Day 275 – 2006 Begins

Hours of Daylight – 9:06 They’re getting longer!

I’ve been away. 6 days in Key West. Annette and i got the maximum possible miles out of our United free ticket vouchers. All in all it was a very good trip. Here, in no particular order, are some touristy photos.

SouthernmostCottageSun_set

Key_west_lightView_from_porchGentle_cleaning

I could go on for pages about the actual trip, but i won’t. Suffice to say it was a good trip. Frankly i was glad to be out of Idaho. We met several locals at The Green Parrot bar – an excellent place with loads of history and not populated with tourists. It was such a pleasure to talk with people who seemed honestly curious about who we were and why we were in Key West. Of course none of the people we met were actually born in Key West, but they had all lived there since the 70’s so they were the most “local” we could find.

The photo of the lighthouse seen from a porch was taken from Hemingway’s house. Visiting what was once his house was an interesting experience. I mean, it’s kind of weird, he lived and worked there, but it’s not like he built the place nor did he intend the house to be some kind of legacy. The house was built in 1851 by Asa Tift. The house was then purchased by the uncle of Hemingway’s second wife (Pauline) in 1931. They lived there several years and he did some of his best work, but they divorced and he moved to Havana. The house was later rented, with most of their furniture in place, and was then sold to a rich Key West woman after Hemingway’s suicide in Ketchum Idaho in 1961. It was the rich Key West woman who had the idea of turning the house into a museum in 1964.

Hemingway’s life really came apart toward the end. Booze, electroshock “therapy,” depression, and eventual suicide in the pretty little town of Ketchum in the state i currently call home. Walking through the house, especially the studio, i could hear a little voice whispering “there are no guarantees in this life…” over and over. But i can’t help but feel (maybe this is my squishy ego making a stand) if i lived in such a genuinely nice house in Key West, and most of the bills were covered, I could find the wherewithal to crank out a novel or two.

The little cottage is where we stayed. It was very small, but we managed to cook some pretty good meals in the rickety kitchen thus saving money on touristy restaurants. Key West is home to over 2000 chickens that run wild. Our cottage was no exception and came equipped with a hen and seven chicks. There are roosters, too. They crow. A lot.