Key West

Well, our southernmost destination, of course, was accomplished on Saturday with our arrival at Key West.

We were told that when we found a parking space, to just plan on just staying there because you may not be able to find another one, so that's what we did. We found a place on Truman Street and took off on our bikes and headed down Duval Street and to Fort Zachery Taylor State Park.

There just happened to be some civil war reenactors there and a celebration of civil war heritage days. People had set up tents in the middle of the fort and had all kinds of info for anyone lucky enough to be there to listen.

We also had a nice view of the ocean and surroundings.

That big tall condo looking thing behind and to the right of the flag ^ is actually this:

No trip to The Keys would be complete without a visit to see Earnest Hemingway's house:

And a trip down Duval Street:

We saw where Hemingway supposed to have hung out, Sloppy Joe's.

Now this was kind of fun, because when we told Anthony's brother, Ricky, where we were going, he said we needed to call him so he and Pam could try to see us on the web camera that is in front of Sloppy Joe's, so we did, and here we are. They were able to take a picture of their computer screen and text it to us. Ricky and Pam were our remote tour guides while we were here because they had recently visited.

And as we were strolling through Mallory Square they were able to see us there also, only we didn't know there were cameras there until we got this text: (and the big bird was a bird you could put on your shoulder and get a picture of it, that was where the webcam was set up in front of Sloppy Joe's.) 

But we were able to see a really nice sunset at Mallory Square, but it was difficult to get a shot with everyone gathered for the sunset and street performers. 

We also saw Jimmy Buffet's restaurant, but chose to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. I know, a chain restaurant, but we ate there anyway.

We decided to just stay and sleep where we were parked but had lots of traffic noise on that busy street.  We woke up about 6:15 and headed out to the southernmost point in the continental USA.

And also got to see this.

We about had the streets to ourselves Sunday morning, so we took advantage and rode around some more. One of the things that is unique about here that I don't think I have seen anywhere else are the roosters and few chickens roaming around town. And amazingly enough, didn't see any of them squished in the road. We were told we needed to follow the chickens for the free eggs, but then someone said they probably roost in trees, so we decided not to do that.

Gives a whole new meaning to free range when they are pecking around the street, people's front porches and in the CVS parking lot, ha!!

Other pics I took that I thought were interesting were:

We also stopped by the Key Deer Wildlife Refuge to see the Key Deer.

But wouldn't you know it?  We didn't see any. Just our luck.

We liked Naples so much that we decided to head back for a few days and hopefully explore more of the area before heading east to the coast and then head north.