displays--picture a 12-foot tall neon-outlined shrimp. There were a dozen or more of these. The palm trees were full of lights. We were celebrating my daughter’s birthday. The colorful surroundings by the boats in the harbor were a fun setting for the event.
We walked about five miles that night. On the walk back to the rental, we wandered through Old Town Key West as we had on the first trip. The homes in this area of the island are old and stately, with beautiful front porches. The landscaping is old south oaks and magnolias blended with tropical specimens. The route we chose this year included a walk past the surprisingly large Historic Key West City Cemetery with its wrought iron fencing and above-ground vaults. It was established in 1847 after a hurricane destroyed a beach cemetery.
We explored the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden on our last full day in Key West. It was full of trails through the forest with good signage so that you knew what you were looking at. My favorite sights were the Coconut Palms (we don’t have that type of palm in NE Florida) and the “Strangler Figs.” We had seen “Strangler Figs” on our walk the previous night. We also saw iguanas.
The culminating event of our stay was again a deep-sea fishing excursion. It was a good outing with a few things that could have been better. We used the same guide company but left from a different marina. Again, I served as the photographer. We were hot when we started, but as the afternoon progressed, we could see a storm in the distance. After catching fish throughout the afternoon, the guide led us to an area with a school of tuna. You could see them roiling in the water for the bait he threw out. The kids were getting a bite as soon as they dropped their line. Getting the fish out of the water was another thing. The tuna were great fighters. I was tired just from watching, but my family loved it. It got dark a short time before we got back to the dock, the rains came, and the waves were very rough. At the end of the trip, we were hauling it back to the pier, bouncing up and down wildly. We were all hanging on to something to keep our seats. To sum up, I was wet, cold, and stiff. The fun for me was seeing how excited these 30-somethings were. It was like children at Christmas again.
I flew down and back the first time. That was not a good idea. This time I drove with one of my daughters. The drive was a chance to look at parts of the state I had yet to see. We saw the Everglades in the distance. We went to our first Buckee’s. The Florida section of I-95 is an experience on its own. We skirted Miami on the toll roads and avoided that traffic. We saw the Seminoles’ massive Guitar Hotel (part of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino complex) reaching 450 feet up into the sky on I-95 just northwest of Miami. The Overseas Highway from the Keys' north end to Key West is 113 miles long. One of the many bridges is seven miles long. The Gulf is on the West, and the Atlantic is on the East. The views are spectacular. The entire trip from Miami to Northeast Florida is eight to nine hours long. It’s a great way to see the variety in the terrain of the state.
I usually will only vacation travel to places I haven’t been to before. I made an exception for Key West. I will likely go again.
[i] Elder, Robert L., “What Hemingway Left in Sloppy Joe’s Bar 80 Years Ago” The New York Times. Sept 21, 2022.
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