Friday, February 10 - "Stuck" in Key West

Friday, February 10 - "Stuck" in Key West

We had planned to head east today, but the weather last night had warned of high winds, and sure enough, the wind was high when we got up.  Oh, well, guess we will have to spend another day in Key West.  Darn.

Rather than my normal witty narrative, I will post pictures with captions.  Hope you enjoy the tour.

How about this retro Denny's?

Bars and drinks were EVERYWHERE!  In front of houses, in alleys, on the street.

Yes, we are fascinated by banyan trees.

We passed a sign for Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, so decided to take it in.

The group tour started at 11:00, so we walked around for 45 minutes while we waited.  I thought we had toured pretty thoroughly already, but I'm SO glad we stayed.  The guide was probably the best guide I have heard anywhere!  He was entertaining, knowledgeable, personable, cute - everything you want in a guide.  He would make a terrific history teacher.  We learned so much from his tour.

The fort was built in the water,  Due to fill from dredging, it is now connected to Key West.

Did you know that many east coast forts were built following the same set of French blueprints?

Cast iron cannons.  It was impractical to ship them from Key West to be recast, so this fort has most of the remaining Civil War era cannons.

Circular stairways at forts always curve to the left to give soldiers room to use their weapons.  Left-handed soldiers were out of luck.

This picture seems out of place, but it's the view from the top of the first floor of the fort.  After I took the picture, Danny pointed out the "No Pictures" sign.  If they are building the "stealth" ship out in the open, I can't imagine why I shouldn't take a picture of it from up here.  I truly did not see the sign.

This was one of only three rooms "furnished."  This is a Florida State Park, not a National Park.  It was granted National Park status while Ford was president, but funding was cut before before the actual process started.  They have a plaque on the wall, but that's all.

This beautiful beach is part of the Fort Zachary Taylor park.

Back at the boat, we had some housekeeping chores.  The microwave and trash needed to be taken to the dumpster.  Jennifer gave us this wonderful wagon for Christmas.  Isn't it cute?

The next part of our tour was by dinghy.  The big boats were coming in from their day cruises, getting ready for sunset cruises.

This is the entrance to the bight.  See why it was confusing?

A & B Lobster House and Marina back in a corner of the bight.

These boats looked even bigger from our 9-foot dinghy!

And back home.

Just to please me, Danny agreed to bike to Mallory Square to see the sunset festivities.  It was crowded and interesting.

And the sunset was beautiful!

As was the full moon from our boat.  With lots of music and noise