We’ve said goodbye to Key West, former home of Hemingway and his enviable studio . . .

. . . where works like For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Green Hills of Africa, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro, among others, were written. The day I visited, there was the loveliest breeze coming through the windows and rustling the palms outside . . .

Hemingway seems to haunt the place a bit. I can’t even count the number of look-alikes I encountered during our sojourn. Here’s one conveniently posed by the sign, in case you didn’t catch the resemblance.

Goodbye also to Louie’s Backyard, an excellent restaurant next to the dog beach. Our favorite is the small plates restaurant upstairs, where the Prosecco is cold, the chef is world class and where we twice lucked into a balcony table with a view of the sea looking like this. →

And no more Mallory Square Sunset Celebrations where the performers hope for tips, the artisans hope for sales . . .

. . . the sunset sailors fill their sails . . .. . . and the vacationers fill their drinks . . .

But aside from these usual tourist events, I don’t know where else we’ll see things like this . . .

. . . or this . . .

But all that is now in the past. We made it to the end of Route 1, and since Key West was meant to be the end of our original year of adventure, leaving Key West really is the beginning of the road home.

We will actually be in Florida for two more weeks, which we realize is a very good thing, since FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, this winter has been UNBELIEVABLE. Bon courage! It seriously does have to give way to spring eventually.

So you’d think it would be no big deal, but there is an odd feeling of something ending. At the same time, though, some new things are beginning and other good things will be resuming, so in this season of change, we remain grateful for the opportunities we’ve had and the friends we’ve made both in France and here in the states.

We love you all. Thanks for sharing our journey with us. We’re not done yet!

Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle. ∼Anna Quindlen

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. ∼John Steinbeck

Happy trails!

First, I know many of you are still suffering from this seemingly endless winter, so here’s a gift of warmth and color to help you cope. If you’re really desperate, remember you can click on any shot to enlarge it and really soak it in. Enjoy . . .

Bougainvillea

Hibiscus

West Martello Tower – Key West – 2015

Orchids

Hope you feel a little better and warmer after a little color therapy! Now that you’re fortified . . . .

I can’t leave Key West without mentioning the notorious weirdness. Before we even left Colorado, we were told by a few people that Key West was too “weird” and we wouldn’t like it. But, well, weirdly, we’ve enjoyed it. Now we’re down to less than a week left here before heading north to St. Petersburg (still Florida), so I thought I’d better share a few of the unique things we’ve seen here.

The naysayers weren’t exactly wrong. People do seem to delight in being a little different.

And some of the transportation is unusually artsy . . .

And there’s actually a rooftop bar that is “Clothing Optional” – we’ve skipped that, so no photos!

There are t-shirts here that say, “Key West: Where the weird go pro.” That seems to be true.

Some who are only posing in odd attire have a sign asking for a tip if you take a picture. Didn’t cross the street to see if Spiderman had a sign, but he did not appear to be playing.

This top-hatted juggler is at least trying to entertain for his tips. He involves volunteers and has a relatively engaging spiel that draws a crowd every night.

Actually, though, unusually-dressed people can be found anywhere from time to time, so there are probably only a few things completely unique to Key West, like the fact of its being the southernmost point in the continental USA. There are non-stop lines of people wanting their pictures taken next to this. →

Side note: The other evening at Mallory Square, a young Asian woman came up to us and said, “Excuse me? Is that Cuba?” pointing to the little island 500 yards across the water. I think her English was good enough to understand us when we explained that Cuba is close, but not THAT close. You can’t actually see it from Key West. It’s also not north of here. In case your geography’s a little rusty, Cuba is 90 miles south of the Southernmost Point marker, not to mention the fact that it’s slightly larger than 27-acre Sunset Key you can see from Mallory Square.

Some unique and interesting things here don’t even qualify as weird at all. Key West is the place to find much of the treasure recovered from the 1622 wreck of the Spanish ship Atocha by Mel Fisher and his crew, as well as other shipwreck treasure.

So it’s not all weird, and even some of the weird is fun.

We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutually satisfying weirdness–and call it love–true love. ∼Robert Fulghum (probably not Dr. Seuss, as some say)Wishing you the very best wherever your road takes you!

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s very colorful here. About a week ago, I decided to check out the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, which is lovely and tropical (and very popular). Of course my favorite butterflies were an iridescent blue–you know how much I like blue!–but they were so fast, they proved nearly impossible to photograph. Here’s probably my best shot .  ↓

Not amazing, I know. I actually even started to get irritated, both with the butterflies and with the people in the way of my shots, before realizing how ridiculous that was. By deciding I absolutely had to have a perfect photo of this one kind of butterfly, I was completely missing the whole experience. And seriously? Angry with butterflies?

Besides there was plenty of orange to be seen . . . 

And if that wasn’t enough nature, I knew I could easily find a pelican posing at the harbor.  ↓

And how about a bit of fun red:

We, along with Tom and Lexi, met this guy one night at a local restaurant and he promised us a ride if we’d flag him down, but he already had a passenger, so maybe another time. Anyway, super friendly guy.

Seeing his bright red car directly after my unsuccessful blue butterfly photo shoot made me smile and think of the expression “seeing red.” How quickly I can get annoyed when things don’t go exactly the way I want. But of course I’m not the only one. The other day we were headed home from one of our walks when we saw a woman in a car completely lose her cool, honking and yelling at the car in front of her to get out of the way. A woman on a bike then yelled at her to take it easy, so she yelled back and flipped her off. Yikes. Another day in paradise.

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. ∼Ambrose Bierce

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. ∼Mark Twain

And I couldn’t resist this one:

Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things. ∼George Carlin

Of course I know there are serious things in this world that absolutely deserve an angry response and serious action, but if we tend to get caught up in the small irritations, how do we have time to deal with the important issues? So to soothe the savage beast in all of us, here’s a bit more blue and orange, with just a hint of red. Maybe it can remind us to try to keep the unrighteous anger in check!

Wishing you peace!

Saturday we went on a quest for great water photos, so headed east to Bahia Honda State Park, pronounced, according to a local guidebook, “Buy a Honda” . . . no offense intended to any of you Honda owners with this post’s title.

Today has been rainy and windy (and I’ll bet it’s worse where you are–sorry!) so it seems the perfect day to share photos of the long-promised, soul-soothing, stunningly-spectacular blues to be seen down here in the Keys.

Here’s a preview . . .

Unfortunately the blues also came into play in the Got-the-Blues kind of way, because we  had driven all the way home in bumper to bumper traffic, and I had loaded the photos onto my computer, before I realized I had spots on my lens. Gha-a-a-a-a-a! As a result, some of my shots are not great. Some required strategic cropping. Some would benefit from skills and/or software I do not possess. Of course, NOW my lens is sparkling clean, but Bahia Honda is an hour’s tedious drive from here.

So . . . how can I re-frame my thinking about this one? Um . . . it is true that I’m very glad I do at least know how to crop photos now, therefore sparing you the worst of it, so there’s one positive. I can also focus on the fabulous water and not on the slightly spotty sky, so there’s two. I can also be grateful I was able to go in the first place, especially on a cool, breezy day that kept the crowds away, so that’s three AND four. Finally, we have to drive right by this park on our way out of here on March 6th, so maybe I’ll get a second chance at frame-worthy photos. Okay. I’m better now.

So back to the beautiful kind of blues . . . enjoy!

The water surrounding Key West is rarely (maybe never) quite this fabulous, so this was absolutely worth the drive (even in a Honda).

And now a quote or two about my other favorite blues . . .

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen. ∼Amy Winehouse

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. ∼Duke Ellington