Last night we had a great meal at the hotel restaurant called “Sol”. One of our friends, Michael (yes, it seems like almost all of my friends are named Michael which makes remembering their names easier) heard we were coming to the Keys and had some recommendations. Michael is from Chicago and as a kid his family would often vacation in the Keys. He said we had to have “Conch” (pronounced “conk” by locals). Last night we saw it on the menu as an appetizer. We gave it a try and were not disappointed. See below.
The main courses were also delicious. See below.
After dinner we did some reading and then it was off to bed. We were exhausted. We had a very restful night most likely due to our absurdly early departure yesterday. As we were leaving for breakfast this morning we encountered the housekeeping person entering our room. We had a couple of requests and she didn’t understand so she asked us “In Spanish?”. I thought this was a bit odd because her nametag said she was from Haiti. Don’t they speak French there? Anyway we tried our best to use our Spanish to get our requests understood. With that accomplished Patrice said goodbye in her best Spanish saying, “Vamos a desayunar” (We are going to breakfast). She didn’t seem to understand so I repeated it thinking maybe Patrice spoke too fast. The housekeeper looked at us and said, “In Spanish?”. So much for our many hours of practice on Duolingo.
After a quick breakfast we set out to explore the island. We drove 95 miles south to Key West. Unfortunately I think we did not prepare well for this trip. An air flight from Miami would have been a much better decision. The drive was on the single lane State Highway #1 with traffic limiting our speed from 55 to as slow as 8 mph. It was a difficult drive and not worth the effort.
Key West is an interesting town with lots of bars and restaurants. There are some tourist attractions and bars. And did I mention there are some bars? We decided to visit Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home. Seeing the house was of modest interest. They had a number of pictures and information on the walls that was much more appealing to me. I did find one thing very interesting. They had numerous signs cautioning guests not to sit on or even touch any of the furniture. See below.
We were told that 59 cats live on the property and all are descendants of Hemingways original cats. Apparently staying off the furniture doesn’t apply to them. See below
After Hemingway’s house we were off to see Harry Truman’s Key West White House. It was a short walk from the Hemingway location. I was unaware of Truman’s remote White House. I certainly knew about FDR going to the Maryland retreat that Dwight Eisenhower christened Camp David (after his grandson, David Eisenhower) but I never knew about Truman’s love of Key West.
After paying tribute to Harry S. it was off to dinner and back to the hotel. More about dinner later. I need to get some sleep. Today was exhausting.
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 