The man who has no imagination has no wings.

KEY WEST PROFILES: CAPTAIN TONY

Captain Tony's Saloon, Key West

Captain Tony’s

Old-school pub frequented by famous fans back in the day, now hosting festive theme-night parties.

Tale of the Screaming Lady based on historical horror

 

 

Visitor Info – Key West Aquarium

 

 

 

A few more of my memories from Key West today

Key West is a small island and easily accessible so walking works very well—and you can get free maps lots of places about town—you can also rent bikes and pedal about—Duval Street and Route 1 coming into town and A1A on the east side of the island are often busy, but a maority of the rest of the town offers quite streets with a minimal amount of traffic (and little or no parking—I hightly recommend you get a hotel/motel with parking and leave the car parked.  Or you can fly in and catch a cab to your hotel and they rent a bike to get you around.

 

If it’s your first time in town I’d recommend a tour—either:

Old Town Trolley

 

or

 

Conch Train Tour

 

I hear people say they don’t go to Key West cause there’s nothing to do but drink there—PLEASE  these two pages shows you a few of the beautiful homes and greenery that you can see strolling thru the streets and byways of Key West—it was one of my favorite things to do there—the tours set me up and then I went back and walked took pictures and often learned interesting things in and about the wonderfully quaint little Island at the end of A1A.

SHOPPING IN MALLORY SQUARE

 

 

 

Nishinoshima volcano belches ash and lava

 

 

 

The Custom House, 1891 Key West

 

 

There’s also shopping from art galleries to clothing—I once bought a blouse there that was so expensive I won’t say how much cause it makes me cringe when I mention it.

 

Mel Fisher’s Maritime Museum

 

Here in Key West  you can see a home that once housed Hemingway and one of his four wives.    One of these wives:

“…thought she would surprise the famous author by building him a swimming pool., the first on Key West.

There were only about a hundred thing wrong with the idea, the most obvious of which were 1 Key West is basically a big chunk of coral, meaning workers had to chisel the 10-foot-deep pool by hand.  2.  The Atlantic Ocean and/or Gulf of Mexico is available for swimming purposes about two blocks away and 3.  It was built in 1938 during the Great Depression, when money was scarce.  The other 97 reasons?  It cost $20,000.”

Florida Curiosities

David Grimes and Tom Recnel

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum 

Which besides the pool includes Hemingway’s writing area — above the garage, as well as the grounds, surrounded by a crooked brick fence that the writer and his handyman put up themselves—there’s several of the six toed cats.  

 

Last time I was there I visited the gift shop which was great including some excellent books on Hemingway and subjects relating to him

 

 

Oh and the house is across the street from the Key West Lighthouse–

though I must confess I never made it to the top of the house—just too many stairs.

 

Fun Facts About Key West in Florida

 

 

10 Places To Eat, Drink, And Fish Like Ernest Hemingway In Key West

 

 

 

Glad to be Back:  Bagatelle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artifacts from the wrecked vessel Isaac Allerton, which sank in 1856 on the treacherous Florida Keys reef.

 

Above:  Green Parrot Bar     

Our favorite in Key West the locals too such good care of us, we met lots of the locals and the staff called us temporary locals—-Annie was manager when Mike passed and she and her girls took care of us—-It’s what I miss the most of about not returning to the island.

 

If you want to keep an eye on present day Key West you might try looking at Sloppy Joes

Web Cam 

One of the first of it’s kind in Key West—it sets in front of the famous bar where Hemingway drank and now a popular place for the tourist to populate.  A lot of locasl go there too, or they did when I was there, to listen to their entertainers I’m told–but at the moment neither the bar nor the cams are functional thanks to the virus shut down

 

 

“There’s a whole book about Sloppy Joe’s illustrious 60-year history, written by local historian Sharon Wells

and you can buy it in the Sloppy Joe Gift Shop* .  Latest news from Sloppy’s  air conditioning!  Installed in February ’96, just in time for the steamy summer months ad the Hemingway Look-alike Contest.  Bless them.  The coolest place of all is at the door, very inviting.  Also, world – famous Hemingway shirts in every color of the rainbow, you’ll spot them everywhere–from Paris to Halifax or Laguna Beach.  Did Hemingway really drink here?  Yes!  Live music all day and all night.

Key West & The Florida Keys

June Keith’s

 

 

*This book was written in 1997 and when I looked up the book on line I decided it’s probably not in their shop as on Amazon copies are selling for prices of $80 and up.  Even on Etsy they have it listed in the $70 range.

 

Exhibit Celebrates Key West Hand Print Fabrics

 

 

Discover Dickens’ England  

 

Above:

  1.  The Hog’s Breath (which is better than no breath at all) is still operating in Key West as well as Destin  The Hog Shop   and don’t forget to check out
  2. Blue Cat
  3. Bird in the Hand   This shop is no more—-click on it to see a memory picture

 

If you walk from Sloppy Joes (and what a wild and crazy walk that can be) to the Southern Most House (pictured above) at the end of Duval and the beginning water  stay on the north side of the street and before you see the tacky tourist area at the end of the island you will see the Southern Most House

which is now a beautiful B&B   

which now even has a Seaside Cafe

 

 

It had a bar in the side yard for awhile and we use to drop by for a drink while we were wandering about—-It is a beautiful thing to see and worth the walk

 

If you continue on for about a block or  less you’ll come to the Southern Most Point—a rather tourist marker but since you’re already here.

