Day Three - Key West

We have never been to Key West and Monday that is where we went. I would honestly move there if I could afford it. The homes are gorgeous but a fixer upper with no paint will cost you around $3 million. One reason they don't paint is because there is a tax loophole there where painting is the last thing you do so if you don't paint, you don't pay property taxes cause your house isn't finished.

We saw the Hemingway House with the six-toed cats, the southern most point in America, a Key West sunset and took a tour of the city. Duvall Street alone has 300 bars on it and that was neat. We had key lime pie and a key lime float and watched the sunset at the marina where there are street performers.

We learned that most of the trees are from other countries and how Key West was so rich because ships crashed at the rate of 2-3 per month back many years ago and once you salvaged it the stuff was yours so people would wait till one sank and go get all the stuff from it. We also learned that on this one street the houses are so close and must have tin roofs so if there is a fire it won't jump from house to house.

The people are very casual and in full party mode but not too friendly to be honest. However, that was not a big deal since we had such a good time there. It's actually cooler there than Miami due to the trade winds, which we had plenty off. It made the temperatures a pleasant 70 - 75 or so degrees. Oh and Key West seceded from the United States in 1982. Here's a link about that. It is also the only city in the USA that has never had frost. On a side note, Key West is closer to Cuba than to Miami.

I can't wait to go back there sometime and have more time to visit. We had quite a few hours but coming from a foreign port to the US, we had to go through Immigration before disembarking and that took a while. Then we had to take a shuttle from the port, through the military area and into the city.