Part 13: Homestead to Key West, FL

20100507-10

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The Trip

We very much enjoyed our time in the Everglades and from there to Homestead.  At Homestead, we spent the night at an RV park.  Next morning, we headed out the causeway to Key West.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.


We stayed at a Florida state park and again we got the last site available.  A miss is as good as a mile!  The temperatures were not as hot as the night before and the park sprayed for bugs, so things were nice.  The beach there was super, although the water side was somewhat mucky and shallow.

The sand was clean.  The ranger told me that the entire beach was transplanted as part of the state park build-out.  He claimed that the beach cost $1M and all the sand was trucked from the middle of the state.

Our camp site was right across from the beach.  The mog camper looks pretty hillbilly in the face of some of the rigs in the camp.

Our path took us over the 7 mile bridge.

There were many small islands near the causeway.  Many of the islands had nice beaches and having a boat is the only way to access them.

The old bridge was next to the current causeway.  The bridge was breached to prevent folks from going onto the crumbling parts of the bridge.

When we got to Key West, we stayed in an RV park for the first night.  After we checked in, we decided to cruise main with the mog.  There were many restaurants along Duval street.  We stayed one night in the RV park and Kathleen found a bed and breakfast that had room, so we moved.

Duval street has everything a tourist needs including the Conch Train to carry you around town.

My little Leica camera with a 28mm lens was not up to the task of getting a closeup of this girl's colorful and intricate tattoo.  Oh well.

It was hot, so we decided to stop along the beach for some refreshments.  The water looked great against the brewing storm in the distance.

On our drive, saw plenty of beaches and beach goers.

The beach restaurant had some nice cuisine.

The classic view of the beach.  That night, we ate at a local 4 star restaurant, but neither Kathleen nor I thought it was super.  Good, but not super.

Next day, we did a ride-about on the bikes.  Above is a shot of one of the ferries that service the marina.

The marina area was nice and clean.

There were some nice boats in the marina.

We found a nice restaurant at the marina and had oysters and a lobster BLT.  Awesome.

The restaurant had seating over the water, so we got to feed the fish.  The water would boil with activity when we dropped food.

Bikes were the preferred mode of transportation on Key West.

We saw this residential island from the boardwalk.  I am sure that the homes are very expensive.

We stopped at several bars along the way.

One of the historic homes on the island.

Mile 0 of US Highway 1.

The civil war fort at the south end of the island was interesting, but in very poor repair.  However, the beach next to the fort was perfect.

Both because of the heat and the scenery, we felt like we were in the tropics.  Almost, but not quite.  We are about 1.5 degrees north of the Tropic of Capricorn.

We had to get a photo next to the southernmost marker.

Do I look unhappy?  I am frowning because we are baking like biscuits.  It was hot and sunny.

The home next to the southernmost monument was big and nice, but they had to suffer many intruders on their property, thus the high perimeter wall.

Key West is nice and we had fun during our visit.  I don't think that living there would be a good thing, but I would be willing to try it and then pass judgment on the concept.  Our plan is to leave the bed and breakfast and head north back along Highway 1 toward the mainland.


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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2010, all rights reserved.
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