Florida Keys {Day 5 continued: Key West}

When we left the Hemingway House, we boarded the trolley to head to the next stop. We saw the top of the lighthouse but unfortunately didn't get to see the rest of it.

We rode past the Key West cemetery, which was moved to the highest spot on the island after a 1846 hurricane..."uprooted" some graves at its previous location.

This was a trolley like the one we rode on.

We ate lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company Restaurant. I got fish and chips, and those were pretty much the best french fries I've ever had. I don't know what was so special about them, but they were good.

Next we stopped by the former Customs House, which is now the Key West Museum of Art and History. It's a really lovely old building.

I just loved this huge statue in front of the museum, which is taken from Renoir's painting Dance in the Country. It was so beautiful!

They were renovating part of the museum so we didn't get to see all of it. But I loved this exhibit. It was full of paintings where the people in them were 3D statues, so you could pose in the art!

{Sorry for any fuzzy pictures- I had the flash off.}

I found this nice young man, but the other lady kept tagging along, too.

Before:

And after.

When taking this photo, I honestly thought that my brother had only added the sunglasses. Then he took the man's hat off, and I was like, oh. :)

Cool exhibit showing how the original railroad bridge was built.

Beautiful clothing from the time period of the Overseas Railroad.

Part of the train's breakfast menu.

Have I mentioned that I really loved this statue?

There were lots of other tourists there, because a couple of cruise ships had pulled in that morning.

This is Sloppy Joe's Bar, where Ernest Hemingway apparently spent a lot of time.

The prettier side of it.

As you walk down Duval Street, one of the main streets in the Keys, things are really noisy and crowded. Every bar you walk past (and there are lots of them) has the door open and you can hear different music coming from each one, whether from the radio or live.

Then you can turn off onto another street and walk a few steps, and all of a sudden everything is quiet and peaceful.

The oldest house in southern Florida:

There are lots of pretty churches in the Keys.

And finally, the Southernmost Point of the Continental US. We couldn't get a picture in front of the marker because there were about thirty cruise ship people waiting in line.

But at this point, you are only 90 miles to Cuba. You're closer to Cuba than you are to Miami, Florida. Pretty cool, huh?

So that's it for Key West. We had a much better visit in Key West this trip than we did last time. On our last trip, I had some sort of stomach bug that day and remember walking down the street feeling like I was going to get sick at any moment (too much info, sorry). We wandered around, not really seeing anything. This trip, we got to see pretty much all of the town, on foot and by trolley, and visit some lovely museums. It was a lot of fun!

Only one more Florida vacation post left, unless I have to split the last day into two posts, because there are tons of pictures. {These posts haven't been getting any comments, so I guess I'm the only one who is enjoying them. But that's okay, because this is my blog and I like talking about our trip. :) Back to our normally scheduled programming soon, I promise.}

Coming up: Days 6 and 7, Historic Pigeon Key and Coming Home.

Past posts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Days 4 & 5 (Part 1).

Until next time,