Smoky and Shann's Excellent Adventures: January 8 -- sometimes things just don't work out!

Since we couldn't go on our ferry trip,
Smoky decided to go fishing! (ha, ha)

We set our alarms for 4 a.m. this morning so we would have time to get dressed and on the road to Key West to make the 7 a.m. arrival time for the ferry to the Dry Tortugas. We actually left our apartment at 5:15, just 15 minutes later than we had planned, and we pulled into the parking lot at the ferry terminal right on time.

Just as we started to check in, the captain of the ferry announced to everyone that the seas were very rough this morning. He said that this trip was going to be very difficult even for him. He encouraged us to reschedule or cancel. Smoky talked to him personally and found out the swells were likely going to be between 6 and 10 feet, both going to the Tortugas and returning. He also said that the seas would be too rough (not to mention the chilly weather) for snorkeling. We decided to postpone this trip to a later time.

That left us a whole day in Key West. Smoky's photos do a great job of painting our day.

Breakfast: Oops, no photos of breakfast. We found a coupon in a handout at the ferry terminal for Two Friends Patio Restaurant. The coupon provided free orange juice or key lime pie with an entree. The OJ was fresh squeezed; I wanted that! Smoky picked the key lime pie. My entree consisted of the house special hash browns (which they described this way: "shredded potatoes, cream cheese and cheddar pan fried golden brown with sour cream") topped with smoked salmon, eggs, and wheat toast. Smoky's entry: french toast. Mine was delicious! Two Friends also has a karaoke bar, in case you are interested!

After breakfast, we walked through "Old Town" headed for Ft. Taylor, a sister fort to Ft. Jefferson (located on the Dry Tortugas). On the way, we walked by the Truman White House and saw a number of the facilities (from the outside) used during the Truman administration. Many are privately owned now, but the White House has been used through the years by various Presidents.

Smoky had a great time photographing the bottom level of the fort. I love the colors in the walls, floors, and ceilings, and one can't help but wonder what caused them. Was it simply the activity at the fort during its use, were the walls painted, or has time and moisture caused the variation? I'm not sure we'll ever know. Perhaps a combination of all these and more.

We glanced out of one of the small windows in the lower level and found a flock of blue-winged teal dabbling and feeding in the moat around the back of the fort. Be sure to click the image to see the larger version. These little teals had been startled out of the water and were settling back in when Smoky clicked the shutter.

Reasonably close to the fort is the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, a large facility dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation of the need to protect and conserve the ecosystem of South Florida. Visiting this center is free (one of the few free places we found in Key West!) and very well done. This center is operated by NOAA and National Marine Sanctuaries. One of their many exhibits was a 3-D movie of various scenes around the Keys, including Ft. Jefferson and the underwater world around the Dry Tortugas. At least we had a small taste of what snorkeling there would have been like!

Key West rooster

After this stop, we headed back toward the busy part of Old Town, looking for a place to have lunch. Our cousin Stephanie had commented last week on Facebook that the roosters in Key West insisted on waking everyone very early in the morning. We found a number of those colorful roosters today as they wandered the streets looking for food. The hens seem to stay better hidden; their mates, however, were on every block and still crowing!


These roosters show their colors all around Key West!

Angel statues decorate the top of a crypt in the old cemetery,
Key West

After lunch we walked several blocks over to the historic Key West cemetery, having seen a particular monument in a brochure about the city that piqued our interest. This cemetery was intriguing. It is built on a parcel of high ground (for Key West) -- 12 ft above sea level! The cemetery dates from the mid 1800s up to the present time. It was most interesting to walk through and look at headstones and crypts. Sometimes old cemeteries have a forgotten feel about them, but not this one. Even the oldest graves felt cared for and revered. Each family also fixed up their plot as they wished, for example, surrounding it with fencing, decorating with angel figurines, hanging beads on statues.

Jewish sector of the old Key West cemetery.

The sign out front had explained that early on there had been separate sections for the Catholics, the Jews, veterans, and several other groups. We found the Jewish section just beyond the monument that had interested us so much. I was intrigued by this Jewish section. Each grave had random stones on top of it, and inside the fence was a large urn of stones that appeared to be placed handy for visitors. Just looking at the urn and the graves with their stones, it seemed to me that visitors must have acknowledged their presence by placing a stone on each grave they visited. It was a beautiful, touching scene.

And last, but not least, here is the marker that we thought was so great. This makes me wonder what the rest of the story was.

At the top of the building was another one that I loved. It reminded me of my mom, who used to say the same thing whenever I thought she was taking a nap.

"I'm just resting my eyes."

Life is good! (enlarge to see
fishing pole!)

On the way out of town, we drove by the beach and couldn't resist stopping for a quick walk. By this time it was late afternoon. The light was beautiful. On the beach near the water was a man stretched out in a chair with his hat pulled down over his eyes. In front of him was a fishing pole, set into the sand, with the line extending out into the surf. He seemed to be saying that it didn't really matter whether he caught anything or not; life was good regardless!

We headed for home with less than an hour left before dark, wondering if we could get to Big Pine Key to see the Key deer again. Just as the sun set, we turned into the drive toward the Key deer refuge. That meant we had about 30 minutes of light left. Right after we crossed onto No Name Key, we spotted four deer going down a side street. Driving further down the road, we pulled over when we saw another doe. As soon as we slowed down, she headed toward the car. Smoky got several really nice photos of her and another female before night fell.