 

THE OLDEST HOUSE MUSEUM

 

 

 

Fact or FIction:  World War II Quiz

 

 

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Yes despite rumors to the contrary they still have churches in Key West

 

 

When I married Mike one of the things I learned about was Jimmy Buffet-one of the things he learned about was Key West—we went there on our honeymoon and continued to make the trip until he went on to Parrotheadadise—I made two more visits–both with some friends and the last tim to scatter his ashes—at sunset from a boat on the Gulf Stream….Jimmy might had made it famous, but Mike lived it with less fan fare but with real gusto..

 

He still has a store and Restaurant on Duval—He bought that Block years ago when the landlord raised everybody’s rent.

 

Also on the block (which Buffet Owned) was

Fast Buck Freddies

After 37 wonderful years of serving Key West, our Duval Street store has closed in fact it closed sometime in 2012–8 years or so ago….I loved that little department store—and so enjoyed wandering about it on our visits to the island.  It was not Mike’s place–while i shopped and wandered all day he bar hopped.  

 

Jimmy’s resort is big and flashy-and right on the water–I wonder what Mike would have thought of it?

 

 

“Duval Street”

“Duval Street is Key West’s main dragRipley’s -Believe-It or-Not calls it “The Longest Street in the World”.because it stretches all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.  Laid out by William Whitehead  

in the 1830’s, it was named for William Pope Du Val, the first territorial governor of Florida.  Until 1950’s most of the buildings along here were open to the street and there were no street lights or neon signs.  Then  the renovationists got hold of it and put down sidewalks, benches, cement planters, bike racks and 19th c streetlamps. (an alternative plan had been to convert the street into a canal with Venetian gondolas providing public transportation. “

A Key West Companion

Christopher Cox

 

 

A LOOK AT KEY WEST’S COLORFUL BAHAMA VILLAGE

 

 

 

 

Video of Titanic wreckage

 

 

 

 

 

Another favorite place—that is also gone—well kinda—to stop along Duval Street was La Concha Hotel—in the tallest building in Key West.  if you click on the Hotel you’ll see that while’s its still there the top of the hotel which use to have a great bar and a neat place (see the pictures) to view the city as well as watching the sunset—-is now a spa— I miss my fun and funkyold Key West and while it is admittedly the height of comfort and  beautiful it seems to me like it took a wrong turn on it’s way to Palm Beach and got lost in Key West.   But I bow to the city’s apparent move to a higher class destination and I can see how having a spa event with that view at sunset would be amazing probably beyond my remembered drinking establish—-nothing stays the same forever–and I will shed a tear and leave the classier readers to enjoy the beauty here.  Oh FYI:  La Concha’s last Roof Top Bar closed approximately 6 years ago)

 

 

“The San Sebastian Troubadours of Spain performed at the grand opening, when the seven story La Concha Hotel opened in January 1926.  Advertised as “the only absolute fireproof hotel in Key West, ” the La Concha was patronizd by high society until the Depression years.  The demise of the Overseas Railroad 

in 1935 spelled disaster for this one, and the Casa Marina Hotel.  Like many downtown buildings, the La Concha, located right in the center of Duval Street, was closed for several years.  On the hotel’s roof, the Top, a seedy bar with tall windows offering its customers panoramic views of the island, continued to do business.  Customers reached the Top via two ancient elevators that carried them through the decaying hotel to the roof.

June Keith’s

Key West & The Florida Keys

 

 

 

 

Fort Zachary at the  junction of Natural Beauty and Profound History

 

 

 

 

Take a Hike Tuesday

Astro Park

 

Bay View Park

 

A New Joe Exotic Documentary Is Coming—

 

Half Shell Raw Bar

 

 

 

Kelly’s (see picture below)

was on the corner of Caroline (where the woman was going crazy in the Buffet Song)  and Whitehead Street set Kelly’s for many years—It had a great and historic location:  It was once the headquarters of Pan Am Airlines

—–where legend has it that the very first Pan Am tickets were sold out of the same building

and before you say–naw she’s loosing what little mind she has left—just click on the headquarter above and see—-Oh and the lady who opened it had fame all her own–Kelly McGillis:  She was an actress who might be remembered best for her part opposite Tom Cruise in Top Gun.  She had a house in Key West and we rented a house for a stay across from hers though if she was on the island at that time—-she opened Kelly’s in 1991—so had to be in the 90’s sometime.

 

Kelly’s is closed now too–don’t know how long ago….but they are still carrying some of the stuff for the restaurant so would estimate it hasn’t been such a long time ago.

 

 

Land’s End Village

 

 

 

Be a part of our first ever online art auction!

 

 

 

by Ken Bruen

From Ireland’s most lyrical crime fiction writer, the latest installment in this addictive series pits “perpetually falling Irish angel Jack Taylor” (Mystery Scene) against a dangerous band of heretics.

 

 

You Can Tour These Historic Mansions From Your Couch

 

 

Duval Street – Key West Florida West Tour

 

Rick’s

Bull and the Whistle and don’t forget Garden of Eden clothing optional and on the top—of the building and behind the building The Lost Weekend—all part of one fun place  and you wonder why I always loved Key West—Hey I said I did other things beside just drink—I never said I didn’t drink at all.

 

Oh and note below that somewhere along the way Kelly’s added a brewery

 

HOUSEBOAT ROW, A KEY WEST SYMBOL, ORDERED TO WEIGH ANCHOR

another place in Key West that was told to move and then helped along with a hurricane—another part of Key West I miss

 

 7 Essex Seaside Towns (And Islands) To Visit From London

 

 

Key West Historic Houseboat Community

 

 

we’ll go further up into the Keys next Tuesday.

 

 

 

TOUR:

 

 

here’s a goal to work for by the end of the pandemic:

 

Leave a Reply