Tuesday Travel: Key West

Imagine driving down US highway 1 from Miami, Florida.  The breeze is sweet and moist, the ocean stretches on forever, and Jimmy Buffet is playing on the radio.  The highway snakes over water, then island, then water and repeats for a couple of magical hours.  It ends when you see a marker of the southern most point in the continental USA.  You are in Key West, Florida.

I love Key West and outside of Cannon Beach, Oregon, and San Diego, California, it's my favorite coastal place or island that I have been to in the lower 48 states.  I have been there three times and would not hesitate to go back.  Talk about an eclectic and storied past and present.  It is the place legends are made of.

In Pre-Columbian times, the island was inhabited by the Calusa people.  The first Europeans to visit the island were the Spanish led by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1521.  It was named Cayo Hueso which translated, means "bone key".  It is said that the island was littered with the bones from a Native American battlefield or burial ground.  The name Hueso was pronounced "weso" so Cayo Hueso became Key West.

If I were to detail the entire history of exchanges, sales and deeds of the island, it would take the whole article.  So in short, the timeline went Spanish, English, Spanish, Private trades, sales and deeds, and finally American.  The initial intent of the American settlements was for military purposes because it is a deep port and well placed to keep an eye on ship traffic.  In fact, Key West is closer to Cuba than it is to Miami.  It's location is also ideal for treasure salvaging of the many ship wrecks in the area.  Area homes there contain the beautiful, expensive booty recovered from the ships.  (If you need to, pull your minds out of the gutter on that visual.)

While all this was being worked out over 150 yrs or so, settlers moved in.  It was used by pirates, Spanish from Havanna, British Loyalists during the American Revolution, and immigrants from the Bahamas.  So imagine mashing South Carolina charm, Cuban fire, and Bahamian flare together, and that's the closest I can come to describing the look and feel of Key West.

The island was called the Winter Whitehouse.  President Harry Truman said, "I've a notion to move the capital to Key West and just stay."  The island was also a favorite with Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams.  If you take a history tour, you can see the rich architectural past and buildings of note in history.  It is worth the trip around to look at it.

The locals are called Conchs (conks) after the name of the Bahamian settlers.  If you have lived there for more than 7 years but weren't born there you are a "fresh water Conch".  A conch is a sea snail so to speak and are fairly common throughout the Caribbean.  The shells are beautiful to collect.

If you go to Key West and don't eat a conch fritter, you are missing out.  The other must try is something with key lime in it.  A key lime is smaller, seedier and packs a unique flavor compared to other limes.  Think key lime pie, but don't forget key lime sorbet, ice cream, floats etc.  It is good stuff.  Visit the original Margaritaville and you will have made the famous food loop.

As far as things to do, they are limitless.  Of course hit the beach and veg.  Then take your pick of shallow water or deep water fishing.  My son and his dad went bone fishing and had a great day.  There is also dolphin watching, snorkeling and of course my favorite, scuba diving.  Rent the jet skis, go on the glass bottom boat, ride the parasail and if you are bored, that's your own fault.  The street food vendors and diversity of shops are fun even for a non shopper like me.


I'll tell you my funny favorite thing I've done there.  While the fishing trip was going on, I took all of my daughters who were 16, 14, 5, and 2 at the time on a separate tour.  We went and looked at all of the historical sites and had so much fun at the aquarium.  The highlights for us were a touch pool and a nurse shark feeding demonstration.  I had never seen that before and have a healthier respect for the nurse shark now.

The icing on the cake was the Butterfly Farm.  The peaceful, graceful, colorful butterflies and moths are kept in an enclosure that was probably 3000 sq. ft. or so and tall.  Visitors walk through the semi natural setting as winged beauties fly around and land on the unsuspecting.  You would have thought my older daughters were petting grizzly bears!  They screamed, cowered and clung to each other the whole way through the exhibit.  I disowned them about halfway into it.  My advice?  The danger of the butterflies is worth the risk you take entering their domain.

As always, I can't even scratch the surface, but can simply say, go visit because you will only be another year older when you do.  Oh ya, watch the sunset at Mallory Square and complete your perfect Key West experience.