We have been anchored out at Key West for several days now. It’s an interesting place. The kids have culture shock. It seems to be a very liberal minded place. What freaked them out the most was the guy they saw that had eyebrows tattooed on –rather large, pirate-like eyebrows. There are a lot of people here that seem to wish they were pirates. There are also lots of establishments with bad words in their names–which isn’t something the kids are used to seeing. Most of their experiences are limited to Victoria, Tx (a fairly conservative, family town), and OKC (the buckle of the Bible belt). John says that Key West attracts so many “interesting” people because it’s the end of the road. He said they keep moving down the road looking for a place to fit in, and they all end up here because there is no more road.
There are lots of VERY cool boats here.
We happened to arrive during an annual race week. There is a huge yacht anchored out here with us. It’s probably 104 ft.–a beautiful sailboat flying a flag from Cayman Islands. John looked it up on the internet. It’s a charter boat that you can charter for a meager $63,000 a week!!! No problem! There are 3 or 4 old, wood schooners that take people on sunset sails. They’re beautiful. We have also seen two really big cruise ships… really big. There are tons of sailboats out where we are anchored.
Yesterday, we walked around and looked at all the sights. There are many beautiful old houses. They’re very picturesque, and the tropical foliage is beautiful. On the way back to the dinghy, we had to pass by several charter boats, some fishing charters. One boat had 4 or 5 barracudas laid out on the dock. We also saw a bunch of pelicans fighting over a really big fish. Eventually, they all lost the battle to a shark! Cool!!
Being the “home” of Ernest Hemingway, I felt compelled to read “The Old Man and the Sea.” Some friends we met in Palacios had given us the movie, so we watched that as well. It made us all think of Papaw because he’s so strong and brave and afraid of nothing. In fact, on our Gulf crossing, I was wishing he was with us to take my watch! So, Namama & Papaw, if you happen to read this, we talk about you both a lot and always with so many wonderful memories and stories and fun times. We are so glad you’re our Mom & Dad/Namsta & Papsta!
We hope to take in some of the museums that are here before we leave. The sailboat race week is over this weekend, so we are kind of waiting for the crowds to leave before we sights-see too much. Plus, we’re hoping the prices for touristy things goes down after they all leave. We have visited the laundromat (interesting), and the little grocery store. It’s neat to watch the people and try to determine who’s a local and who’s a tourist. It’s not that hard. The local females all have big dogs with them. The males, for the most part, look very “artsy” with long hair and beards, or they look like old salty dogs that have been on a boat way too long.
The tourists look lost, or they are in rental “cars,” bikes or scooters. There seem to be lots of French tourists here. Not sure if they’re here for the race week or what. This race seems to be a really big deal. We’re clueless.
I will post more when we have more interesting things to report.
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