Farewell Chuck

Omar and I have watched the series Chuck religiously since we got married. This week was the series finale. I laughed, I cried, I truly loved this series. It is rare to find family friendly TV shows anymore. This one was one of the good ones.

Leaving the Keys

On our trip back up to Miami we made some stops. Of course a trip to the Keys is not complete without a picture at the Southernmost Point of USA

This was the line to take a picture at the Southernmost Point!

We drove up to Big Pine Key and found No Name Pub. No Name Pub is the oldest in FL.We didn't realize that we were so close to it before when we were looking around for the Key Deer on our trip down to Key West. It is really not the easiest place to find. We had to ask some locals for help. No Name Pub is a very famous bar. They are known for their pizza (I'm sure their alcohol too). We got the pizza, it was pretty good - but not the best I have had before. People that go put a dollar anywhere they can. It has millions of dollars on the walls supposedly. 

We went to Bahia Honda State Park on our way back up to Miami. It was voted 2011 to have one of the country's best beaches!

This park ranger was setting traps for Green IGUANAS! I guess someone let their pet go and it has been reproducing like crazy and destroying our ecosytem

Flagler's Folly

Every trip we get a Christmas Ornament to represent the place we traveled, here are the 6 for the different places we went for this cruise

Dry Tortugas

They say going to Dry Tortugas is something you need to do once in your life. I totally agree. It is a 2.5 hour boat ride each way to Dry Tortugas and costs $169. You can camp there and I think if I were to do it again I would camp out or at least take the plane over to see how beautiful everything is by air (it costs $249/pp).

We took the Yankee Freedom Boat over to Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson. This was originally named Dry Tortugas as a warning to pirates and merchant ships because no fresh water can be found and there were lots of sea turtles that ships passing by could put on their ships for weeks at a time and eat. The Fort was one of the only that was never attacked in war.

The boat ride provided breakfast and lunch. We went on a tour but only stuck around for about 1/2 of it. We only had about 2.5 hours there on the island and wanted to go snorkeling as it was supposed to be some of the best snorkeling in the Keys. The Fort in general was really neat. There was a Cuban refugee boat there as well that wasn't that old that was successful in reaching land. The Fort does get refugees that are successful.

The water was freezing. From above the snorkeling looked like it would have been fantastic. I have never seen a jellyfish anytime I have snorkeled or gone diving and here there were hundreds of them! I spent most of my time dodging them it seemed. It was neat to see them moving around, they really are beautiful. Jellyfish are Omar's arch nemesis and so it was pretty difficult to keep him in the water. I finally found where there was coral and fish and it was right around the mote - everywhere else it was dead and no fish. They say there is no swimming in the mote. I commented to my mom, why would anyone want to swim in a mote? She heard a young girl and her dad talking and the girl kept asking to go snorkeling in the mote. I thought that was hilarious until I realized that all the fish would swim through a few holes into the mote - so that was where the cool snorkeling must have been.

See the jellyfish

I tried imagining being a prisoner there at the Fort - how it was so much like paradise there - just so picturesque, but it must have been horrible really. There are park rangers that live there too - that must get so boring - I can only imagine horrible cabin fever after a while.

Hemingway House

We went to the Hemingway House tour. Omar wasn't interested so he stayed in the car. The tour was about 45 minutes long and was really interesting. His home in the Keys he lived in for a while but when he divorced the wife who owned it he never returned to the Keys. That wife left it to him when he died and when Hemingway passed he left it to his sons who then sold it. The person who owns it now made it to the tourist destination it is.

When we got to the location I had to go to the bathroom really badly. I was pointed to where it was somewhere in the garden. There was a boys stall and a girl's stall. One person was in front of me at the girl's stall and I would have been willing to go to the boy's stall, I had to go so badly, if  there had been a free time. The woman in the stall that we were waiting on took over 15 minutes!!! Seriously. Every time a guy would go into their stall, right then another guy would walk up to go next so it was never not free. Over 10 guys went into the bathroom before the lady came out. It was ridiculous. I kept asking the lady in front of me if she was sure someone was in there (the person in the stall was in there prior to me showing up in line). She said she was sure. When I finally went to the bathroom, the stall was huge and so nice - no wonder she was in there so long. There was a whole sitting area. I bet she was just sitting in that nice comfy sofa chair laughing that we were waiting to to go to the bathroom.

We learned about the Hemingway cats and how Hemingway was very accident prone. Merchant ships thought that 6-toed cats were good luck. Hemingway's son found a 6 toed cat and kept it. The cats multiplied and the cats there, about 30 of them or something are the descendants of the original. Each female is allowed 2 litters and then is fixed. Only 2 males are not fixed. One of the oldest cats died the day of our tour and all the workers were mourning. He was 14 years old. We asked what they do with the cats when they die, they said that they don't go to the Vet, the Vet comes to them. There is a special burial place in the garden. There are outside cats that try to get in, but the Hemingway cats won't allow them. They can go anywhere they want in the house or on the grounds.

Garden

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway man cave where he did a lot of his writing

Hemingway's 4 wives

His cats

Hemingway cat drinking from the fountain

banana tree

garden fountain - the bottom part is a urinal from Sloppy Joe's