Fun in Key West

Ashore in Key West we checked out all the usual pubs and restaurants in the area from our previous trips to Key West, as well as a few more, and did some of the other standard Key West activities like visiting Hemingway’s house (I’m still working on those short stories…), seeing the Southern Most Point, and watching sunsets at Mallory Square. But, we also checked out some of the other places that we hadn’t really done previously or heard about in advance.

Fort Zachary Taylor was one really cool place we went. It is a very old fort started back in the mid 1800s, along with a series of other forts, to protect the southeast coast. It ended up being a Union stronghold during the Civil War that was important in the blockade of goods to Confederate troops. Abandoned during peacetime and restationed during the various wars through the years the place finally became a ruins and a junk yard for the military before being excavated and turned into the beautiful and interesting park we visited.





They even have a beautiful beach next to the fort. All for just a few bucks a person entry! By far the cheapest place to go in Key West!

Another neat place was this rum distillery. Free tours, a tasting, and…


who knew you can even bathe in rum?!

Even the cemetery in Key West is a neat and interesting place. The coral and limestone ground is so hard to dig through that most are buried above the ground in concrete tombs. There are extremely old plots, family plots that go through modern times, as well as a plot where soldiers are buried from the explosion of the USS Maine that exploded in Cuba’s Havana harbor and started the Spanish American War.

The Shipwreck Treasure Museum was also great. Dedicated to Key West’s history as a town where “wreckers” would save the crew of ships aground on the reef and salvage the goods and treasures of the ships making Key West the richest city in America in the mid 1800s, the tour also includes a trip to the lookout tower on top of the building with awesome views of the area.

And, of course, while touring all these places, we were always delighted to see the ever present chickens roaming the streets of Key West.