Earnest Hemingway and Mallory Square - Key West II

The Admiral saw this craftsman just after we got off the bus in Key West. She liked his Name Art so she bought a couple for our Granddaughters.



Finished Name Art




If you have ever been in this Bar please Call me, I want to hear the story.




Yeah Buddy!



Banyan Trees, very hard to get a complete photo, they are awesome.



I had a beer across the street from this bar but I had to get my pic next to this sign.




The polydactyl cats Six-Toed Cats are lying everywhere in Hemingway's home, On the bed, on the couch in the covey holes, They own the place.




One of Hemingway's wife was into European Art so she had these Italian Chandeliers brought in to replace all the Ceiling fans. Of course the Lights were heat producing and the Fans were gone. think about that in Key West.




Another of his wives added this $20,000 pool to the property, (the only private pool in Key West due to it being difficult to dig out the Hard coral rock),  while Hemingway was out gallivanting around the world. He was a bit upset since the entire property only cost him around $17,000.



This Urinal was in the first Sloppy Joe's Bar, Hemingway felt he owned it since he poured so much of his own processed whisky down it. So he tore it out when Sloppy Joe's moved to the new location and made a fountain right next to the swimming pool he was not so found of.

This was his study where he spent the most productive 9 years of his writing career.



A little gift from Picaso, a friend he spent some time with in France.



Of Course Chickens everywhere in Key West



We made the Hike to the Southernmost point as I was not sure if we would make it back to Key West again




There were several buildings in this block claim to be southernmost




The Original Name of the Island that was misinterpreted to be "Key West"




This was the King of the Street Acts in Mallory Square, over 60 years old and still walking the walk.




The Oyster Catchers were more interested in view than the street acts around them.




This guy seemed to hold the number two spot at Mallory Square but the Admiral said he was creepy.



We left the street acts to concentrate on the pending sunset.

Maybe next time, the clouds denied all today.



The Admiral set me up, this guy scared the Bejesus out of me!



We checked out the Original Sloopy Joes, someone had ripped out one of the urinals!



We had dinner at the current Sloppy Joes, good but not great. Very touristy.





The Band was beyond Raunchy!

 We passed by the Hemingway house on our first visit to Key West. We have been in so many museums on this cruise that I was not much interested, but the Admiral heard from other cruisers that it was really worth doing. I was glad she talked me into it as it just took a few minutes of the tour to realize how mush Earnest influenced American Life and indeed my own. He moved to Cuba around 1940 and lived there for 20 years after leaving Key West where he lived for about 12 years. He was in Cuba when my parents spent about 3 months there partying and recruiting baseball players for the Abilene White Sox Minor League Baseball team. Besides the movies based on his novels that I watched in the 50's with my mom, his books were around our home in Abilene. I was of course very young and never really thought of Hemmingway except for the movies, never read his books. He certainly had a huge impact on Key West however. I was really impressed with the stories about his beloved sport fisherman/Cruiser "Pilar" that is reportedly in Cuba at his home there roting. The Hemingway Home is a must do in Key West. http://www.ernesthemingwaycollection.com/ We spent several hours here before venturing outside the compound to seek the Southernmost Point in the US. The Admiral wanted to do this next time but you never know if you will make it to Next time so we made the Hike and for me it was worth it. We than hiked back down Duval Street to Mallory Square. It is best to get to Mallory Square a couple of hours before Sunset as there are lots of street actors there to entertain you. But after seeing a few of these acts we settled on the sea wall to wait and watch the Sun as the earth spun it to the Horizon. Unfortunately for us there were several cloud banks so no chance to see the Best Sunset ever or the Green Flash: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash Maybe Next Time!
Hunger called so we returned the short distance to Heminways hang out, Sloopy Joes. Worth doing once but if there is a next time we will instead take up some locals recommendations. the band played Shel Silverstein's " Your Still Gonna Die" http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858580749/ It certainly fit the Key West ideaology. We hope to come back to Key West at least one more time as we both have some things we would like to do here before we exit the Keys. We wish all a wonderful Holidays and a perfect New Years!, We all survived the end of the Mayan Calendar! I was talking to our friend Johny up in Tampa yesterday and I was telling him that we may stay here through Janurary, He said " Enjoy it while you can Where your At!" I loved it.