Tuesday

January 31, 2017

Today we spent the day with Julie and Dennis Allard.  We drove to the famous Key West Island and enjoyed a wonderful day of sightseeing, eating, drinking and shopping. 

This was a 88 thousand lb steel sail boat that was hauled out, bottom painted and put back in...

Joell, Dennis and Julie at the end of the Marathon Marina dock having a cocktail...

Down in Key West the Hens and Roosters run wild....

The Famous Sloppy Joe"s Bar.....  We all stopped for a sloppy joe and beverage...

This is a Key West famous saloon started in 1933, the day Prohibition was repealed.  The bar went through two name changes and a change of location before it became sloppy Joe's.  Ernest Hemingway suggested the name to owner Joe Russell and it stuck.  Hemingway was a constant customer in his time.  His drink of preference was Scotch.

Another bar/restaurant along the way, see all the dollar bills plastered everywhere....

another restaurant on Duval Street (the main street in the Keys)

Interesting trees down here....

Look at this root system...

We took a tour of the Little White House.  We had a wonderful tour guide.  Did you know Harry Truman changed his suit and tie for a dress code of hawaiian shirts and kaki pants for himself and all his staff in the Keys.  It is said he got more work done here then at the actual White House.  

Very airy on the second floor wrap around porch...

Harry S. Truman "Little White House"

See the Palm trees on the right of the White House?  The gulf waters came up to these trees at one time and this was prime real estate.  Today there is a building that used to house naval officers beyond this point.  It now consists of condos that cost 1.5 million each.  Talk about prime real estate.  😀

another bar...

Key West Light House

The first Key West lighthouse was a 65 foot tower completed in 1825.  It had 15 lamps in 15 inch reflectors.  It was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846.  The above lighthouse was completed in 1848 and was 50 feet tall with 13 lamps in 21 inch reflectors and stood 15 feet above sea level.  Trees began to over grow the lighthouse and in 1894 it was raised twenty feet, placing the light about 100 feet above sea level.  It was decommissioned in 1969.

Colorful Rooster...

Made it to the bottom of the United States...

This marker designates our turnaround point.  We were at the furthest south point of the US and from now on will be heading back home.  Kind of weird.

Dennis and Julie...

We were there too...

One of the oldest homes in Key West...

Got a shirt from here....

Boat Update....

Happy to say that we don't currently have any transmission/engine problem..

Had a couple motor heads stop over and took the boat out for a ride running her through full operations..   sounds good!